As Chair of the Federalist Society’s Professional Responsibility Practice Group, I would like you to attend our panel discussion on this topic, which is set for Saturday, November 14, at 10:30 am. The panel will explore whether prosecutorial overreach has become epidemic, and, if so, what measures should be taken by whom to rein it in. Last month, one panel member, George Terwilliger, pointed to the phenomenon of prosecution as regulation and to the recent Yates Memorandum calling for the prosecution of corporate officials and employees instead of corporations as parts of the discussion. Another, John Malcolm recently testified about proposed reforms to the civil forfeiture process in Pennsylvania.
The Professional Responsibility Practice Group considers both issues of legal ethical policy and the legal education system. Its activities include hosting an ethics CLE in both 2013 and 2015, which helped members (other than those in Virginia) obtain required ethics CLE credits. In addition, it has sponsored teleforums reflecting on the 65th anniversary of the publication of Lon Fuller’s Case of the Speluncean Explorers and its continuing relevance and a discussion of Paul Barrett’s book about Steven Donziger’s attack on Chevron, Law of the Jungle: The $19 Billion Legal Battle over Oil in the Rain Forest and the Lawyer Who’d Stop at Nothing to Win.
We hope that you will join us for our Convention panel and welcome your participation in this intellectually and professionally stimulating practice group.