David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Virginia School of Law
Lillian BeVier taught constitutional law (with special emphasis on First Amendment issues), intellectual property (trademark, copyright), real property and torts from 1973-2010 at the Law School, and now teaches a January Term course on judicial philosophy.
At Stanford Law School, BeVier was revising editor for the Stanford Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. Before coming to Virginia, she was associate professor of law at the University of Santa Clara Law School; practiced law with Spaeth Blase Valentine & Klein in Palo Alto, Calif.; served as research associate to Professor William F. Baxter at Stanford University Law School, working on the FAA-ABA study of the legal aspects of airport noise and the sonic boom; and was assistant to the general secretary and assistant staff legal counsel for Stanford University.
BeVier received the University of Virginia Alumni Association Distinguished Professor Award in 2006. The Raven Society elected her to membership in 1993 and honored her with the faculty award in 2010. She delivered the Henry Miller Memorial Lecture at Georgia State Law School in 2005, the Coen Memorial Lecture at the University of Colorado Law School in 2000, and the David C. Baum Lecture on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the University of Illinois Law School in 1996. In 1999, at the invitation of the Supreme Court Historical Society, she spoke to the Society on Free Expression in the Warren and Burger Courts. Suffolk University awarded her an honorary S.J.D. degree in 1998. In the fall of 2003, she was a visiting scholar at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
Having been nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate in 2003, she served as vice-chair of the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation until 2009. She serves on the national Board of Visitors of the Federalist Society. Within the Charlottesville community, BeVier has served as chair of the Board of Trustees of St. Anne’s-Belfield School and of the Martha Jefferson Hospital. She is currently chair of the board of the Martha Jefferson Health Services Corporation and of Piedmont CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocates).
Beneficial Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Educated at Princeton, Oxford and Columbia Law School, Charles Fried, the Beneficial Professor of Law, has been teaching at Harvard Law School since 1961. He was Solicitor General of the United States, 1985-89, and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, 1995-99. His scholarly and teaching interests have been moved by the connection between normative theory and the concrete institutions of public and private law. During his career at Harvard he has taught Criminal Law, Commercial Law, Roman Law, Torts, Contracts, Labor Law, Constitutional Law and Federal Courts, Appellate and Supreme Court Advocacy. The author of many books and articles, his Anatomy of Values (1970), Right and Wrong (1978), and Modern Liberty (2006) develop themes in moral and political philosophy with applications to law. Contract as Promise (1980), Making Tort Law (2003, with David Rosenberg) and Saying What the Law Is: The Constitution in the Supreme Court (2004) are fundamental inquiries into broad legal institutions. Order & Law: Arguing the Reagan Revolution (1991) discusses major themes developed in Fried's time as Solicitor General. In recent years Fried has taught Constitutional Law and Contracts. During his time as a teacher he has also argued a number of major cases in state and federal courts, most notably Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, in which the Supreme Court established the standards for the use of expert and scientific evidence in federal courts.
Emeritus Dean and Professor of Law, Lewis & Clark Law School
Professor Huffman joined the law school faculty in 1973, was appointed Acting Dean in 1993 and Dean in 1994, and returned to full time teaching in 2006. Born in Fort Benton, Montana, Jim graduated from Montana State University, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and the University of Chicago Law School. He has been a visiting professor at Auckland University in New Zealand, the University of Oregon, the University of Athens in Greece and Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala. He was also a fellow at the Humane Studies Institute and a Distinguished Bradley Scholar at the Heritage Foundation. Jim serves on the boards of the National Crime Victims Law Institute, the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment, the Classroom Law Project, and the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation. He is a member and former Chair of the Executive Committee of the Environment and Property Rights Practice Group of the Federalist Society. He is a member of the Montana Bar Association and is admitted to practice before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the United States Supreme Court. He is the author of more than 100 articles and chapters on a wide array of legal topics.
Senior Counsel, Troutman Pepper Locke
Harriet Miers is a member of our Litigation and Public Policy sections and a former managing partner of Locke Liddell & Sapp. She returned to the Firm in May 2007 after serving in the administration of President George W. Bush from 2001-2007 as Staff Secretary, Deputy Chief of Staff, and Counsel to the President. Prior to joining the White House, Ms. Miers had a distinguished career in her commercial litigation practice, representing a broad range of clients in varied industries. She is well-known throughout the United States, and offices principally in Dallas with Troutman Pepper Locke firm.
In 1972, after clerking for then Chief Judge of the Northern District of Texas, Joe E. Estes, Ms. Miers was the first woman hired at the Dallas Firm of Locke Purnell Boren Laney & Neely. Ms. Miers became the first woman to lead the Firm, then known as Locke Purnell Rain Harrell, when she was elected Firm President in 1996. In 1999, when Locke Purnell merged with Houston-based Liddell, Sapp, Zivley, Hill & LaBoon, she became Co- Managing Partner, a position she held until she left to join the President George W. Bush Administration.
Throughout her career, Ms. Miers has been committed to public service. She has been an elected official and has served as an appointed official at the state and national levels. Well respected as a leader in the legal community, she has served in many professional and community volunteer positions, and she is a strong advocate of pro bono and access to justice work and the advancement of minorities in the profession. In 1985, Ms. Miers was selected as the first woman to become President of the Dallas Bar Association. In 1989, Ms. Miers was elected to a two-year term as an at-large member of the Dallas City Council. After serving on the Dallas City Council, she ran for President of the State Bar of Texas, and she was elected to serve in 1992 as the first woman President of the State Bar. Appointed by then Governor George W. Bush, Ms. Miers served as Chairwoman of the Texas Lottery Commission. Her latest service role is as Chair of the Texas Access to Justice Commission, appointed by the Supreme Court of Texas.
Over the years, Ms. Miers also served in many leadership roles in the American Bar Association, including Chair of the Board of Editors of the
American Bar Journal and as the Texas State Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates.
She was appointed Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary on January 20, 2001. In 2003, she was named Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff. In that position, her responsibilities included assisting in the coordination of policy formulation within the White House. Appointed Counsel to the President in February 2005, she served as the top lawyer to the President and the White House until she resigned in February 2007.
Among her many recognitions and awards, included are: in 1979, she was honored as the Outstanding Young Lawyer by the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers; in 2005, Ms. Miers received the Sandra Day O'Connor award from the Texas Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism; she received the Robert G. Storey Award for Distinguished Achievement from the SMU Dedman School of Law; she also has received Distinguished Alumni Awards from both SMU and the SMU Dedman School of Law; she an Honorary Doctorate from Pepperdine University School of Law; in 2023, she received the American Lawyer Lifetime Achievement Award. She also has been recognized by her peers with Best Lawyers rankings in Bet-the- Company Litigation, Commercial Litigation, and Government Relations practice.
For her work as Counsel to the President, Ms. Miers received the Department of Justice Edmund J. Randolph Award in January of 2007 for her "dedicated service to justice, the President, and the United States of America." She also received the Agency Seal Medal awarded by the Central Intelligence Agency, an award given by the CIA to people outside the Agency who have made significant contributions to the work of the Agency.
Special Forum: The State of Legal Education
2000 National Lawyers Convention
Washington, DC