Fall 2009 Schedule
Wednesday, September 16, 12:25–1:50 p.m.
Without question, the top domestic policy issue this fall is President Obama’s call for health care reform. The battle is heated, but many people are unclear about the issues. This inaugural Law Forum brings together two of the nation’s leading experts on health care and insurance reform. Professors Judy Feder and Richard Epstein will provide background information regarding what is being considered in Congress, and debate whether these proposed plans should be adopted. There will be ample time for questions, comments and discussion.
Panelists
- , Visiting Professor of Law
- , Professor of Public Policy, Georgetown University and Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Location: Vanderbilt Hall, Greenberg Lounge
Wednesday, September 23, 12:25–1:50 p.m.
Every student must write a substantial writing paper before they graduate. Many students publish student notes. One of the most difficult parts of these writing exercises is choosing a topic. How do you choose a substantial writing topic? What sort of topic is a good one? Where can one find help? These and many other questions about student writing will be answered by our experts at this week's Forum - so come and learn about student writing!
Panelists
- , Vice Dean, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law
- , Professor of Law
- , Associate Professor of Law
in conversation with:
- Rush Atkinson ’10
- Nikhil Dutta ’10
Location: Vanderbilt Hall 204
Wednesday, September 30, 12:25–1:50 p.m.
Panelists
- , Professor of Law
- , Assistant Dean for Public Interest Law Center
- , Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law
Location: Vanderbilt Hall, Greenberg Lounge
Featuring the Alliance for Justice Short Film: “Tortured Law”
Wednesday, October 7, 12:25–1:50 p.m.
Panelists:
- , Alliance for Justice
- , Emily Kempin Professor of Law
- , Executive Director of the Center on Law and Security
- , Assistant Professor of Law
Location: Vanderbilt Hall, Greenberg Lounge
Wednesday, October 14, 12:25–1:50 p.m.
Once upon a time, that represented the folk wisdom about the great successes of American enterprise in raising the living standards of all Americans. But now GM is the symbol of corporate failure and in its wake comes the most significant and perhaps the most radical - efforts to use the bankruptcy laws to reorganize manufacturing, labor relations, pension and health obligations, tort liability and franchise contracts. The scale and the redrawing of priorities in the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies not only is a challenge to the law of insolvency, it may be the framework for enterprise organization and industrial policy going forward. Please join us for discussion of what is new, what is radical, and what is familiar in these cases with experts, Barry Adler, Sandy Esserman, Samuel Issacharoff, and Troy McKenzie.
Panelists
- , Bernard Petrie Professor of Law and Business
- , Assistant Professor of Law
- , Bonnie and Richard Reiss Professor of Constitutional Law
- , Stutzman, Bromberg, Esserman & Plifka
Location: Vanderbilt Hall, Greenberg Lounge
Wednesday, October 21, 12:25–1:50 p.m.
October signals a new Term for the Supreme Court, which also welcomes a new Justice – Sonia Sotomayor. There is also a full slate of cases, including animal rights, the constitutionality of legislation passed to deal with economic issues, life without parole for juveniles, public religious displays, and an unusually full slate of business and criminal cases. We also have a remarkable panel of experts to discuss the new Court and its Term – and lots of time for questions from you. Please join us!
Panelists
- , Professor of Law
- , Partner at King & Spalding, former United States Solicitor General
- , Vice Dean, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law
- , The New Yorker, Senior Legal Analyst for CNN, Author of The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court
Location: Vanderbilt Hall, Greenberg Lounge
A Book Talk with Professor Paul Butler of George Washington University Law
Wednesday, October 28, 12:25–1:50 p.m.
Cosponsored by the Center on the Administration of Criminal Law at
George Washington University Law School Professor Paul Butler is a provocative scholar who specializes in criminal law, race and racism in U.S. law, and jury nullification, among other issues. He is also a former federal prosecutor. While serving as a prosecutor, he was arrested and charged with a crime he didn't commit. This experience caused him to question whether the criminal justice system of which he was a part was working, and his conclusion was that it was not. In his new book, Let's Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice, Professor Butler offers his view of the criminal justice system, arguing that too many people are incarcerated, especially for nonviolent drug offenses. As a result, he argues that incarceration now causes more crime than it prevents, and suggests methods he believes would allow citizens to resist complicity in this system and stand up for their rights. In one chapter, Professor Butler addresses the question "Should Good People Be Prosecutors?" This chapter will be the subject of this book discussion.
The discussion will be moderated by Tony Barkow, the Executive Director of the Center on the Administration of Criminal Law at . The Center's mission is to promote good prosecution practices in the criminal justice system. Before starting the Center last year, Barkow worked as a prosecutor for 12 years, most recently in the United States Attorney's Offices for the Southern District of New York and before that in the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice.
Panelists
- , former federal prosecutor, provides legal commentary for CNN, NPR, and the Fox News Network
- , Executive Director, Center on the Administration of Criminal Law
Location: Vanderbilt Hall, Greenberg Lounge
Wednesday, November 11, 12:25–1:50 p.m.
The old saying has it that the two things you can't avoid are death and taxes. There's a third - exams! As we come to the end of the Fall Semester, this Forum is devoted to the art and science of exam-taking. A panel of students will discuss their tips on outlining and studying, followed by questions from the floor. Then, Professor Friedman will give his well-honed talk, The Pinball Theory of Exam-Taking, a comprehensive primer on how to succeed in writing law-school exams. And more questions from the floor.
Panelists
- , Vice Dean, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law
in conversation with:
- Ben Stoll '10
- Carmen Iguina '10
- Allison Westfahl-Kong '10
Location: Vanderbilt Hall, Tishman Auditorium
Wednesday, November 18, 12:25–1:50 p.m.
Raising issues of identity and difference – whether they be about race, class, gender, sexuality, disability, or anything else– can be difficult for students in a law school classroom. Advocates -- lawyers for people and causes -- often face similar difficulties. This Forum begins with statements from students about the personal and institutional barriers to speaking out, then turns to a panel of experts who will address strategies for speaking out in the classroom and the connection between raising issues of difference -- and difficult issues generally -- in the classroom and as an effective legal advocate. As usual, there will be lots of time for further questions from the room.
Panelists
- Dr. Elizabeth Tillinghast '85, MD, Psychiatrist
- , Visiting Professor of Law
- , Inez Milholland Professor of Civil Liberties, Legal Director, Brennan Center for Justice
- Maribel Hernandez '10
- Helam Gebremariam '10
Location: Vanderbilt Hall, Room 204
Spring 2010 Schedule
Wednesday, January 20, 12:25–1:50 p.m.
Co-sponsored by the Dean's Workshop Series on LGBT Rights
The "don't ask, don't tell" policy in effect bars lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals from serving openly in the United States military. Currently, the policy is being more closely scrutinized than ever before by the military, the White House, the judiciary, the Congress, and the public at large. This panel of experts on the policy will explore the role these actors have played in the formulation, implementation, and calls to repeal the policy There will be ample time for questions, comments, and discussion.
Panelists
- Joseph Donnelly, Former Captain, U.S. Marine Corps
- Rose Saxe, Staff Attorney, ACLU LGBT and AIDS Project
- Tobias B. Wolff, Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Chair of LGBT Policy for the Obama Campaign
- , Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Law, School of Law (moderator)
Location: Vanderbilt Hall, Greenberg Lounge
Video is unavailable.
Wednesday, January 27, 12:25–1:50 p.m.
The financial meltdown in the Fall of 2008 highlighted serious problems with the American banking industry and its regulation. At present a Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is taking testimony regarding what went wrong, and Congress is considering legislation to change the way financial institutions are regulated. The President has proposed a new tax on big banks and insurance firms to repay the government for the costs of the bailout. Reform of financial regulation promises to be one of the leading political issues of this year. This Forum is devoted to examining what went wrong, what are the proposals to fix the system, and which of those proposals have merit.
Panelists
- James Sterngold, Financial Correspondent, Bloomberg News
- Lewis B. Kaden, Vice Chairman Citigroup Inc.
- Eliot Spitzer, Former Governor and Attorney General of New York
- Geoffery Miller, Stuyvesant P. Comfort Professor of Law, Director, Center for the Study of Central Banks and Financial Institutions
Location: Vanderbilt Hall, Greenberg Lounge
Wednesday, February 3, 12:25–1:50 p.m.
Many believe the costs of the "war on drugs" are too high. But is there an alternative or sets of alternatives, as the costs of drugs flowing in society can be high as well. In this forum we bring together a stunning panel of experts to discuss models of drug decriminalization and deregulation, to learn what they are and ask if they will work.
Panelists
- Deborah Smalls, Executive Director and founder of Break the Chains
- Sanho Tree, Fellow, Drug Policy Project, Institute for Policy Studies
- Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director, Drug Policy Alliance
- Oren Bar-Gill, Professor of Law,
Location: Vanderbilt Hall, Greenberg Lounge
Co-sponsored by the Voting Justice Project and the ACLU
Wednesday, February 17, 12:25–1:50 p.m.
Last month the Supreme Court decided what may well be the most important decision of the Term (if not the Roberts Court thus far). In Citizens United, the justices invalidated a provision of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act which barred corporations from spending money on behalf of, or against, candidates for office. They also overturned their precedent in Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, which had allowed restrictions on corporate speech. Citizens United has been applauded in some quarters as a "free speech" decision, or for eliminating distinctions between corporations and individuals. It has been reviled in other quarters for the same reasons. Polls show unhappiness on both the left and the right. This Forum brings together a set of high-profile experts to talk about Citizens United: whether it was right or wrong as a matter of constitutional law, and what its ramifications will be for American politics? Will money now flow from corporate coffers into political races? Or will the decision mean less that it seems in the long run?
Panelists
- Floyd Abrams, Partner, Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP
Samuel Issacharoff, Bonnie and Richard Reiss Professor of Constitutional Law - Monica Youn, Counsel in the Democracy Program of the Brennan Center for Justice at School of Law
Location: Vanderbilt Hall, Greenberg Lounge
Wednesday, February 24, 12:25–1:50 p.m.
This forum will look at how activist lawyers advocate effectively within a judicial system that might be hostile to the social and political goals of a lawyer and her clients. And how those lessons get learned. Though the program is framed around activist lawyers, many lessons -- of course -- apply to practice in all settings.
To what extent must legal advocates downplay social and political views in order to persuade unsympathetic judges, politicians, and media outlets to effectuate change? Do they frame difficult social and political issues as technical or politically neutral argents? What about case and client selection? Do activist lawyers need to pick model plaintiffs with social and cultural backgrounds that align with the judge's even though such a choice reinforces the norms that litigation seeks to eliminate? And, does strategic lawyering require setting aside personal social and political goals? Most important, how and where do lawyers learn these lessons?
Panelists
- Alina Das, Teaching Fellow and Supervising Attorney, Immigrant Rights Clinic
- Robin Steinberg, Executive Director, The Bronx Defenders
Wednesday, March 3, 12:25–1:50 p.m.
Panelists
- Philip Howard, Author of Life Without Lawyers: Restoring Responsibility in America
- Steven Croley, Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
- , Professor of Law, New York Univeristy School of Law
Location: Vanderbilt Hall, Greenberg Lounge
Wednesday, March 10, 12:25–1:50 p.m.
The United States has the largest prison population of any western democracy. State governments spend a large percentage of tax dollars on incarceration. Some say the policies and costs are necessary to control crime; others decry sentencing laws as so much politics. Whatever the case, a disproportionate share of the prison populations are people of color. This Forum asks: What are the goals of incarceration? Are they well-served by present policies? Are there alternatives to incarceration that would be equally effective, or make more sense?
To discuss these issues we have a very special and particularly knowledgeable panel, with a deep expertise in sentencing policy.
Panelists:
- Bryan Stevenson, Professor of Law,
- Rachel Barkow, Professor of Law,
- David B. Muhlhausen, Ph.D., Senior Policy Analyst, The Heritage Foundation
Location: Vanderbilt Hall, room 204
Wednesday, March 24, 12:25–1:50 p.m
The United States is governed largely by regulation. Yet, Republicans and Democrats often disagree on how much regulation there should be, and what is the optimal form of regulation. This Forum brings experts from the Clinton and Bush Administrations to discuss how well the Obama Administration is doing its job. Did the Administration get off to the right start, or have opportunities been missed? Should regulatory choices occur primarily in the agencies, or be centralized in the White House or OMB? What is the appropriat level of regulation? Join us for a great discussion of these and other related topics.
Panelists
- Sally Katzen, Managing Director, the Podesta Group, and OIRA Administrator during the Clinton Administration
- Richard L Revesz, Dean, Lawrence King Professor of Law,
- Boyden Gray, Partner, Gray & Schmitz LLP and Former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union
Location: Vanderbilt Hall, Greenberg Lounge
Wednesday, March 31, 12:25–1:50 p.m.
Panelists
Soon, you will be heading out to summer and permanent jobs. What spells success? What are things to avoid? What skills should you be developing and at what rate? Learn how can you maximize your personal goals and experiences -- and for those of you going to summer jobs, what it takes to "earn a return offer." Whether you are going into private practice, government, or public interest, this is the panel for you! We've gathering a terrific group of panelists to dispense some wisdom, hopefully along with doses of humor, judgment and fun. And lots of time for questions of course.
- David Lat, Managing editor, AboveTheLaw.com
- Evan Chesler, Presiding Partner, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP
- Carol Kanarek, JD MSW, Career Management for Lawyers
- Louise Melling, Director, Center for Liberty, ACLU
Location: Vanderbilt Hall, Greenberg Lounge
Wednesday, April 7, 12:25–1:50 p.m.
Want to change the world? Or lend a hand? A lot of time we think of typically legal solutions: lawsuits and the like. Or legislative fixes. But sometimes you can make the most difference by actually engaging, politically. We have this week a stunning panel of political insiders, from both sides of the aisle, and various walks of political life. Join us to learn how you might get involved in politics, as an avocation or vocation.
Panelists
- Anthony Foxx '96, Mayor of Charlotte, NC
- Robert Straniere '65, LL.M. '69, former Republican New York State Assembly Member, 62nd District
- Erin Scharff '11
Location: Vanderbilt Hall, Greenberg Lounge
Wednesday, April 14, 12:25–1:50 p.m.
Judges are human. They have past lives, experiences, views, and ideologies. Yet, they don the black robe and we try hard as a society to view them as uniform, neutral arbiters who determine the facts, apply them to the law, and reach resolution of cases. But how much do those personal experiences inform the way they see the cases and do their job? To address this question, much mooted during the run-up to the confirmation hearings of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, we have a remarkably astute panel: two nationally-prominent journalists who have written judicial biographies, and our own Judge Harry Edwards, from the D. C. Circuit. Please join us for what will surely be a stimulating conversation about how the "who" judges are affects what they do.
There will also be book singings for Joan Biskupic’s, American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Jeffrey Rosen’s, The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries that Defined America.
Panelists
- Joan Biskupic, Author and Journalist
- Judge Harry Edwards, Senior Circuit Judge, Chief Judge Emeritus, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; Visiting Professor of Law,
- Jeffrey Rosen, Professor of Law at The George Washington University and the Legal Affairs editor of The New Republic
Location: Vanderbilt Hall, Room 214
Wednesday, April 21, 12:25–1:50 p.m.
Co-sponsored by the Dean's Workshop Series on LGBT Rights
The issue of same-sex marriage has fractured the nation. Less obviously, it has created fault-lines in the progressive legal community. In this Forum, David Boies, the lawyer who defended Al Gore in Bush v. Gore, will explain why he decided to bring a federal challenge to California's ban on same-sex marriage. Matt Coles and Paula Ettelbrick will then discuss whether this was the right time to bring the claim and whether it has been properly prioritized with respect to other LGBT-related claims. This exchange will move beyond the traditional debate between conservatives and progressives on same-sex marriage, indicating the unavoidable tensions in high-profile impact litigation.
Panelists
- David Boies, Boies, Schiller & Flexner
- Matt Coles, Deputy Legal Director, ACLU
- Paula Ettelbrick, Professor of Law, School of Law
- , Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law, School of Law
Location: Vanderbilt Hall, Room 220