Daniel Capra

• Reporter, Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence (1996-present).
• Principal Draftsman of Rule 502 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, enacted September 2008.
• Reporter, Judicial Conference Committee on Electronic Case Filing Rules. Drafted Model Rules on electronic case filing.
• Reporter, Judicial Conference Rules Committee on Electronic Case Filing and Case Management.
• Reporter, Judicial Conference Subcommittee on Privacy in Court Filings.
• Reporter, Third Circuit Task Force on Appointment of Counsel in Class Actions. Principal author of Task Force Report, published in 2002.
• Reporter to Third Circuit Task Force Preparing Model Jury Instructions in Civil Cases, 2004-present; prepared all instructions and Commentary on Employment Discrimination Cases.
• Drafted Privacy Rules to Comply with the E-Government Act of 2002, for the Judicial Conference of the United States.
• Chair of Drafting Committee for Evidence Questions, Multistate Bar Examiners.
• Drafted rules of procedure for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts, 2005.
• Consultant to Yale Law School's China Law Project, on matters of Evidence law reform in China. Conferred with more than 100 Chinese judges and scholars in Shanghai, to assist them in drafting a code of evidence for the People's Republic (September, 2000).
• Assisted members of National People's Congress in drafting rules on evidence and criminal procedure (Yale Law School, January, 2001).
• Consultant to Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure on Local Rules Project.
• Drafted report for the Judicial Conference on Local Rules and Standing Orders, distributed to all Federal District Courts, 2007.
• Philip D. Reed Professor of Law. 
• Chairman of the Committee on Professional Responsibility of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York 1990-93.
• Chairman of the Federal Legislation Committee, Association of the Bar of the City of New York City, 1993-96.
• Private practice, Lord Day & Lord 1977-79.
• Assistant Professor, Tulane Law School, 1979-81.
• Columnist, New York Law Journal, 1988-2002.
• Member, Executive Committee, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, 1997-2001.
• Frequent lectures to federal judges on matters of evidence, most recently at the Fifth Circuit Judicial Conference, May, 2009.
• Invited by the Judicial Conference to make a presentation to all chief judges of the Federal Circuit Courts, on Federal sentencing after United States v. Booker, March 2005; similar presentation to First Circuit Judicial Conference, April 2005.
• Invited by Chief Judge Scirica to put on a panel presentation on attorney-client privilege, for the Third Circuit Judicial Conference, 2008.
• Presentation to Sedona Conference on Rule 502, November 2008.
• Consultant to Criminal Law Committee of the Judicial Conference, assisting the Committee in developing its position on Federal sentencing after United States v. Booker.
• Visiting Scholar, Marquette Law School, Presentation on Federal Rulemaking, the Supreme Court and Congress, April 2006.
• At Fordham, since 1981.
• Voted teacher of the year by Fordham students, 2006.
• Chair of Fordham's Judicial Clerkship Committee.
• Consultant, California Law Revision Commission, on proposed changes to the California hearsay rules.
• Elected to Membership in the American Law Institute, 2008.

Education

• California (Berkeley), JD 1977
• Rockhurst, AB 1974

Representative Publications 

• Painting a Clearer Picture: Introducing New Federal Rule of Evidence 107 Regulating Illustrative Aids, 77 Vanderbilt Law Review 1469 (2024) (with Richter).
• Deepfakes Reach the Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules, 92 Fordham Law Review 2491 (2024).
• Long Live the Federal Rules of Evidence!, 31 George Mason Law Review 1 (2024) (with Richter).
• It’s a Code: Amending the Federal Rules of Evidence to Achieve Uniform Results, 58 Wake Forest Law Review 549 (2023) (with Berch).
• Circuit Splits in Evidence, and What to do About Them,  56 U.C. Davis Law Review 127 (2022 (with Berch).
• “The” Rule: Modernizing the Potent, but Overlooked, Rule of Witness Sequestration, 63 William and Mary Law Review 1 (2021) (with Richter).
• Evidentiary Irony and the Rule of Completeness: A Proposal to Amend Federal Rule of Evidence 106, 105 Minnesota Law Review 901 (2020) (with Richter).
• Poetry in Motion: The Federal Rules of Evidence and Forward Progress as an Imperative, 99 Boston University Law Review 1873 (2019).
• Character Assassination: Amending Federal Rule of Evidence 404(B) to Protect Criminal Defendants, 118 Columbia Law Review 768 (2018) (with Liesa L. Richter).
• Rulemaking Possibilities: Efforts of the United States Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules to Address the Challenges to Forensic Expert Testimony, 13 Frontiers of Law in China 1 (2018).
• Foreword, Symposium on Forensic Expert Testimony, Daubert, and Rule 702, 86 Fordham Law Review 1459 (2018).
• Expanding (or Just Fixing) the Residual Exception to the Hearsay Rule, 85 Fordham Law Review 1577 (2017).
• Authenticating Digital Evidence, 69 Baylor L.Rev. 1 (2017).
• Prior Statements of Testifying Witnesses: Drafting Choices to Eliminate or Loosen the Strictures of the Hearsay Rule, 84 Fordham Law Review 1429 (2016).
• Autopsy Reports and the Confrontation Clause: A Presumption of Admissibility, 2 Virginia Journal of Criminal Law 62 (2014) (with Tartakovsky). (Modified version published in 99 Judicature 61 (2016).
• Autopsy Reports and the Confrontation Clause: A Presumption of Admissibility, 99 Judicature 61 (2015) (with Tartakovsky).
• Amicus Brief for Evidence Scholars, submitted to the Supreme Court in Arkansas Teachers v. Goldman Sachs (2021).
• The Ancient Documents Exception and Electronically Stored Information: Fix it Before Someone Finds Out About It, 17 Yale J. Law & Tech. 1 (2015).
• Symposium on the Challenges of Electronic Evidence, 83 Fordham L.Rev. 1163 (2014).
• Hearsay Exception for Electronic Communications of Recent Perception, 83 Fordham Law Review 1337 (2014).
• Why Strickland is the Wrong Test for Violations of the Right to Testify, 70 Washington & Lee L. Rev. 95 (2013) (with Tartakovsky).
• Symposium on Reinvigorating the Federal Rules of Evidence, 81 Fordham L. Rev. 1533 (2013).
• Symposium on Restyled Rule of Evidence, 53 William and Mary L. Rev. 1435, 1528-43 (2012).
• The Restyled Federal Rules of Evidence, 2011 LexisNexis Emerging Issues 5875.
• Expert Testimony and Confrontation: Bullcoming v. New Mexico, 2011 Lexis Emerging Issues 5495 (with Saltzburg).
• Professional Responsibility: An Interactive Approach (1st ed. 2010) (Thomson West) (with Pearce and Green) (2nd ed. 2014).
• Published many opinions as Special Master in In re Refco, including 2010 WL 1375946 and 2010 WL 1375712 (S.D.N.Y.).
• Cases and Commentary on American Criminal Procedure (11th ed. 2014).
• Cases and Materials on Electronic Discovery and Digital Evidence (3rd ed. West 2015) (with Scheindlin and the Sedona Conference) (first casebook in the field).
• The Unrecognized Right of Criminal Defendants to Admit Their Own Pretrial Statements, 49 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1991 2008)(with Stephen A. Saltzburg).
• "The Great Fourth Amendment Cases" (2009) (published by the Ford Foundation for Chinese judges, lawyers and scholars).
• "Principles of Evidence" (8th ed. 2019) (with Graham Lilly and Stephen Saltzburg).
• Published two opinions as Special Master on privilege and work product claims in In re New York Renu With Moistureloc Product Liability Litigation: 2009 WL 2842745, and  2008 WL 2338552.
• Federal Rules of Evidence Manual (12th ed. 2019) with S. Saltzburg & M. Martin.
• "Amending the Hearsay Exceptions for Declarations Against Penal Interest in the Wake of Crawford" 105 Columbia L. Rev. 2409 (2005).
• "Melendez-Diaz and Admissibility of Records in Federal Court", published on lexis.com (2009).
• "Electronic Discovery and Digital Evidence in a Nutshell" (2009) (with Scheindlin and the Sedona Conference).
• "Trying Cases Relating to Terrorism: Judges' Roundtable," 77 Fordham L. Rev. 1 (2008) (with Judges Cooke, Sand, Rosen and Scheindlin).
• “Federal Sentencing Under Advisory Guidelines: Observations By District Judges,” 75 Fordham L. Rev. 1 (2006)(with Lynn S. Adelman, Nancy Gertner, Richard G. Kopf, Gerard E. Lynch and Gregory A. Presnell).
• "Getting Control of Waiver in the Federal Courts: A Proposal for a Federal Rule of Evidence 502" 58 South Carolina L. Rev. 211 (2006)(with Ken Broun).
• Commentary to Third Circuit Judicial Conference Model Jury Instructions in Civil Cases (2006) (with Cathie Struve).
• Case Law Divergence from the Federal Rules of Evidence, 197 F.R.D. 531 (2001).
• "Keeping the Reformist Spirit Alive in Evidence Law," 149 U. Penn. L. Rev. 1277 (2001).
• "Third Circuit Task Force Report on Selection of Counsel in Class Actions," 74 Temple L. Rev. 685 (2002).
• "A Recipe for Confusion: Congress and the Federal Rules of Evidence," 55 U. Miami L. Rev. 691 (2001).
• "Admissibility of Plea Agreements on Direct Examination: The Limits Vanish," 55 U. Miami L. Rev. 751 (2001).
• "Out of Court Accusations Offered For 'Background': A Measured Response From the Federal Courts," 55 U. Miami L. Rev. 803 (2001).
• "An Accident and a Dream": Problems With the Latest Attack on the Civil Justice System, 20 Pace L. Rev. 339 (2000). (Winner of ABOTA award as the year's best article on the civil justice system).
• "The Daubert Puzzle," 32 Georgia Law Review 699 (1998).
• Commentaries on Federal Rules of Evidence, United States Code Service (Two Volumes) (Lexis, 1999).
• Basic Criminal Procedure (8th ed. 2017).
• New York Evidence Handbook (3rd ed. 2017) with M. Martin.
• West's Federal Rules of Evidence, 2011-2017.
• Evidence: The Objection Method (6th ed. 2020).
• Expert and Lay Witnesses (Aspen 2003).
• Hearsay and Confrontation (Aspen 2002).
• Columns on Evidence, New York Law Journal.
• "Advisory Committee Notes to the Federal Rules of Evidence That May Require Clarification," 182 F.R.D. 268 (1998).

Special Masterships

• Appointed by Judge Scheindlin as Special Master on Privilege, Work Product and other Discovery Questions, In re IPO Securities Litigation,  2004–2008.
• Appointed by Judge Scheindlin as Special Master in Louis Vuitton v. Dooney & Bourke, a  trademark infringement litigation, to decide Daubert motions, 2007. Published 180 page opinion on Daubert issues, which was affirmed by Judge Scheindlin, 525 F.Supp.2d 558 (S.D.N.Y. 2007) (with Professor Barton Beebe).
• Appointed by Judges Norton and Friedman as Discovery Special Master in  In re New York Renu With Moistureloc Product Liability Litigation. Published two opinions, at  2009 WL 2842745, and  2008 WL 2338552.
• Appointed by Judge Rakoff as Special Master in In re Refco, 2009-present.  Opinions on dispositive  motions include  2009 WL 7242548, 2010 WL 1375946, 2010 WL 5129076, and 2010 WL 1375712.
• Appointed by Judge Scheindlin as Special Master for privilege review in SEC v. Wyly, 2011-present. Published opinions include 2011 WL 3366491.
• Appointed by Justice Freedman as Discovery Referee in Graham, Inc. v. Owens-Illinois, a multi-million dollar commercial dispute in New York Supreme Court, 2008-present.
• Appointed by Justice Kornreich as Discovery Special Master in McMahon Securities v. Kleinberg, Kaplan, et. al., New York Supreme Court, 2011-present.
• Appointed by Justice Kornreich as Discovery Special Master in Coventry v. DDR, Inc., New York Supreme Court, 2011- present.
• Appointed by Judge Norton as Discovery Special Master in MIWD Windows MDL, 2012 - present.
• Appointed by Judge Humphreys as Special Master to oversee predictive coding in discovery, in Bennett v. Sprint.
• Appointed by Judge Hochberg to resolve a fee dispute in In re Neurontin Antitrust Litigation.