Vanita Banks presented a lecture on “Compensation Funds as an Alternative to Mass Tort Litigation: Could the Exception Become a Model?” at Valparaiso University Law School as part of the Indiana Supreme Court Lecture Series.

Banks discussed the use of compensation funds to provide speedy payment to victims while avoiding the high costs of typical tort litigation. She used the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund and BP Gulf Coast Fund as examples of complicated circumstances that were ideal for this type of reform and discussed how different funds obtain money to allocate to victims.

Throughout her distinguished legal career, Vanita Banks has served as a leader, advocate and humanitarian in both the public and private sectors. She is counsel with Allstate Insurance Company, where she is a member of the Government Relations Public Policy Development Division. In May 2008, Banks led a delegation of 60 lawyers, judges and law professor to Cuba on a humanitarian mission to promote civil society and to build bridges of cooperation and professional affiliation. Banks graduated from Purdue University in 1977. She is a 1980 graduate of Valparaiso University Law School and received her LL.M. in Taxation from DePaul University College of Law in 1983.

The Indiana Supreme Court Lecture Series is made possible each year by a donation from the Indiana Supreme Court, a strong supporter of law schools and legal education throughout the state. The court is currently comprised of Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard and Justices Brent E. Dickson, Frank Sullivan, Jr., Robert D. Rucker, and Steven H. David.