Diane Sykes speaking on April 1

The Georgetown Federalist Society is honored to host Seventh Circuit Judge Diane Sykes on April 1 for a presentation on "Gender and Judging: Perspectives from the Bench." A Lent-appropriate free lunch will be provided featuring chicken, steak and fish tacos. Please join us for this important event featuring one of the most highly regarded judges on the federal bench.

Judge Sykes will also be judging the final round of the Beaudry Moot Court Competition on Thursday night in Hart Auditorium.

Date: 4/1/2011
Place: McD 200
Time: 12-1:30pm 

GJLPP to Cosponsor Lifetime Service Award

The Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy will be co-sponsoring the Georgetown Federalist Society's Eighth Annual Lifetime Service Award presentation to Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg on April 26 from 6:30-7:30pm in Gewirz 12. Judge Ginsburg's address will be published in Vol. 10, Issue 1 (Winter 2011) of the journal. GJLPP is among the nation's leading journals focusing on conservative and libertarian legal thought.

Patriot Act Panel March 23

On Wednesday March 23, Georgetown FedSoc is co-hosting a panel discussion with ACS entitled "Extend, Amend, or Repeal? The Patriot Act at Ten." The panel will be moderated by Georgetown Law's Laura Donohue and will feature Professor Steve Vladeck from American Law, Michelle Richardson from the ACLU, Richard Samp from the Washington Legal Foundation, and Professor Nathan Sales from George Mason Law.

DATE: 3/23/11
TIME: 6-7:30pm (reception to follow)
PLACE: Gewirz 12

International Trade Panel March 24

Please join us on March 24 from 12-2 for a star-studded international trade panel featuring Claude Barfield from AEI, Tim Reif from USTR, and Professor John McGinnis from Northwestern Law. The panel will be moderated by Neena Shenai, trade counsel for the House Ways and Means Committee and former AEI research fellow. As always, free lunch will be provided. Special thanks to the Templeton Foundation for the very generous grant that made this event possible. Note: this event is no longer scheduled be to recorded.

DATE: Thursday March 24
TIME: 12-2
PLACE: McD 200

Congressional Clerkship Initiative

On April 5, Georgetown Law is hosting a conference to discuss the merits of creating a Congressional Clerkship program to provide clerkships similar to those offered by the other two branches of government. Details on the initiative and the conference are here. There is also a law student petition that will be delivered to members of Congress attending the conference. You can sign that petition and indicate your support for the initiative here.

New Book by Lester Brickman

Professor Lester Brickman of Cardozo School of Law and the Manhattan Institute has an interesting new book out on the enormous costs imposed by our tort system. This book is a broad and deep inquiry into how contingency fees distort our civil justice system, influence our political system, and endanger democratic governance. Contingency fees are the way personal injury lawyers finance access to the courts for those wrongfully injured. Although the public senses that lawyers manipulate the justice system to serve their own ends, few are aware of the high costs that come with contingency fees. This book sets out to change that, providing a window into the seamy underworld of contingency fees that the bar and the courts not only tolerate but even protect and nurture. Contrary to a broad academic consensus, the book argues that the financial incentives for lawyers to litigate are so inordinately high that they perversely impact our civil justice system and impose other unconscionable costs. It thus presents the intellectual architecture that underpins all tort reform efforts.

Daniel Fisher at Forbes has a good review of the book here. Buy the book on amazon here.  

Cato Book Forum on Legal Academia

The Cato Institute is hosting a book forum this Thursday at 4pm on Walter Olson's "Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America." The panel will feature Mr. Olson, Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg, and Cato's Vice President for Legal Affairs Roger Pilon. Judge Ginsburg will be speaking at Georgetown Law on April 5 to accept our annual Lifetime Service Award. Mr. Pilon spoke at Georgetown Law in January.

Professor Barnett had this to say about the book: "While the public loves to bash lawyers, judges, and politicians, law professors have escaped all blame. Olson provides the inside story of how progressive political ideology became the reigning orthodoxy of elite legal education, providing the legal theories responsible for an overweening government committed to mandating, prohibiting, or regulating every aspect of American life in the "public interest." I wish I could say he exaggerates but, sadly, the legal foundation of the road to serfdom was devised by law professors."

Read more about the book here.

Full details on the book forum and registration info here.