Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will give the keynote address at the University of Colorado Law School’s upcoming Gathering of the Bench and Bar Conference, which will take place September 19-21 in Boulder. Ginsburg will deliver the Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law’s second annual Stevens Lecture on Wednesday, September 19 at 5:00 p.m. in the UMC Ballroom at CU-Boulder. The Stevens Lecture is open to the public. Last year, the Stevens Lecture was delivered by Justice John Paul Stevens; next year’s Stevens Lecture will be presented by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
The conference will feature a substantial lineup of distinguished speakers, and enable attendees to earn a large number of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits. The conference will kick off on Wednesday, September 19, in Colorado Law’s Wittemyer Courtroom with opening remarks from Judges Neil M. Gorsuch and Timothy M. Tymkovich of the U.S. Tenth Circuit, Chief Judge Wiley Daniel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, and Chief Justice Michael Bender (’67) of the Colorado Supreme Court.
On Thursday and Friday, the conference will move to Boulder’s St. Julien Hotel, where attendees will participate in a combination of general sessions and breakout sessions. General session topics will include challenges to the legal profession, the rule of law, and declining trust in institutions.
Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, former special advisor for health care to the Office of Management and Budget, and Dr. Robert Kocher, former special assistant to the president on health care, will join a panel considering the impact of the Supreme Court’s health care reform decision. Both Emanuel and Kocher helped draft the Affordable Care Act. The panel will also include the perspective of Paul Clement, former solicitor general of the United States, who argued before the Supreme Court against the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.
In another session, members of the press will provide a rare perspective on judicial affairs. Speakers include Dahlia Lithwick of Slate.com and Newsweek, and Eugene Volokh of The Volokh Conspiracy, who will address questions posed by Denver’s own Rebecca Askew, owner and publisher of Law Week Colorado.
The breakout sessions will cover topics such as: privacy and electronic commerce, e-discovery, generational dynamics, the future of energy law and policy, effective advocacy from both practitioner and judicial perspectives, and a Tenth Circuit review for 2012.
“This conference is part of Colorado Law’s commitment to engaging with the bench and bar, providing our alums and students unique educational opportunities, and bringing national leaders to Colorado,” said Colorado Law Dean Phil Weiser.