Law school speaker series to focus on public interest

The chief judge emeritus and judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and legal experts on American Indian tribal government, civil rights, women’s history, disability rights, death penalty and economics constitute the spring lineup for the School of Law’s sixth annual Public Interest Law Speaker Series.

Karen L. Tokarz, J.D., professor of law and executive director of clinical education and of alternative dispute resolution programs, and Susan F. Appleton, J.D., the Lemma Barkeloo & Phoebe Couzins Professor of Law, coordinate the series.

The series began Jan. 21 with a lecture by Theodore M. Shaw, associate director-counsel of the Legal Defense and Education Fund for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Shaw, the Black Law Students Association Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Speaker, addressed “From Brown to Grutter: The Legal Struggle for Racial Equality.”

All lectures will be held in Anheuser-Busch Hall and are free and open to the public.

• 11 a.m. Jan. 28 — Susan M. Williams, a recognized expert on American Indian water rights and an enrolled member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Nation, will speak on “Issues of Justice Relating to American Indian Tribal Government.” Williams will serve as the Webster Society Annual Speaker.

• 11 a.m. Feb. 4 — Amy L. Chua, professor of law at Yale University, will address topics discussed in her best-selling book, World on Fire: How Exporting Free Markets and Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability. This lecture is part of the Assembly Series and is co-sponsored by Student Union, the Asian American Law Student Association, the School of Law Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, the Whitney R. Harris Institute for Global Legal Studies and the Department of Political Science in Arts & Sciences.

• 4 p.m. Feb. 18 — “A Conversation With Judge Edwards” will feature Harry T. Edwards, chief judge emeritus and judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He will serve as the Tyrell Williams Speaker.

• 3 p.m. Feb. 26 — Martha L. Minow, the William Henry Bloomberg Professor of Law at Harvard University, will speak on “After Brown: Surprising Legacies of the Civil Rights Landmark.”

• 9 a.m. March 4 — Herma Hill Kay’s talk will be on “Celebrating Early Women Law Professors.” The Barbara Nachtrieb Armstrong Professor of Law and law school dean emerita at the University of California, Berkeley, Kay will serve as the Women’s Law Caucus International Women’s Day Speaker.

• 9 a.m. March 19 — James W. Ellis, professor of law at the University of New Mexico, will address “Mental Disability and the Death Penalty: The Implications of Atkins.” Ellis will serve as the keynote speaker for the “Justice, Ethics, and Interdisciplinary Teaching and Practice” conference co-sponsored by the School of Law’s Clinical Education Program and Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, the School of Medicine and the Department of Psychology in Arts & Sciences.

• 11:30 a.m. April 2 — Elizabeth Warren, the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard University, will speak about “The Over-Consumption Myth and Other Tales of Economics, Law and Morality.” Warren will serve as the Donald P. Gallop Keynote Speaker for the law school’s annual F. Hodge O’Neal Corporate and Securities Law Symposium.

For more information, call 935-4958.

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