Shaping Justice in a Time of Crisis
Saturday, February 20, 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Schedule
Conference Schedule
10-11:30 a.m. | WELCOME AND PLENARY PANEL
Racial Justice: What Can Lawyers and Law Students Do to Support BIPoC?
Co-Sponsored by the Black Law Students Association, Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, and Latin American Law Organization
Protests this summer in response to the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and many others prompted attorneys to think about their roles in the racial justice movement. This panel will explore the different actions law students and lawyers can take to support BIPoC by hearing from leaders actively working to combat racial injustice. It will include insight from practicing attorneys and activists in various fields from criminal justice, civil rights, private practice, and academia. How can law students get involved in these movements? What next steps should be taken in the world of criminal justice reform? How can students prepare to combat racial injustice, regardless of their chosen career path? How can lawyers work with local activists?
11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m. | PANELS
The Fight for Voting Rights and the 2020 Election
Co-Sponsored by the Journal of Law and Politics, Virginia Law Democrats, and Advocates for Disability Rights
The Movement to Dismantle DHS: A Discussion
Co-Sponsored by the Immigration Law Society, National Lawyers Guild, American Constitution Society, and Virginia Law Prison Project
Calls to dismantle ICE, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), gained attention when the agency began separating families at the border and putting young children in detention centers as part of the previous administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policies. In 2020, criticism of DHS was renewed when Customs and Border Patrol officers were deployed against BLM protesters in Portland, Oregon. However, DHS, a department created in response to 9/11, and the agencies within it are no strangers to controversy. This panel will explore DHS’s 18 year history and the calls for its reform. It will consider the constitutional concerns that civil libertarians have with the agency and the challenges with giving one federal agency power over law enforcement, immigration, and counterterrorism. Has the agency’s structure led to its abuses? How can it be held accountable? What, if anything, should replace it? Can this movement be seen as federalist? What are the dangers of that lens?
1:15-2 p.m.
Keynote Address by Terrica Redfield Ganzy
2:15-3:15 p.m. | PANELS
Beyond Bostock: Sex Discrimination in the Workplace
Co-Sponsored by the Lambda Law Alliance and American Constitution Society
Environmental Justice and the Current Disparities in Our Health Care System
Co-Sponsored by the Virginia Environmental Law Forum and Health Law Association
The current Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the racial and economic disparities that exist in our current healthcare system. NPR reported that Black American deaths are two times greater than would be expected based on their share of the population. Hispanic and Latinx populations likewise make up a greater share of confirmed cases than would be expected, as do members of Indigenous communities. These statistics reflect a larger problem of disparity in treatment in our healthcare system. Social and environmental determinants are a significant cause of those disparities is health outcomes. This panel will discuss the current disparities in our healthcare system and seek to draw lessons from the failures in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic (disproportionate race/class impacts, governments slow/unwilling to act, short-term bandaids over long-term systemic change, need for collectivism and behavioral changes) that can be applied to broader environmental and health justice challenges, such as the impending climate crisis.
3:30 p.m.
Presentation of Shaping Justice Alumni Awards, with Dean Goluboff
Saturday, February 20, 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Schedule
Conference Schedule
10-11:30 a.m. | WELCOME AND PLENARY PANEL
Racial Justice: What Can Lawyers and Law Students Do to Support BIPoC?
Co-Sponsored by the Black Law Students Association, Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, and Latin American Law Organization
- Kim Keenan, Professorial Lecturer in Law, George Washington Law School
- Rosia Parker, Organizer, Black Lives Matter, Charlottesville, VA
- Emily Ponder Williams, Staff Attorney, Civil Defense Practice, Neighborhood Defender Service (NDS) Harlem, Member of the New York City Bar Association's Mass Incarceration Task Force
- Wyatt Rolla, Interim Legal Director, Civil Rights & Racial Justice Program, Legal Aid Justice Center
- Lisa Lorish, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Western District of Virginia, Director of the Federal Criminal Sentence Reduction Clinic, University of Virginia School of Law
- Moderator: Thomas Frampton, Associate Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Protests this summer in response to the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and many others prompted attorneys to think about their roles in the racial justice movement. This panel will explore the different actions law students and lawyers can take to support BIPoC by hearing from leaders actively working to combat racial injustice. It will include insight from practicing attorneys and activists in various fields from criminal justice, civil rights, private practice, and academia. How can law students get involved in these movements? What next steps should be taken in the world of criminal justice reform? How can students prepare to combat racial injustice, regardless of their chosen career path? How can lawyers work with local activists?
11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m. | PANELS
The Fight for Voting Rights and the 2020 Election
Co-Sponsored by the Journal of Law and Politics, Virginia Law Democrats, and Advocates for Disability Rights
- Lisa Schur, Director, Program for Disability Research at Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations
- Ryan Snow, Associate Counsel, Voting Rights Project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
- Chris Bruce, Political Director, ACLU of Georgia
- Alex Gulotta, Director, All Voting is Local Arizona
- Moderator: Michael D. Gilbert, Martha Lubin Karsh and Bruce A. Karsh Bicentennial Professor of Law, Director of Center for Public Law and Political Economy, University of Virginia School of Law
The Movement to Dismantle DHS: A Discussion
Co-Sponsored by the Immigration Law Society, National Lawyers Guild, American Constitution Society, and Virginia Law Prison Project
- Sirine Shebaya, Executive Director, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild
- Hina Shamsi, Director, ACLU National Security Project
- Karen J. Greenberg, Director, Center on National Security, Fordham University School of Law
- Moderator: Kate Jackson, DeOlazarra Fellow, Program in Political Philosophy, Policy & Law, University of Virginia
Calls to dismantle ICE, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), gained attention when the agency began separating families at the border and putting young children in detention centers as part of the previous administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policies. In 2020, criticism of DHS was renewed when Customs and Border Patrol officers were deployed against BLM protesters in Portland, Oregon. However, DHS, a department created in response to 9/11, and the agencies within it are no strangers to controversy. This panel will explore DHS’s 18 year history and the calls for its reform. It will consider the constitutional concerns that civil libertarians have with the agency and the challenges with giving one federal agency power over law enforcement, immigration, and counterterrorism. Has the agency’s structure led to its abuses? How can it be held accountable? What, if anything, should replace it? Can this movement be seen as federalist? What are the dangers of that lens?
1:15-2 p.m.
Keynote Address by Terrica Redfield Ganzy
2:15-3:15 p.m. | PANELS
Beyond Bostock: Sex Discrimination in the Workplace
Co-Sponsored by the Lambda Law Alliance and American Constitution Society
- Russell Kornblith, Managing Partner, Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP
- Jenny Yang, Director, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, U.S. Department of Labor; Former Commissioner at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
- Ezra Young, Civil Rights Attorney, Vice President of Jim Collins Foundation
- Margaret Hardy, President, Sands Anderson; President, Virginia Women Attorneys Association
- Moderator: J.H. (Rip) Verkerke, T. Munford Boyd Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Environmental Justice and the Current Disparities in Our Health Care System
Co-Sponsored by the Virginia Environmental Law Forum and Health Law Association
- Dr. Michael D. Williams, Director, UVA Center for Health Policy
- Dr. Sacoby Wilson, Associate Professor, Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Maryland College Park School of Public Health
- Cale Jaffe, Associate Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law; Director, Environmental Law and Community Engagement Clinic
- Moderator: Margaret Foster Riley, Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law, Professor of Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Professor of Public Policy, Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, Director, Animal Law Program
The current Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the racial and economic disparities that exist in our current healthcare system. NPR reported that Black American deaths are two times greater than would be expected based on their share of the population. Hispanic and Latinx populations likewise make up a greater share of confirmed cases than would be expected, as do members of Indigenous communities. These statistics reflect a larger problem of disparity in treatment in our healthcare system. Social and environmental determinants are a significant cause of those disparities is health outcomes. This panel will discuss the current disparities in our healthcare system and seek to draw lessons from the failures in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic (disproportionate race/class impacts, governments slow/unwilling to act, short-term bandaids over long-term systemic change, need for collectivism and behavioral changes) that can be applied to broader environmental and health justice challenges, such as the impending climate crisis.
3:30 p.m.
Presentation of Shaping Justice Alumni Awards, with Dean Goluboff
