Legal Affairs recently hosted a debate between Michael L. Martinez of Crowell & Moring and Jay P. Kesan of the University of Illinois on the question of how courts should treat "litigation-driven scholarship", that is to say, studies and research projects that may have been undertaken with a mind to influencing legal outcomes. Prof. Childs takes note of a "curious" aspect of the debate's introduction, namely its premise that only research commissioned by defendants is potentially problematic in this way. He writes: "My work (see the current article on SSRN) suggests that, while defense-funded studies are not unheard of, most such research is performed on behalf of plaintiffs' counsel." Peter Nordberg also comments, here and here.