1919 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington, DC 20009
Group Identity and the Law
November 14 — 16, 2024The 2024 National Lawyers Convention took place Thursday, November 14 through Saturday, November 16 at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC. Over three days, the Convention featured Showcase Sessions discussing the Convention Theme of "Group Identity and the Law," breakout sessions sponsored by the Practice Groups, the Sixteenth Annual Rosenkranz Debate, the Twenty-Third Annual Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture, and the 2024 Antonin Scalia Memorial Dinner.
The Convention is now sold out.
2024 Antonin Scalia Memorial Dinner
The Washington Hilton
1919 Connecticut Ave NW
Thursday, November 14, 2024
Reception - 6:00 p.m.
Dinner - 7:00 p.m.
(ticketed event) BLACK TIE OPTIONAL
SOLD OUT!
Parking Instructions and Metro Information
Twenty-Third Annual Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture
Featuring
Prof. Jonathan R. Turley
J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law, The George Washington University Law School
The Washington Hilton
1919 Connecticut Ave NW
Friday, November 15, 2024
5:00 p.m.
(ticketed event)
SOLD OUT!
Sixteenth Annual Rosenkranz Debate
RESOLVED: That Congress Can Ban TikTok
The Washington Hilton
1919 Connecticut Ave NW
Saturday, November 16, 2024
12:30 p.m.
SOLD OUT!
Annual Hon. Robert H. Bork Memorial Lecture
The Washington Hilton
1919 Connecticut Ave NW
Saturday, November 16, 2024
4:30 p.m.
SOLD OUT!
Showcase Sessions Discussing the Convention Theme:
"Group Identity and the Law"
Thursday Schedule:
Friday Schedule:
Saturday Schedule:
Lodging
Washington, D.C. hotels become booked very quickly for the fall convention season. To reserve overnight accommodations for the Convention, please contact the Washington Hilton directly or reserve your room online.
Inquire about the special rate of $249 per night offered to Federalist Society Convention registrants. Registrants must secure hotel rooms no later than October 15 (unless rooms sell out sooner) in order to receive the discounted rate. Specify "Federalist Society" when contacting the Hilton.
Guests can also call 1-800-HILTONS or 202-483-3000.
Click here to reserve a room in the Federalist Society room block.
Convention Fees
Individual Day** | |
Non-Member | SOLD OUT! |
Active Member | SOLD OUT! |
Student Non-Member | SOLD OUT! |
Student Active Member | SOLD OUT! |
**Individual day purchase includes that day’s sessions, CLE, and lunch. It does not include social events. CLE materials will be available electronically.
Social Events | |
Antonin Scalia Memorial Dinner Non-Member | SOLD OUT! |
Antonin Scalia Memorial Dinner Active Member | SOLD OUT! |
Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture & Reception Non-Member | SOLD OUT! |
Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture & Reception Active Member | SOLD OUT! |
CANCELLATION FEE OF $100 AFTER MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4.
NO REFUNDS WILL BE GIVEN AFTER MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11.
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2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Federalist Society |
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Featuring:
2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Civil Rights • Culture • Politics • Religious Liberty |
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The generation of political leaders that produced the landmark legislation of the Civil Rights Era no doubt saw themselves as working to make one’s race, ethnicity, religion, sex, etc. matter less to one’s future prospects. And in many ways, they clearly succeeded. They would almost certainly be surprised and disappointed to learn how much emphasis those factors are still getting. Why has this happened? Is the problem that our focus on issues of race, ethnicity, sex, religion, gender, etc. has gone too far? Or is the problem that we haven’t yet focused on them enough? To what extent has the law helped create the current state of affairs? How can the law help us move in a better direction?
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2024 National Lawyers Convention
2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Administrative Law & Regulation • Civil Rights • Environmental & Energy Law • The Practice Groups |
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Over the past four years, state attorneys general have brought many significant lawsuits against the Biden administration. From border enforcement and student loan forgiveness, to Title IX rules and environmental regulations, states have brought the executive branch into court over divisive legal questions. Some of these suits remain active. This panel of experts will recap the most notable cases of the past presidential term and discuss what the recent election could mean for the future.
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2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Administrative Law & Regulation • Corporations, Securities & Antitrust • In-House Counsel Working Group |
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By the time of the National Lawyers Convention, the American electorate will have decided on a new president and, with him or her, a new administration. What will a Donald Trump or Kamala Harris administration mean for American business? How will the new administration handle corporate tax, federal regulations, agency guidance, antitrust questions, and helming the administrative state in a post-Chevron world? How should American companies, and their in-house counsels, prepare for the next four years?
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2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Administrative Law & Regulation • Federalism • Separation of Powers • Supreme Court |
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The Supreme Court’s most recent term was one of significance with respect to the separation of powers. The Court held that the President is immune from criminal prosecution for most official acts. The Court also overturned the Chevron doctrine in Loper Bright v. Raimondo and determined that administrative agencies typically cannot impose civil penalties against individuals without a jury trial in SEC v. Jarkesy. These cases followed not long after the Supreme Court’s express recognition of the major-questions doctrine in West Virginia v. EPA. Yet the Supreme Court also upheld the CFPB’s novel funding method in the face of an Appropriation Clause challenge, issued an important opinion bearing on facial challenges in Moody v. NetChoice, and rejected a petition asking that it reconsider the nondelegation doctrine. What is driving these decisions—originalism, history, or pragmatic concerns? What issues might be ripe for further development or reexamination—nondelegation, removal restrictions on officers, the major questions doctrine, or something else? And how should advocates think about separation of powers challenges moving forward, in the context of both strategic and corporate litigation?
Featuring
2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Federalism • Financial Services |
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The future of the national bank system is increasingly uncertain as federal regulators have incorporated DEI and ESG into bank supervision, creating tensions with some states. Several states have responded by attempting to ban such practices, potentially creating conflicting legal duties for banks. Meanwhile, other states are challenging interest rate exportation and other aspects of state preemption, which arguably undermines the value of national charters and hampers the ability of banks and fintechs to scale nationwide. The Supreme Court's recent overruling of the Chevron doctrine adds another layer of uncertainty as federal regulators will receive reduced deference. Do these conflicts signal the end of national bank charters, and are we headed toward a red-state/blue-state banking system? This panel will explore these questions.
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2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Civil Rights • Education Policy • Supreme Court |
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The “disparate impact” approach to civil rights enforcement makes it presumptively illegal to use selection criteria that result in statistical disparities based on, inter alia, race or ethnicity. It is no defense that the use of a challenged criterion had no discriminatory motive; the only defense is if its use meets some “necessity” standard. The inevitable result is to encourage race-based decision-making when selection criteria are chosen and implemented. Yet using this approach is widespread and found in numerous statutes and regulations. Given the Supreme Court’s decision striking down racial preferences in SFFA v. Harvard, what impact will this have on the disparate-impact approach?
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2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Federal Courts • The Practice Groups |
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The importance of judicial selection and confirmation is now a point of emphasis for all presidential administrations. In 2025 and going forward, what principles and considerations will govern judicial selection (and confirmation) in a new administration, with a new Senate majority. These and other important Article III issues will be considered by our panel of experts.
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2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Administrative Law & Regulation • Environmental & Energy Law • Federalism |
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This year, in a pair of decisions known as Loper Bright, the Supreme Court overruled the Chevron doctrine. As courts begin to apply the principles announced in Loper Bright, important changes are expected to occur within the federal government and its relationship to the states. For example, Congress may begin to write federal statutes with increasing specificity, courts may begin to apply their own reasoned judgment instead of deferring to agency experts in litigation involving the Administrative Procedure Act, and the states may have greater success in asserting their authority over important legal matters within their domain.
These developments in administrative law will likely have a large effect on the realm of environmental and energy regulation. If courts can no longer presume that statutory ambiguities are implicit delegations by Congress to the Executive Branch, how ought Congress, federal agencies, and the states respond to a post-Chevron world?
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2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Civil Rights • Education Policy • Federalism • Professional Responsibility & Legal Education |
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In 2022, the ABA updated its Standard 303, Curriculum which relates to “cross-cultural competency” and “professional identity.” Because the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar is responsible for law school accreditation through an appointment from the U.S. Department of Education (and the agreement of State Bars), this change and the ways it can be implemented could have widespread implications.
This panel will discuss the nature of the obligations the revised Standard places on law schools and the scope of such terms as "cross-cultural competency" and "racism." Do these new standards require new courses or course changes? Will the new courses displace any of the old ones? Will the implementation turn out to be education or training? Does this standard create any tension with later developments in law including Students for Fair Admissions v. UNC (2023)? What role does the Department of Education and State Bars have in scrutinizing and altering the effects of this new standard?
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2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Constitution • Federal Courts • Separation of Powers • Supreme Court • The Practice Groups |
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Recent times have seen growing criticism of the Supreme Court's legitimacy, with some claiming that the Supreme Court has amassed too much governmental and political power. Such critics have proposed judicial reform to even out this perceived imbalance, suggesting changes like term limits for justices and a binding code of ethics. Opponents say, however, that these changes could undermine the authority of the Supreme Court and upset the delicate system of checks and balances between the branches of government put in place by our Constitution. These debates have led to increased polarization within the legal profession. What is the real purpose and importance of preserving an independent judiciary? How can one engage with the Court's decisions without undermining its authority? Can we champion the integrity of the Court while fostering respectful and constructive dialogue within the legal community?
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2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Criminal Law & Procedure • Federalism • State Courts |
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It has been almost ten years since the advent of the ‘progressive prosecutor,’ local elected district attorneys and attorneys general throughout the country who ran on and then implemented a revolutionary new model of public prosecution. If states are the “laboratories of democracy” then there plainly has been a series of bold experiments testing the efficacy of this new model of law enforcement. Was it a success, or a failure? Has public safety and order been promoted, or jeopardized? Or is it all simply too soon to tell? Please join us as we present a panel of distinguished current and former elected officials, academics, and other experts in the field as they discuss all facets of these important questions of law, order, and the public interest.
Featuring:
2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Civil Rights • Federalism • Religious Liberty • Religious Liberties |
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State and federal laws in a wide variety of settings tend to support gender transition in children. This has given rise to religious liberty and parental rights lawsuits. Conflicts include parental objections to gender ideology in public school curricula, secret gender transitions in public schools, state conversion therapy bans, denials of parental custody, foster care, and adoption, and gender transition treatment in the healthcare context. This panel will explore the intersection of the transgender legal movement, religious freedom, and parental rights.
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2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Civil Rights • Litigation |
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In recent years, the legal profession has increasingly prioritized diversity in law firm hiring and litigation leadership, driven by demands from corporate clients, alumni, and judges. Efforts to increase the representation of women and non-white lawyers have become so integral that they are now reflected in proposed formal rules, such as the FRCP 16.1, which would require judges to consider identity characteristics when selecting leadership teams for multidistrict litigation (MDL). This potential codification raises important questions about the legality and implications of identity-based preferences in the legal profession. How should client preferences for diversity be balanced with Title VII commitments, and what role should diversity of background play in law firm hiring and the selection of MDL legal teams? This panel will explore these issues, examining both the legal and policy arguments surrounding identity-based preferencing in legal employment.
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2024 National Lawyers Convention
2024 National Lawyers Convention
2024 National Lawyers Convention
2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Civil Rights • Culture • Federal Courts • Politics • State Courts • Supreme Court |
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Most would agree that all of these [tribalism, polarization, racism, religious enmity, and antisemitism] are bad for society. They are perhaps a particular threat in a democracy like ours, which is predicated on the idea that people of very different backgrounds and ideas can coexist peacefully. Following decades of improvement in all these areas, they seem to be resurgent in the United States. What role have the law, the courts, and the culture played in contributing to this state of affairs? How can law best be deployed to combat it and what is the role of civil society vs. law?
Featuring:
2024 National Lawyers Convention
A Life for Liberty: The Making of an American Originalist
An Introduction to Constitutional Law: 100 Supreme Court Cases Everyone Should Know
2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Constitution • Federalism • First Amendment • Free Speech & Election Law |
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Featuring:
2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Culture • Politics • Professional Responsibility & Legal Education |
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Accomplishing anything of significance in this political environment requires courage. The legal industry has a few well-trodden pathways: law school, clerkship, large law firm, and perhaps a brief stint in government. Yet without courage, there is little potential for lasting impact along these pathways. While prior administrations may have emphasized conventional career paths and credentials in their selection process, there is an emerging interest in selecting for courage, independent thought, and sound judgment.
But what paths best equip future leaders to accomplish great things in public service? Does the pressure to keep the option to return to a large law firm hinder one from accomplishing great things? What should we be doing to support people who demonstrate courage - including those who make the courageous choice to balance their careers with responsibilities to family and children?
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2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Administrative Law & Regulation • Separation of Powers • Supreme Court |
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The Supreme Court's latest term was one of its most significant for administrative law. The Court ended Chevron deference, declared a right to a jury trial in securities fraud adjudications at the Securities and Exchange Commission, and expanded the statute of limitations to challenge agency decisions. Other leading cases included a challenge to a major Trump-era rulemaking on guns and a challenge to a significant federal environmental implementation plan. The Court's opinions have raised important questions about the separation of powers, the role of Congress, and the future of regulatory governance in America. Now that the Court has issued its rulings, the panel considers: What comes next for the regulated public, Congress, executive branch agencies, and the States?
Featuring
2024 National Lawyers Convention
2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Corporations, Securities & Antitrust • Law & Economics |
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Critics have raised concerns about the inadequacy of the consumer welfare standard for the 21st century, while others defend the standard as a proven and manageable test. Has the focus on consumer welfare led to under-enforcement? Is there an objective and administrable alternative to replace it? This panel will discuss which approach to antitrust is best and ways forward to increase U.S. competitiveness and economic growth.
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2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Administrative Law & Regulation • Security & Privacy • Telecommunications & Electronic Media |
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Featuring a conversation addressing regulation of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, tech platform regulation, privacy, spectrum policy, broadband funding and other government spending, and consumer protection issues.
Featuring:
2024 National Lawyers Convention
The Meese Revolution: The Making of a Constitutional Moment
2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | International Law & Trade • International & National Security Law |
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As international courts have addressed issues arising from the Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Hamas wars, we will explore whether engagement with the ICC and ICJ institutions is beneficial or harmful to the United States and how U.S. policymakers should approach these courts.
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2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Free Speech & Election Law • Education Policy • First Amendment |
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Over the past year, college campuses have been filled with student protests and demonstrations. A large number of these protests involved students camping out on campus for weeks, taking over administrative and academic buildings, harassing and threatening other students and faculty members, and destruction of property. Many administrators have refused to discipline students or enforce their policies because of First Amendment concerns. Instead, they contend the First Amendment prohibited them from punishing the students or enforcing their policies because the students were engaged in protected speech. When it comes to protests and demonstrations, what does the First Amendment protect? When does protected speech cross the line into unprotected conduct? What duties does a public university have to protect its students from harassment and intimidation? How does a university determine what speech is likely to incite imminent violence?
This panel will examine the scope and limits of the First Amendment, especially as it relates to public colleges and universities.
Featuring:
2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Telecommunications & Electronic Media • Administrative Law & Regulation • Law & Economics • International & National Security Law • The Practice Groups |
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Much has been made of the promise and concerns around AI technical advances, and guardrails that might be considered to reduce the downside of opaque quasi-algorithmic outcomes associated with current large language model approaches. This panel will examine the current AI regulatory debate and explore how current and proposed corporate and governmental AI is being shaped and normed to provide outputs that reinforce “mainstream” economic, ideological and operational norms, with the risk of vested interests defining such norms. From national security applications, autonomous vehicle safety decisions, economic predictions, pareto-optimal and social benefit determinations, and health care deployment, to how you are entertained and educated, can we control what most of us can’t understand?
Featuring:
2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Administrative Law & Regulation • Corporations, Securities & Antitrust • Law & Economics • Litigation • In-House Counsel Working Group |
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Theories of nuisance, market-share, and consumer protection liability have become increasingly popular among plaintiffs who cannot trace an alleged harm to any specific defendant. Recently, states and local governments have sought to impose market-share liability on companies based on allegedly misleading statements (or silence) about the potential effects of their products. These cases raise difficult legal issues that remain underdeveloped because the risk of a crippling damages award often pressures companies to settle claims early in litigation.
Featuring:
2024 National Lawyers Convention
(Ticketed event)
On September 11, 2001, at the age of 45 and at the height of her professional and personal life, Barbara K. Olson was murdered in the terrorist attacks against the United States as a passenger on the hijacked American Airlines flight that was flown into the Pentagon. The Federalist Society believes that it is most fitting to dedicate an annual lecture on limited government and the spirit of freedom to the memory of Barbara Olson. She had a deep commitment to the rule of law and understood well the relationship between respecting limits on government power and the preservation of freedom. And, significantly, Barbara Olson was an individual who never took freedom for granted in her own life, even in her final terrifying moments-her inspiring and energetic human spirit is a testament to what one can achieve in a world that places a premium on human freedom. Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson delivered the first lecture in November 2001. The lecture series continued in following years with other notable individuals.
Featuring:
2024 National Lawyers Convention
The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage
2024 National Lawyers Convention
(Ticketed event)
2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Culture • Civil Rights • Education Policy • Politics • Religious Liberty • Religious Liberties |
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The 1964 Civil Rights Act outlaws discrimination on the basis of sex in employment. In addition, in 1972, The Higher Education Act was amended to prohibit the exclusion of any person from any federally funded educational program or activity on the basis of sex. These seemingly simple prohibitions have recently been the focus of considerable attention. How, for example, do they apply to individuals whose gender identity is seemingly at odds with their biological sex? What does the Bostock decision say about their situation? Is a federally funded school required to assign bathrooms, showers, changing rooms, and sleeping quarters based on gender identity? Is an employer required to do so? If not required, is it permissible for these entities to do so under the law? What about athletics? What about prisons? And quite apart from what the law is now, what should it be? What about what is often called “gender affirming” treatment? Should a parent be able to obtain such treatment for a child? Should a parent be able to refuse it? What is the role of schools? Should the government be obligated to fund “gender affirming” care for prisoners or individuals on relief? Finally, does or should the law require others to accept a person’s preferred gender identity—at work, at school, elsewhere—and/or adjust their speech to reflect that identity?
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2024 National Lawyers Convention
The Meese Revolution: The Making of a Constitutional Moment
2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Second Amendment • Constitution • Supreme Court |
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Last term, the Supreme Court decided United States v. Rahimi, which built upon the text-first, history-second methodology articulated by the Supreme Court in Heller and reaffirmed in Bruen. Many hot button Second Amendment issues are percolating through the lower courts and are likely to reach this Supreme Court in the coming terms. This panel will discuss Rahimi's impact on the text and history methodology as applied to legal challenges to "gun free zones", bans on semi-automatic rifles and "high capacity" magazines, age restrictions, and restrictions on misdemeanants. The panel will also discuss several important methodological issues that are common to many Second Amendment litigations, including the debate whether 1791 or 1868 is the correct time to determine the meaning of the Second Amendment.
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2024 National Lawyers Convention
Featuring:
2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Professional Responsibility & Legal Education • The Practice Groups |
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In the twentieth century, state supreme courts and legislatures limited the practice of law to licensed law school graduates and prevented nonlawyers from investing in law firms. This regulatory structure has not yielded a sufficient supply of affordable legal services to keep pace with demand: despite government and charitable funding and pro bono work, over 90% of the basic civil legal needs of low-income Americans now go unmet.
As lawyers have taken an interest in regulatory reform in this century, some have begun to scrutinize our own profession and explore whether innovative structural changes can help close this justice gap. The experts on this panel will equip attendees to consider reform in their states by examining the pros and cons of three such changes: (1) licensing legal paraprofessionals to perform limited legal services; (2) allowing nonlawyers to invest in legal service providers; and (3) reforming legal education and licensure to increase the supply of lawyers, especially in underserved geographic and practice areas.
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2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Intellectual Property |
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Artificial Intelligence is now part of daily life. AI has improved efficiency, predicted outcomes with accuracy, and even created innovations. At the same time, however, AI and its capabilities are evolving faster than the laws and regulations governing its use. AI presents new challenges to intellectual property—from inventorship and authorship issues to liability. This panel will explore the intersection of AI and Intellectual Property rights. In the copyright context, it must be determined who is the owner of AI-generated works to whether it is fair use to train AI models using copyrighted works. In the patent context, it must be determined whether AI can be an inventor and whether AI can or should be used to assist in the drafting of patents. It is also not settled who has the power to regulate AI—the USPTO and other federal agencies, or only Congress? These are all questions that will eventually be answered by the courts or legislation. This panel will explore these questions and more as it looks to try and answer how we can move forward in a world filled with AI while ensuring the protection of intellectual property rights.
Featuring:
2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Administrative Law & Regulation • Corporations, Securities & Antitrust • First Amendment • International & National Security Law • Free Speech & Election Law |
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RESOLVED: That Congress Can Ban TikTok
Featuring:
2024 National Lawyers Convention
Topics: | Civil Rights • Culture • Education Policy • Labor & Employment Law • Politics |
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Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard was the most important decision on affirmative action in generations, banning preferential treatment based on race in higher education admissions. How are colleges and universities complying with SFFA? What else will be necessary in order to ensure compliance? What does the next generation of cases look like? Outside of higher education, what will be the effect of SFFA? Does it apply to employment and contracting? Does it apply to gender as well as race? What does it say about disparate impact?
Featuring:
2024 National Lawyers Convention
The 2024 National Lawyers Convention will take place November 14-16, 2024 at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC. The topic of the conference is "Group Identity and the Law." The conference will conclude with the annual Hon. Robert H. Bork Memorial Lecture, featuring remarks by Prof. Stephen Sachs.
Featuring:
2024 Nationa Lawyers Convention