The LGBT Bar’s Lavender Law® Conference and Career Fair features concurrent workshops, general attendance sessions and specialty programming designed for family law practitioners, transgender advocates, corporate counsel and those interested in pursuing a career as a member of the judiciary.
Schedule is subject to change.
- Wednesday, August 7
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Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Time Event Speakers Location 7:30 am - 5:30 pm Sponsor and Attendee Check-In Grand Ballroom Foyer, Level 5 7:45 am - 9:00 am Community Building Workshops TBA 12 Step/Recovery Meeting TBA Room 401 LGBT Bar Affiliates' Problem Solving Work Session: Programs, Events, and Fundraising This workshop will discuss programming, law student engagement, event planning and execution, and fundraising techniques and strategies for affiliates of the LGBT Bar. ***Not for CLE credit.Gavin Alexander (Ropes & Gray LLP)
Jessica Hernandez (MayesTelles PLLC)
Judi O’Kelley (National LGBT Bar Association)Franklin 9 9:00 am - 10:30 am General Attendance Session One TBA Election 2020 Six years ago, the Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act and eliminated Department of Justice preclearance of voting law changes in states with a history of discrimination. Now, in the leadup to the 2020 elections, this expert panel will examine the current state of voting rights in America. Our panel will assess ongoing examples of gerrymandering and voter suppression, with lawyers on the front lines of voter protection sharing briefings and insights on legal challenges such as Fish v. Kobach, Fair Fight Action v. Georgia State Election Board, and North Carolina v. Dowless, as well as the federal legislative response to Shelby County and recent cases in state and federal courts, from Kansas and Ohio to Georgia and North Carolina. We will address the critical role of lawyers in educating voters and helping to protect voters' ability to register, cast a ballot, and have their votes counted on election day. The panel will also address issues surrounding the 2020 Census, the citizenship question, and the impact of the Census on the future of American democracy.Brian Castro (House Financial Services Committee)
Leigh Chapman (The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights)
Mark Gaber (Campaign Legal Center)
Sean Young (ACLU of Georgia)Salon G, H, I, J, K, L 10:30 am - 12:15 pm VIP Sponsor & Corporate Counsel Brunch By invitation only.Salon E Beyond a Perfect Score Companies have been scored on their diversity programs for years. In 2018, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) gave 100% ratings to over 600 businesses, many of them Fortune 500 companies and top law firms. So why do 33% of LGBTQ+ graduates return to the closet with their first manager and 23% with their first work colleagues? Even those who are out at work, only 26% say they at "open to all" of their colleagues. Employees at employers with LGBT employee groups had twice as many employees open to someone at work. But we can do better; even at employers with LGBT employee groups only two-thirds of employees felt "very welcomed" by the group. The session will focus on insights on how employers can leverage their LGBTQ community to improve diversity and inclusion to recruit and retain top talent. It will discuss going beyond a 100% HRC Score to employ strategies that support employees so that their whole selves show up at work.Joann Mazur Kielblock (Prudential)
Joseph Vardner (Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.)
Travis Torrence (Shell Oil Company)
Michelle Peak (LSG Sky Chefs)Salon E 10:45 am - 12:15 pm Concurrent Session A TBA A Comparative Discussion on the Intersectionality of American, Civil and Islamic Jurisprudences and its Impact on Everyday Life (Sponsored by VERMEG) Intersectionality of different cultures and religious groups can help us to better understand and challenge inequality in today’s society, including in the workplace and at home. This presentation will be an open discussion on life, work, family and social interaction within the Islamic, Christian, Judeo and Secular World, led by anti-discrimination advocates in the legal, corporate and academic fields. The panel will share examples of how American, Civil and Islamic law has impacted each speaker’s respective personal and professional life, as well as discuss suitable strategies of how the law can reduce inequality in society to benefit the most vulnerable. The panel will also discuss the role of these religious histories and their impact on societal norms and discrimination.Jaleelah Abdulai (Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law)
Imam Daayiee Abdullah (MECCA Institute)
Adeel Mangi (Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP)
Badreddine Ouali (Vermeg SARL)
Alfred Zaher (Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads LLP)Franklin 12 Administrative Law: The Lawyer's Tool for Government Action Administrative law is a helpful tool for clients and advocates to move national policy. You might wonder, "how can administrative law help?" But the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the law around how the government creates regulations, is a useful tool for achieving policy and client goals through the regulatory process. The last year has shown that these tools are only becoming more important in advancing good policy and fighting off bad policy. If a client or colleague asks in outrage, "Can the federal government do that?", the answer is often found in administrative law. Our workshop aims to give attendees an inside look on how rulemaking gets done and the tools to defend against improper or unjust government actions. We will use examples drawn from three key policy areas (housing, health care and energy/natural resources) and from work on behalf of LGBT organizations to show how a deep knowledge of administrative law can make the difference between winning and losing. The workshop will begin with a brief overview of the nuts-and-bolts of rulemaking and a discussion of administrative law tools that are at the lawyer's disposal. The workshop will move to case studies in which attendees will be asked to use those tools to find creative ways to win their case or achieve their client's goal. The workshop will focus on federal administrative law, but will also touch on ways to use similar weapons in changing state and local policy.Andrew Furlow (Hogan Lovells (US) LLP)
Barbara Jones (AARP Foundation)
Zachary Launer (Hogan Lovells (US) LLP)
Samuel Pearson-Moore (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)
Judge Kristin Rosi (California Department of Insurance)Franklin 10 After Pena-Rodriguez: Recent Cases on Anti-LGBT Jury Bias This panel will provide an overview of recent cases regarding anti-LGBT juror bias. From concerns about the limits placed on voir dire to the discovery of jury bias after a verdict or sentence has been entered, a number of recent cases have addressed bias against LGBT litigants. Panelists will focus on the case of Charles Rhines, a gay man currently on death row in South Dakota. Significant evidence in his case indicates the sentencing jury chose the death penalty over life without parole because of Mr. Rhines's sexual orientation. This case has been at the U.S. Supreme Court twice in the last two years on a petition for writ of certiorari. The panelists will discuss the application of Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado to this case. This panel will also address the limits that courts can place on questioning potential jurors regarding anti-LGBT bias, focusing on a case currently on appeal in Michigan, People v. Six and the Eleventh Circuit's decision in Berthiaume v. Smith et al. The panel will touch on other issues surrounding LGBT-related jury bias, including how to address both express and implicit bias during jury selection and challenging the discriminatory use of peremptory strikes.Randy Katz (U.S. Department of Justice)
Judi O’Kelley (National LGBT Bar Association)
Ethan Rice (Lambda Legal)
Ria Tabacco Mar (American Civil Liberties Union)Franklin 6 Basic Vocabulary, Resources, and Information about and for Non-Binary, Intersex, and Gender Non-Conforming Lawyers Improving inclusion around gender in our law schools, firms, or other organizations means knowing best practices for supporting individuals who are transgender, are gender non-conforming, or identify as a gender other than female or male. Participants in this interactive workshop will develop and refresh their knowledge of gender inclusion issues. They will leave with a toolbox of concrete ideas and resources to help make their school, firm, or organization safer and more welcoming, and a greater ability to lead their office in identifying and addressing these issues.Celeste Fiore (Argentino Family Law & Child Advocacy, LLC)
Remy Green (Cohen & Green)
Andy Izenson (Diana Adams Law & Mediation, PLLC)Franklin 9 Breaking ID Barriers: Progress in ID Policy Work and Litigation Identity document policies have continued to improve over the last year, making it possible for transgender and nonbinary people to obtain accurate gender markers in their identification documents. New laws have been enacted and courtroom victories have been achieved, making it possible for people to obtain identity documents consistent with who they are. Some states now have gender neutral options on IDs, and medical requirements are slowly being eliminated. Come hear from lawyers and advocates about the new gold standards for ID policies. These advocates will discuss the administrative/regulatory progress in ID policy as well as the latest courtroom strategies for tearing down the gender identification policies of the past. Participants will join in a discussion on our collective work to make accurate IDs accessible for all people.Arli Christian (National Center for Transgender Equality)
AC Dumlao (Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, Inc.)
Dru Levasseur (National LGBT Bar Association)
Emily Walpole (LGBT Bar Law Student Congress Chair)Franklin 11 Future Directions for LGBTQ Law Reform This panel is centered around themes raised in Professor Libby Adler's thought-provoking recent book, Gay Priori (Duke University Press 2018), bringing together academics and practitioners to engage in a conversation about future directions of LGBTQ law reform. In her book, Adler explores the tension between focusing advocacy on a limited set of legal issues, affecting core constituencies of the movement, and broadening the scope of legal reform while encompassing marginalized communities. She offers a critique of mainstream LGBTQ legal agendas and suggests a redistributive approach to expand the law reform agenda. The panel will engage with Adler's critique and suggestions and explore avenues of legal reform. Moderated by Claudia Haupt.Libby Adler (Northeastern University)
Aziza Ahmed (Northeastern University School of Law)
Mary Anne Case (University of Chicago Law School)
Prof. Lee Carpenter (Rutgers Law School) (Moderator)
Claudia Haupt (Northeastern University School of Law)
Chase Strangio (American Civil Liberties Union - LGBT & HIV Project)Franklin 8 LGBTQ Sex Workers and the Criminal Law This workshop will discuss laws that criminalize sex work and their impact on LGBTQ people, with a focus on transgender women, LGBTQ people of color, and LGBTQ homeless youth. LGBTQ communities are disproportionately impacted by the criminalization of sex work. Criminalization takes many forms, including street-based policing, law enforcement crackdowns on online platforms, and targeting sex work as part of federal anti-trafficking efforts. Since Congress passed SESTA-FOSTA in 2018, online platforms have been shut down, leading many sex workers to return to street-based work and increasing vulnerability to arrest, violence, and exploitation. Moreover, criminalization affects the health of sex workers. Research demonstrates that decriminalization of sex work would have the greatest impact for averting HIV infections among sex workers. The workshop will include an update on and policy recommendations from a research project conducted by Georgetown Law's O'Neill Institute, Whitman-Walker Health, and HIPS, which explores the impact of laws and policies on sex workers in Washington, DC and their access to health care and social services. The panel will discuss advocacy efforts around sex work decriminalization. We will discuss the activities of the Sex Worker Advocates Coalition (SWAC) in DC and Decrim NY in New York State. SWAC pushed for the introduction of a ground-breaking bill in 2017 that would decriminalize consensual sexual commercial transactions between adults in DC, and SWAC continues to advocate for this legislation. Decrim NY is working with New York State legislators to introduce a bill to rewrite the state's penal code to decriminalize sex work.Sean Bland (O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law)
Benjamin Brooks (Whitman-Walker Health)
Richard Saenz (Lambda Legal)
Tristan Sullivan-Wilson (HIPS)Room 412 No License to Discriminate As courts continue to broaden their interpretation of sex discrimination to include protections for LGBTQ people in key aspects of daily life and states and cities expand civil rights protections to explicitly include LGBTQ people, we are seeing a direct attack on LGBTQ rights in the name of freedom of religion. While freedom of religion protects the right to both believe in and act on religious beliefs, that freedom is not a license to discriminate against or otherwise harm others. Not only is the Trump Administration attempting to make it easier for people to discriminate based on their personal beliefs, the Supreme Court’s narrow, case-specific holding in Masterpiece Cakeshop left several critical questions open around whether for-profit businesses have the constitutional right to refuse service to LGBTQ customers based on the religious beliefs of the business’ owners. This panel will cover how federal courts have ruled more and more that the prohibitions against sex discrimination include protections for LGBTQ individuals, as well as the future of this given that the Supreme Court has taken up these questions and will either confirm or upend years of precedent. We will also discuss potential Congressional action on this issue and the battles being waged in the name of religion to roll back said protections. The panel will also discuss how a progressive reading of corporate law principles, and in particular corporate separateness, may provide courts with an alternative route for resolving the constitutional questions presented in cases where businesses claim exemptions from antidiscrimination laws.Sunu Chandy (National Women’s Law Center)
Diana Flynn (Lambda Legal)
Kent Greenfield (Boston College Law School)
Sharita Gruberg (Center for American Progress)
Daniel Rubens (Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP)Franklin 7 Redefining Intimate Partner Violence & Sexual Violence for Trans, Queer & HIV-Affected Communities This workshop explores how intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual violence (SV) are exacerbated by anti-LGBTQ discrimination. We look at unique risk factors for queer and trans people, and how resources that traditionally support IPV and SV survivors, like protective orders, emergency housing, and law enforcement, operate as barriers due to systemic discrimination and bias. We examine how decriminalization of HIV, syringe use, and sex work are related strategies that also lower the risk of intimate partner violence and sexual violence for transgender people, who often sit at the intersection of criminalized identities and are more vulnerable to violence as a result. We look at how criminal defense issues overlap with LGBTQ intimate partner violence and sexual violence. We will also present the view from the bench. We consider strategies to address IPV and SV, including prevention, resource barrier reduction, response by service providers, research and policy agendas.Hon. Christopher R. Bowen (Superior Court of California, County of Contra Costa)
Mieko Failey (LGBTQ Center Long Beach)
Amily McCool (Scharff Law)
Hema Sarang-Sieminski (Victim Rights Law Center)
Ames Simmons (EqualityNC)Room 411 What Do You Mean My HIV Prevents Me From Serving My Country? People living with HIV are currently not permitted to enlist, deploy overseas or commission as officers in the U.S. Armed Services. These discriminatory policies are rooted in a lack of understanding and acceptance of current science about HIV, its transformation into a chronic manageable condition and the latest prevention tools, including treatment as prevention (Undetectable=Untransmittable/U=U). In May 2018, Lambda Legal, OutServe-SLDN and Winston & Strawn filed the first of three lawsuits aiming to transform the military's approach to the service of people living with HIV. This past February, a federal court in Virginia enjoined the Air Force from separating Service Members based on their HIV status with a 55-page opinion finding a likelihood of success on all of the plaintiffs' claims. At the same time, efforts are underway to put pressure for change on the Department of Defense through Congress. Come hear about the strategy of this impact litigation campaign and policy push and get the latest hot-off-the-presses news about the efforts to move the military's HIV-related policies into the 21st century.Peter Perkowski (Perkowski Legal PC)
Matthew Rose (Health GAP)
Scott Schoettes (Lambda Legal)Franklin 5 12:30 pm - 1:45 pm Awards Luncheon: Dan Bradley Award and Leading Practitioner Awards Salon G, H, I, J, K, L 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm Concurrent Session B TBA A Comprehensive Look at Transgender Equality in the Workplace The workshop will start with an analysis of the current state of Title VII as it relates to transgender employees in the workplace, including an insightful discussion of the Department of Justice's current position on, and the EEOC's current application of, Title VII regarding transgender employees. Our speakers will review the case of R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, Inc. v. EEOC and the pending petition for a writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, including the Department of Justice's brief in opposition to the petition as well as the amicus briefs filed by Attorney Generals/Governors of 16 states. We will conclude our analysis of the law with a brief look at state employment nondiscrimination laws. Following this legal analysis, we will provide a defense practitioner's perspective as to what employers can do to make the workplace more inclusive and in compliance with current federal laws, including policies and practices that employers can institute and/or update. Our plaintiff-side speakers will then discuss how to present a compelling Title VII case on behalf of a transgender employee, which defense attorney Rizzo will counter using defensive strategies that plaintiff's attorneys should to be aware of when prosecuting their cases.Sharon McGowan (Lambda Legal)
Jill Rose Quinn (Jill Rose Quinn Attorney and Counselor at Law)
Vincent Rizzo (Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP)Franklin 9 Advocating for LGBTQ+ Issues in Law Schools Law schools play a tremendous role in setting the tone for how the legal profession approaches diversity and inclusion, including LGBTQ+ issues. Schools have their own internal need to invest in and support students from diverse backgrounds and perspectives throughout their law school tenure; they also provide critically important connections and support for students in the job placement and career planning process. The way in which a law school climate lifts up its LGBTQ+ community members not only ensures that LGBTQ+ students can thrive, it also sets a norm for every future lawyer -- and future legal employer -- being trained in that environment. This panel of law professors and legal industry professionals will address a number of areas where law schools can work on their internal LGBTQ+ climate, and will launch a conversation (to be continued at the law school caucus meeting immediately following) about advocacy on those issues within the law school environment.Prof. Lee Carpenter (Rutgers Law School) (Moderator)
Melissa Lennon (Temple University Beasley School of Law)
Larry Levine (University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law)
Judi O’Kelley (National LGBT Bar Association)
Kellye Testy (Law School Admission Council, Inc.)Room 402 An Exploration of anti-LGBTQ Biases in the Criminal Justice System This workshop will explore biases in the criminal justice system associated with same gender and/or same sex criminal offenders and victims of crimes. The panel will examine and discuss the difficulty in prosecuting domestic violence cases in the LGBTQ+ community. The panel discussion will begin with a case study that will detail the investigation and trial of a lesbian who killed the woman she claimed to love. The victim was packing her belongings to leave the defendant on the day she was murdered, but like many victims of domestic violence, she never made it out the door. Unlike in cases involving other domestic violence victims, the killer was not held fully responsible for her murder. The panel will also explore the different difficulties and unique challenges that same-sex/LGBTQ+ victims face when navigating the criminal justice system including past experiences with police/law enforcement, not being believed due to LGBT+ identity, lack of LGBT+ specific resources, and other roadblocks that LGBT+ people face when participating in the criminal justice system. The panel will also discuss ways practitioners can better serve LGBT+ people including victims, witnesses, and defendants.Krista Peterson (Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office)
Gavin Quinn (Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office)
Elizabeth (Biz) Reilly (Cook County State's Attorney's Office)
Bianca Scherr (Manhattan District Attorney's Office)Franklin 6 Innovative Approaches to Deepen and Enhance Law Firm/In-House Relationships (Sponsored by Shell Oil Company) The practice of law remains a challenging environment for both law firms and in-house counsel teams, with ever-increasing efficiency and productivity goals running up against consistently high expectations for excellent legal services. To succeed in this environment, stakeholders must harness a range of innovative approaches to deepen and enhance the nature and characteristics of law firm/in-house relationships. Both law firm practitioners and in-house lawyers will benefit from this panel discussion of effective and cutting-edge uses of secondments, partnerships on social responsibility and social impact causes, mentorship collaborations, and other approaches to deepening the inside/outside counsel relationship.Iveliz Crespo (City of Philadelphia Law Department)
Virginia Essandoh (Ballard Spahr LLP)
Joseph Schuster (Goldman Sachs)
Ronald Vaske (Ballard Spahr LLP)
Jacob Westlund (Ballard Spahr LLP)Franklin 8 Intersex & Nonbinary Considerations in Law & Policy The legal landscape of intersex and nonbinary rights is quickly shifting. Currently, the Zzyym v. Pompeo case sits in the 10th circuit challenging the State Department to obtain an “X” marker on a passport, there are bills in front of state legislatures in at least five new states to add gender neutral options to state IDs, and California just introduced a bill to prohibit unnecessary surgery on intersex infants. Join a conversation with panelists from four leading organizations addressing in-depth questions of strategy, ethics, and expanding legal protections for people whose sex or gender is not strictly male or female. We will talk about how the nonbinary movement elevates the level of discourse regarding discrimination on the basis of sex, the explicit or expanded laws and policies needed to protect intersex and nonbinary people, how to mobilize collaborative working groups to respect local leadership while providing for national consistency, strategies to ease judges and the public into understanding that both sex and gender can be nonbinary, and so much more.Toby Adams (Intersex & Genderqueer Recognition Project)
Charlie Arrowood (Transcend Legal)
Arli Christian (National Center for Transgender Equality)
David B. Cruz (University of Southern California Gould School of Law)
Alesdair Ittelson (interACT Advocates for Intersex Youth)Room 403 LGBTQ Youth Homelessness: Strategies for Reducing over-Representation and Addressing Systemic and Day-to-Day Legal Challenges (Sponsored by Hanson Bridgett LLP) LGBTQ youth make up forty percent of youth experiencing homelessness. This staggering disparity is fueled by a complicated mix of factors, including societal stigma and bias, family rejection, poverty, racism, and non-affirming child welfare systems, among others, and disproportionately impacts youth from low income families and youth of color. Once youth are pushed out of home, they face numerous legal challenges. Accessing health care, discrimination by service providers, and criminalization are a few on the long list. This panel will address the following questions: What are the laws that protect LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness? How can the direct service providers, nonprofits and private law firms partner together to protect youth and stem the pipelines into homelessness? Participants will learn about existing research and data, review available resources, discuss promising collaborations, and brainstorm ways to do more to assist some of the most vulnerable members of our community through direct service, impact litigation, and legislative/regulatory policy.Currey Cook (Lambda Legal)
Daniele Gerard (Children’s Rights)
Gregory Lewis (True Colors United, Inc.)
Corey Duersch (Walt Disney World Resorts)Franklin 5 Moving the Legislative Ball on HIV Criminalization Reform at the State Level A growing national consensus exists that criminal laws based on a person's HIV status run contrary to public health efforts to increase HIV testing and prevent new transmissions. As the case against the HIV criminalization laws has been built, advocates have begun engaging in reform efforts at the state level. This discussion will explore the work taking place at the state level on this subject, with a particular focus on the recent changes to California, North Carolina and Michigan, as well as current efforts to pass reform bills in Indiana and Florida. Participants will explore the scientific and public health arguments against these laws, the role social science research is playing in these legislative efforts, the strategic choices made while lobbying a reform bill, and the importance of the meaningful involvement of people living with HIV and other stakeholders, such as sex workers, in the reform process. The session will also discuss the implications of treatment as prevention (Undetectable=Untransmittable/U=U) and the problem of reinforcing the "viral divide" if reform is not accomplished in a way that addresses the root problem of punishing health status, rather than the inability to obtain or fully benefit from treatment.Ronda Goldfein (AIDS Law of Pennsylvania)
Anthony Pinggera (Lambda Legal)
Scott Schoettes (Lambda Legal)Franklin 10 Old New World: What is on the Horizon for LGBT Elders (and Your Future) (Sponsored by Horvitz & Levy LLP) You’re a lawyer who works with LGBT older people, and you are wondering what the legal and policy horizons look like for them. In this session, we will discuss the current rights LGBT older people have in housing (including long term care settings), health care, and federal safety net programs (like Social Security, SSI, Medicare and Medicaid). We will also address challenges LGBT older people face in accessing aging services and supports, and opportunities for overcoming those challenges through advocacy and policy change. What could the Equality Act mean for them? What is the Older Americans Act and how could that be updated to help them? We will review our victories over the past year, how the current Administration is still attempting to roll back hard-won rights, and what you and your clients can do to fight back. We will then open the floor and tackle audience questions about the intersection of LGBT-specific rights and aging.Sydney Kopp-Richardson (SAGE USA)
Karen Loewy (Lambda Legal)
Richard Milstein (Akerman LLP)
Randall (Randy) Shorr (Randall B. Shorr, Attorney at Law)
Aaron Tax (SAGE USA)Room 411 Protecting LGBTQ Lives By Restoring the Rule of Law to the US Immigration System Despite record low levels of unauthorized border crossings, immigration enforcement spending is at historic highs. Alongside the exponential growth in apprehension, detentions, and deportations, there has been a decline in basic protections for the health and safety of immigrants in federal custody, alarming rates of sexual abuse and death in detention, a massive immigration court backlog, and other questionable as well as illegal practices that make a mockery of the due process rights of immigrants and the US's treaty obligations. Hear from attorneys representing LGBTQ immigrants about the ways our immigration system's departure from the rule of law directly threatens LGBTQ lives and concrete solutions.Anna Cabbot (Center for Gender and Refugee Studies)
Aneesha Gandhi (National Immigrant Justice Center)
Sharita Gruberg (Center for American Progress)
Rachel Kafele (Oasis Legal Services)
Aaron Morris (Immigration Equality)Franklin 7 Proven Tactics for Retaining Diverse Law Firm Talent Diversity and inclusion are topics of critical importance to virtually every firm, company, agency and organization in the legal profession. Yet despite the immense effort and attention paid to the concept of D&I, the legal profession continues to see under-representation of LGBTQ people, women, and people of color in nearly every sector, particularly at the partner/senior levels in firms. This panel of experts will discuss proven tactics for retaining talented diverse attorneys in firms and "interrupting bias," including through reimagination of origination credit, and how GCs can leverage their power to encourage firms to provide meaningful advancement opportunities to diverse junior attorneys that will lead to better outcomes in promotion and retention opportunity.Nirvana Dove (Thompson Hine)
John Koss (Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.)
Angela Lim (Grasshopper Ventures)
Christopher Primiano (Karyopharm)Franklin 11 The Right to Parent: Advanced LGBT+ Family-Building & Assisted Reproductive Technology This workshop at Lavender Law will explore a variety of LGBTQ+ issues in family law and the ways that recent legal and technological developments have impacted, and will impact, the rights of LGBTQ+ parents and families. First, we will address family building and the right to reproduce. We will explore socio-economic, racial, ethnic, and political issues of parentage, surrogacy, assisted reproductive technology (ART), inequality and marriage equality, and the barriers or hurdles LGBT+ families face. This will include both a domestic and global perspective on the portability and legitimacy of parental status, and a consideration of technological and biological issues such as the role of conception as a result of sex in an LGBT context. Then, we will discuss the future of ART insurance coverage of infertility services and discriminatory definitions of infertility under the Affordable Care Act, such as exclusions of lesbian couples. Additionally, we will tackle growing trends in reproductive technology and their ethical and legal issues, as well as efforts to protect the religious and conscious freedom of health workers on religious and moral objections. By considering several facets of reproductive and parental rights in an LGBT context, this workshop will assess how different legal developments have impacted, and may impact, individual reproductive rights including genetic and bio donor rights, parental rights, and LGBTQ+ parents' rights to reproductive technology.Diana Adams (Chosen Family Law Center, Inc.)
Celeste Fiore (Argentino Family Law & Child Advocacy, LLC)
Amira Hasenbush (Law Office of Amira Hasenbush)
Angie Martell (Iglesia Martell Law Firm, PLLC)Franklin 12 Trade in the Time of Trump President Trump has made "America first" a central theme of his presidency. In practice, this has meant adopting policies which are intended to promote success for the United States without consideration of any resulting effects on other countries or non-U.S. persons. These policies have resulted in a greater focus on America’s borders. One of the best examples of this inward-looking focus is found in President Trump's approach to international trade which, in just a few years, has fundamentally reshaped U.S. trade policy. Major news sources, such as the New York Times and Washington Post, now include a discussion of trade-related issues on a daily basis. Come learn from experts in the international trade field with government and private sector experience about the trade issues you hear about every day. The workshop will provide an overview of some of the most important trade issues and trends. Specifically, we will discuss President Trump’s rejection of global trade in favor of protecting U.S. manufacturers, his rejection of existing trade agreements and insistence on negotiating with trading partners one-on-one rather than through established multilateral channels, and his rejection of the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) Appellate Body which could result in the end of WTO dispute resolution in a matter of months. The workshop is intended for audiences with all levels of knowledge of international trade law and will include foundational introductions to each issue. Even if you have no current knowledge of international trade law, come learn about these hot topics in what is sure to be a lively and interesting discussion.Justin Becker (Sidley Austin LLP)
Stacy Ettinger (K&L Gates LLP)
William Isasi (Covington & Burling LLP)
Arun Venkataraman (Visa)Room 412 3:45 pm - 5:15 pm Concurrent Session C TBA "But I am on the Birth Certificate!": Understanding the Interplay of Birth Records, Marital Presumption of Parentage, Adoption Proceedings and Contested Parentage Cases in a Post-Pavan Era In Pavan v. Smith, the United States Supreme Court held that a state rule that requires a child's birth certificate to list the non-biological father if he is married to the biological mother but that does not allow both same-sex spouses to be listed as parents is unconstitutional discrimination that violates Obergefell v. Hodges. Now, children born to same-sex married female couples across the country are receiving birth certificates with both woman's names on them; yet, we are continuing to see standing challenges in custody cases where a non-biological intended parent's name appears on the original birth record. The panel will explore how the marital presumption of parentage is being applied to same-sex couples, what significance birth certificates are given in legal proceedings, and how courts are handling adoption petitions where both names are already on the child's birth record.Nathan T. Arrowsmith (Osborn Maledon, P.A.)
Alana Chazan (Chazan Family Law, P.C.)
Rebecca Levin (Jerner & Palmer, P.C.)
Shannon Minter (National Center for Lesbian Rights)Franklin 11 A Lifetime of Power: How the Trump Administration is Overhauling the Judiciary with Anti-LGBT Judges The courts have played a key role in advancing LGBT equality and will decide central issues about nondiscrimination, family recognition, and gender identity in the years to come. At the same time, the Trump Administration has pushed through more judicial nominees in the past 2 years than any other president. A staggering number of these nominees have a demonstrated record of being anti-LGBT. These nominees, if confirmed, will be given a lifetime appointment to the federal bench, ensuring that the anti-LGBT bias of the Trump Administration lasts long past their time in the White House. This panel will discuss the state of play surrounding judicial nominations, the records of these hostile nominees and how you can help your Senators offer proper advise and consent to the President about judicial nominees and engage in the fight to help to maintain a fair and independent judiciary.Dan Goldberg (Alliance For Justice)
Eric Lesh (LGBT Bar Association of New York)
Sharon McGowan (Lambda Legal)
Kylee Reynolds (Lambda Legal)Franklin 7 An Intersectional and Inclusive Approach to Workplace Trainings and Policies (Sponsored by Target Corporation) In the era of #MeToo and increased focus on diversity in law firms, firms and corporate clients must include the intersectionality of LGBTQI identities within their current framework of sexual or gender-based harassment, discrimination, and benefits. LGBTQI individuals are frequently the targets of sexual harassment or discrimination on the basis of their sexuality or gender presentation or identity, but LGBTQI individuals can also engage in sexual harassment or discrimination unintentionally or in a misguided attempt at humor and collegiality in the workplace. The culture of objectification can be a weapon used against and within the LGBTI community. This permutation of queer culture is often ignored or overlooked in trainings, sensitivity awareness, and protections which were originally created to protect women from mistreatment by men. LGBTQI individuals are routinely excluded from insurance policies for fertility, cryopreservation, and gender confirmation procedures, including post-transition fertility needs. Thankfully, our fight as a community has moved from access to the generally available benefits for domestic partners and now legal spouses, but workplaces must now adjust their policies to adequately include our needs rather than just permit us to access what has always been available. In order to adequately attract and retain LGBTQI lawyers from junior associate positions all the way through partnership or in house counsel roles, firms must address the shortcomings in their policies, procedures, and trainings as it specifically impacts LGBTQI individual’s happiness and safety in the workplace.Mike Jackson (Target)
Dru Levasseur (National LGBT Bar Association)
Jenn Protas (Hoge Fenton Jones & Appel)
Rebekah Scherr (Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP)Franklin 12 Bi Caucus BiLaw is an informal group of bisexual-identified and bi-allied attorneys, academics, and law students. The BiLaw Caucus is an opportunity to network with other bi-identified lawyers and discuss areas of the law relevant to bisexual people. All bi-identified and bi-allied attorneys, academics, and law students are encouraged to attend. Following a brief meet-and-greet, the organizers will provide a structured discussion based on attendees' priorities. ***Not for CLE credit.Heron Greenesmith (Movement Advancement Project) Room 412 Intersectional Lesbian Lawyers and Their Superpowers - Crushing it in the Private Sector It's no secret that Big Law is interested in the candidates who go to the top 10-20 schools and out of those, only the ones who graduate in the top 15% of those classes. Given that, there are other highly coveted positions where others practice law in the private sector. There are lawyers in large Fortune 500 companies, those who are in venture-backed high tech companies which go public, those whose backgrounds do not necessarily include the top 10 law schools but are highly qualified, talented and skilled attorneys who are thriving and are successful in the private sector. How did they do it? How did their sexual orientation/racial background (intersectionality) play a part of it? You are invited to an open discussion on how these women beat the odds and crushed the obstacles in their way to get to where they are now.Christine Capuyan (Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati)
Janice Jabido (UTC Pratt & Whitney Division)
Angela Lim (Grasshopper Ventures)
Bendita Malakia (Hogan Lovells (US) LLP)
Connie Montoya (Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP)
Michelle Peak (LSG Sky Chefs)Franklin 5 Law Professor & Law Student Caucus Not for CLE credit. Moderated by Lee Carpenter.Prof. Lee Carpenter (Rutgers Law School) (Moderator) Room 402 Legal Services Caucus This interactive caucus provides attorneys an opportunity to network with other legal services advocates and discuss emerging issues that impact low-income LGBT clients. We will discuss challenges to outreach, successful community partnerships, best intake practices, special needs of the transgender community, increasing cultural competency, and strategies for navigating within the changing socio-political climate. All advocates that provide services to low-income clients are invited to participate.Tyrone Hanley (National Center for Lesbian Rights)
Kerene Moore (Legal Services of South Central Michigan)
Shin-Ming Wong (National Center for Lesbian Rights)Room 411 Open and Authentic Service: Update and Strategies re Transgender Service Members This workshop will focus on the legal developments related to open military service by transgender people. In the last year, we have seen a stay of preliminary injunctions at the U.S. Supreme Court, the introduction of federal legislation to protect open service, and a Congressional hearing on open service. This workshop will focus on the lived experience of active duty transgender service members, the ongoing federal litigation to protect their rights and the rights of transgender people wishing to make a career in the military, and the ongoing policy efforts advancing the same goals.Captain Shane Bagwell (United States Army)
Sasha Buchert (Lambda Legal)
Jordan Heinz (Kirkland & Ellis LLP)
Peter Perkowski (Perkowski Legal PC)
Chalia Stallings-Ala'ilima (Civil Rights Division of the Washington State Attorney General's Office)Franklin 6 PrEP, TelePrEP, and Long-Acting PrEP: Legal and Policy Issues in the Current and Future HIV Landscape The safety and efficacy of PrEP for HIV prevention are well established. Even as PrEP access increases, there are legal and policy challenges. Although the FDA recently approved Truvada as PrEP for adolescents, state consent and confidentiality laws nonetheless block adolescents from accessing PrEP without parental consent. This is a concern for minors and legal adults who are covered by a parent's health insurance, but want to maintain their own confidentiality. Health insurers have also imposed barriers to PrEP coverage and have rejected claims for multi-site STI testing and other services required for PrEP care. Insurers have even denied life, long-term care, and other insurance to PrEP users, prompting litigation and allegations of discrimination. Efforts to make PrEP more convenient and accessible are underway, but raise legal issues. For instance, initiatives spurred by the enduring lack of public information and knowledge about PrEP have sought to ensure that patients receive accurate and timely information about PrEp, but they may be in tension with a recent Supreme Court case on the First Amendment rights of healthcare providers. In addition, there are promising new telehealth models for PrEP, but coverage varies. Almost all states reimburse for telehealth under Medicaid and most require private insurers to cover telehealth, but state laws vary widely and only some laws permit reimbursement for telehealth services originating from a patient's home. Long-acting PrEP, which would not require daily dosing, is in development and will be subject to complex policy decisions from FDA review to different laws for pharmaceutical coverage in public and private insurance.Sean Bland (O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law)
Daniel Bruner (Whitman-Walker Health)
Bennett Klein (GLAD)Room 403 Prosecutor Caucus Not for CLE credit.Matthew Jannusch (Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office)
Randy Katz (U.S. Department of Justice)
Rear Adm. Carol Lynch (United States Navy)
Michael Pattarozzi (Cook County State's Attorney Office)Franklin 10 Saving LGBTQ Asylum in the Age of Divided Politics: The Case for Lawyers & Technology (Sponsored by Thomson Reuters) It is still illegal to be gay in 70 countries. As a result, every year, thousands of LGBTQ immigrants and asylum seekers come to the U.S. fleeing persecution in their home countries based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. After fleeing violence, imprisonment and death threats, LGBTQ asylum seekers arrive in the U.S. in pursuit of a better life. However, upon arrival, many do not know where it is safe to go for help during the asylum process. The service model for LGBTQ resettlement has traditionally prioritized in-person direct support, especially legal aid, over technological innovation. However, some law firms and non-profit organizations are starting to leverage legal technology to improve advocacy and access to justice for LGBTQ asylum seekers. This panel will address the overarching question: "What role can technology play in helping the legal community advance persecuted LGBTQ peoples' right to safety?" Under the current administration, this question is more important than ever. By joining forces, lawyers and technologists can achieve a safer, more transparent, and more sustainable resettlement process for LGBTQ people hoping to finally live freely.Nishan Bhaumik (Immigration Equality)
Hans How (AsylumConnect)
Ari Jones (Oasis Legal Services)
Zorik Pesochinsky (Thomson Reuters)
Katie Sgarro (AsylumConnect)Franklin 9 Textual Healing Conservatives have falsely claimed the mantle of the Constitution. In truth, we need not choose between progressive goals and fidelity to the Constitution's text, history, and values. This panel takes as its conversational starting point the Reconstruction Amendments (particularly the 14th Amendment), which profoundly altered our equality landscape. What did the text of the 14th Amendment specifically mean for the LGBTQ equality movement? How do perennial conversations about intent and meaning in the constitutional context inform courts as they examine contemporary statutory language conflicts, such as what discrimination on the basis of sex means? What do surprising victories, such as the Supreme Court's unanimous New Prime v. Oliveira decision (which echoed textualist arguments put forth by progressives), mean for future LGBTQ litigation strategy?Praveen Fernandes (Constitutional Accountability Center)
Diana Flynn (Lambda Legal)
Nan Hunter (Georgetown University Law Center)
Ashwin Phatak (Constitutional Accountability Center)
Harper Jean Tobin (National Center for Transgender Equality)Franklin 8 5:15 pm - 7:15 pm Welcome Reception (Sponsored by Seyfarth Shaw LLP) Salon G, H, I, J, K, L 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Justice Council Reception By invitation only.Franklin 11 - Thursday, August 8
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Thursday, August 8, 2019
Time Event Speakers Location 7:30 am - 5:30 pm Sponsor and Attendee Check-In Grand Ballroom Foyer, Level 5 7:45 am - 9:00 am Community Building Workshops TBA 12 Step/Recovery Meeting TBA Room 401 LGBT Bar Affiliates' Problem Solving Work Session: Compliance, Administration, and Communications This workshop will discuss compliance, administration, and communications techniques and strategies for affiliates of the LGBT Bar. ***Not for CLE credit.Gavin Alexander (Ropes & Gray LLP)
Jessica Hernandez (MayesTelles PLLC)
Judi O’Kelley (National LGBT Bar Association)Franklin 9 9:00 am - 10:30 am General Attendance Session Two TBA 2018-2019 SCOTUS Review: The Conservative Face of the Court With the retirement of longtime swing-vote Justice Anthony Kennedy and his replacement with Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a new era emerged at the Supreme Court. Justice Kavanaugh’s appointment firmly cemented the Court’s conservative majority, with broad ramifications for American jurisprudence. This panel will address the shifting nature of the Court with the additions of Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh to the bench, and the implications for the legal status of LGBTQ+ individuals. Panelists will also review notable cases decided during the 2018-2019 term and discuss the future of the Court, including how it is likely to address the Title VII sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination cases facing it next term.Jon W. Davidson (Freedom For All Americans)
Chinyere Ezie (Center for Constitutional Rights)
Chai R. Feldblum (Morgan Lewis)
Greg Nevins (Lambda Legal)
Chase Strangio (American Civil Liberties Union - LGBT & HIV Project)Salon G, H, I, J, K, L 10:45 am - 12:15 pm Concurrent Session D TBA Efficient Resolution of Trans Issues without Expensive Lawyering and Litigation It is a common misconception among the general public as well as within some legal communities that in order for transgender people to obtain justice, they must hire an expensive lawyer or engage in expensive and lengthy litigation. In many instances, however, folks who are facing discrimination or adverse consequences because of their gender identity do have options aside from litigation. The legal community can and should offer these alternatives to clients, especially because in many instances, alternative/negotiated resolution provides the same relief to clients at far less risk - whether it is financial or emotional risks, or safety concerns. By embracing a holistic legal advocacy approach, each client is valued as a whole person with unique needs and goals. This session will focus on tried-and-tested negotiation techniques as well as administrative remedies available. Panel members will discuss their experiences and add valuable insight on how to balance the importance of providing these services at a low cost to the client while still being able to get paid.Arli Christian (National Center for Transgender Equality)
Allison Dowling (Whitman-Walker Health)
Noah Lewis (Transcend Legal)
Milo Primeaux (Law Office of Milo Primeaux)Franklin 9 Federal Benefits for LGBT Spouses/Partners and Children This panel will address how recognition of marriage, non-marital legal relationships, and non-biological parentage by Social Security and Medicare can be integrated with your estate and life planning consultations. Both the Social Security Administration and Medicare have responded to transgender citizens in relationship recognition and treatment. The Federal Office of Personnel Management has also produced online materials helpful to LGBT clients who are employed or retired. Panelists will highlight the Office of Personnel Management's Benefits for LGBT federal employees and annuitants. If you practice in areas of law other than estate and life planning, this presentation can help you help yourself, your friends, and your family members who will need federal safety net support, and provide material for your public presentations on LGBT marriage developments.Joan Burda (Joan M. Burda Attorney at Law)
Carrington “Rusty” Mead (Carrington Madison Mead, Esq.))
Murray Scheel (Whitman-Walker Health)Franklin 5 Federal HIV Policy: Contradictions, Opportunities and Challenges In his State of the Union Address on February 5 of this year, President Trump surprised many by announcing that his Administration would launch a major initiative to eliminate the HIV epidemic by 2030. Although details have not yet been forthcoming, HIV experts at the CDC, NIH and HHS have suggested that the initiative will focus on bringing the benefits of our existing treatment and prevention tools to the areas most hard-hit by the epidemic: seven Southern states, a number of urban areas and Puerto Rico. While these claims are intriguing and seem promising to many, they are difficult to reconcile with Administration policies over the last two years that have sought to eliminate or weaken the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, and Medicare, which are essential to providing the necessary access to good, affordable health care. Even more disturbing, the fight against the HIV epidemic has been weakened by the Trump Administration's pronouncements and policies that express and encourage hostility to people of color, immigrants, and LGBT people, as well as its opposition to efforts to protect injection drug users from HIV infection. How should LGBT advocates and persons struggling for racial justice respond to these tensions? In this workshop, national leaders in the fight against HIV will discuss the latest developments in federal HIV policy and the community's strategic response.Sean Bland (O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law)
Ronda Goldfein (AIDS Law of Pennsylvania)
William D. McColl (AIDS United)
Sable Nelson (NMAC)Franklin 11 From the Middle to the Center: Visibilizing Bisexuality and Non-Binary Sexual Orientations in the Discourse Around LGBTQ+ Access to Justice In very practical ways, this sessions addresses the bi-erasure that occurs in far too many conversations regarding LGBTQ access to justice issues. Recognizing the diverse experiences of bi+-identified people, this session will include: a foundational overview of what it means to be bi-identified or to embrace a non-binary sexual orientation; a discussion of the diverse real life experiences and related legal needs of bi+ identified people in a number of practice areas focusing in particular on family formation and relationship recognition; and a presentation of diversity and inclusion-informed best practices for both bench and bar to ensure access to justice and procedural fairness for bi+-identified litigants/clients specifically and LGBTQ+ people overall.Diana Adams (Chosen Family Law Center, Inc.)
Lisa R. Burke (New Jersey Judiciary - Administrative Office of the Courts)
William Crosby (IPG)
Judge Mike Jacobs (State Court of DeKalb County)
Ezra Young (Ezra Young, Esq.)Franklin 10 LGBTQ Employment Law in Practice (Sponsored by Wells Fargo) This panel of experts in LGBTQ employment law, including Title VII, will provide practical advice for lawyers of any background to learn the nuts and bolts of advising individual or organizational clients on employment law matters that intersect with LGBTQ issues. This will include litigation pointers for plaintiffs' counsel as well as advice for in-house counsel or management counsel on how to achieve best practices with respect to LGBTQ employees.Don Davis (Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.)
Brian McGinnis (Fox Rothschild LLP)
Greg Nevins (Lambda Legal)
Michael Stevens (Seyfarth Shaw LLP)
Denise Visconti (Littler Mendelson P.C.)Franklin 7 LGBTQ State & Local Bar Affiliate Congress Caucus Not for CLE credit.Gavin Alexander (Ropes & Gray LLP)
Jessica Hernandez (MayesTelles PLLC)
Judi O’Kelley (National LGBT Bar Association)Room 411 Red State Rebuttal - Advocating for LGBTQ Clients in Conservative Regions Practitioners from Alabama, Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah will discuss advocating for LGBTQ clients (both in urban and rural areas) and provide examples of how applicable statutes and policies impact their clients’ outcomes. Workshop attendees will:- Develop a deeper understanding of legal challenges facing LGBTQ clients in conservative jurisdictions.
- Compare/contrast the public policies that may underpin the statutes and policies impacting LGBTQ clients in conservative jurisdictions.
- Learn how practitioners in conservative jurisdictions are successfully advocating for LGBTQ clients.
Nathan T. Arrowsmith (Osborn Maledon, P.A.)
Lauren Edwards (Attorney at Law)
Heather Fann (Five Points)
Kevin Hall (Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP)
Beth Jennings (Wharton O’Brien, PLLC)
Shannon Taylor (Shannon D. Taylor Law)
T. Christopher Wharton (Wharton O’Brien, PLLC)Rooms 402 and 403 The Dilemma of Queer Youth and Mental Health: Protecting Clients' Privacy Rights, Providing Pathways for Appropriate Medical Treatment, and Improving Client Outcomes LGBTQ+ youth are at greater risk for poor mental health outcomes than their straight and cisgender peers. This workshop will explore the mental health needs of LGBTQ+ adolescents and the legal implications of seeking care. We will cover obstacles to accessing care, privacy rights under HIPAA, implications for youth who have run away from home, considerations for youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, and intersectionality issues around the mental health of LGBTQ+ youth of color and youth who have disabilities.Daniel Garza (Callen-Lorde SCO Family of Services; New York City Dept. of Health and Hygiene)
Danielle King (Legal Aid Society)
Karen Levit (Legal Aid Society)Franklin 12 The Intersection of LGBTQ Rights and Reproductive Rights in the Newly Configured Supreme Court Liberty is a deeply contested battleground in the court of law and the court of public opinion. Advocates have won judicial rulings cementing marriage rights and reproductive rights, but opponents of these rights are waging a guerilla war that relies on upside-down claims to liberty. A united opposition deliberately harmonizes its strategies to simultaneously weaken LGBTQ rights and reproductive rights. For example, advocates of conversion therapy and fake abortion clinics (called "crisis pregnancy centers") assert that their First Amendment rights trump the health care needs of LGBTQ people and women, relying on the same recent Supreme Court case law. Similarly, the Trump Administration has enacted regulations which dramatically expand religious and moral exemptions, and thereby seek to broadly deny healthcare to LGBTQ people and women, even though LGBTQ and reproductive rights advocates actively challenge them. These so-called proponents of 'liberty' oppose access to assisted reproduction based on LGBTQ animus and claims that embryos have personhood. Recent manifestos, including Project Blitz and the American Charter of Freedom of Religion and Conscience, seek to provide a legal and cultural grounding for the "liberty" of certain religious claimants to overcome the claims to liberty and equality of LGBTQ people and women alike.Michele Brachter Goodwin (University of California Irvine School of Law)
Shannon Minter (National Center for Lesbian Rights)
Scott Ruskay-Kidd (Center for Reproductive Rights)
Katherine Gillespie (the Center for Reproductive Rights)Franklin 8 Turning Crumbs Into Wedding Cake: What We Can Learn From the Historic Role of State Courts in Relationship Recognition 2019 is an anniversary year for a number of landmark gay relationship recognition decisions from state high courts, including the thirtieth anniversary of Braschi v. Stahl Associates Co. in New York (the first American appellate court to conclude that same-sex relationships are entitled to legal protection and recognition), the twentieth anniversary of Baker v. State in Vermont (the state must guarantee the same protections and benefits to same-sex couples that it does to male-female spouses), and the tenth(ish) anniversary of Kerrigan v. Commissioner of Public Health in Connecticut (denying same-sex couples the right to marry, even granting them a parallel "civil unions" status, violates the equality and liberty provisions of the Connecticut Constitution). The future for high-stakes LGBT litigation in federal courts is looking increasingly dismal, and so a discussion about the role that state courts can play is timely and warranted. On this panel, some of the advocates most intimately involved in these cases and a sitting openly gay state supreme court justice will discuss the history of gay relationship recognition in state high courts, and provide a useful lens as we look toward the future.Nan Hunter (Georgetown University Law Center)
Bennett Klein (GLAD)
Beth Robinson (Vermont Supreme Court)
Matthew Skinner (Office of Court Administration, New York State Unified Court System)Franklin 6 12:30 pm - 1:45 pm Awards Luncheon: Frank Kameny Award, 40 Under 40 Awards, and Student Leadership Awards Salon G, H, I, J, K, L 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm Concurrent Session E TBA Defending Anti-Conversion Therapy Laws & Suing Conversion Therapists in a Post-NIFLA World Last June, the Supreme Court of the United States issued an important First Amendment decision in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) v. Becerra, which included some negative discussion of the federal cases upholding state laws against conversion therapy. Since then, opponents have cited the NIFLA case in four new lawsuits challenging both state and local anti-conversion therapy laws. This panel of policy and litigation experts will provide an overview of existing anti-conversion therapy laws, discuss strategies for defending these laws post-NIFLA, and explore innovative new litigation strategies to seek damages on behalf of individuals who have been harmed and defrauded by conversion therapists.Shannon Minter (National Center for Lesbian Rights)
Xavier Persad (The Human Rights Campaign)
Casey Pick (The Trevor Project)
Tobias Barrington Wolff (University of Pennsylvania Law School)Franklin 7 Heterosexism, Global Business Travel and LGBTQ Rights Heterosexism, ”the privileging of heterosexuality as the only normal, natural, and taken-for-granted sexuality," is a common form of unconscious bias. It impacts when, where, why, how, and to whom LGBTQ individuals reveal (or conceal) their identities. Despite some setbacks, there has been growing acceptance of LGBTQ individuals and LGTBQ rights in the United States. However, there are still several places in the world where LGBTQ lawyers are asked to travel on business where acceptance of LGBTQ relationships has shown no signs of progress and homophobia and discrimination are prevalent. As such, LGBTQ lawyers must navigate potential legal, cultural and business landmines when they travel for business in countries where same-sex relationships are criminalized or marginalized. A panel of senior LGBTQ lawyers will discuss the ways in which LGBTQ individuals challenge - or (sometimes) fail to challenge - the heterosexist presumption of their sexual orientation/identity, and navigate the landmines of business travel to unwelcoming countries. The panel of accomplished travelers will relay personal anecdotes, guidance and tips to address the issues facing LGBTQ business travelers today.Wesley Bizzell (Altria Client Services LLC)
Sandy James (FreeState Justice)
Sylvia James (Winston & Strawn LLP)
Sahar Moazami (OutRight Action International)
David Sakowitz (Winston & Strawn LLP)
Daniel Winterfeldt (Reed Smith)Franklin 11 Impacting the LGBTQ+ Community through a Pro Bono Legal Clinic The presentation will focus on experiences related to the creation and operation of a free legal clinic specifically geared towards serving the legal needs of LGBTQ+ individuals. Learn about the impetus behind a clinic's founding: disproportionate access to justice and legal services in the LGBTQ+ community, coupled with disproportionate incarceration, and the factors contributing to this reality. The practicalities involved in the creation of a clinic, hurdles encountered along the way, case examples, and any audience questions will also be addressed. ***Not for CLE credit.Andy Dugan (Equality Ohio, LLC)
Emily Meyer (Equality Ohio, LLC)Room 411 Joining Together to "Erase Hate" and Embrace Diversity: How LGBTQ+ Lawyers Can Live Their Best Lives at Work This workshop seeks to answer the question of how law school faculty, law school administrators and career services directors, and law students identifying as LGBTQ+ can engage in an honest discussion about challenges they face as they enter the legal profession. Far too often, career services directors and staff ignore the predicament LGBTQ+ law students face as they seek employment in a state without sufficient legal civil and criminal protections. Should a career services director guide a LGBTQ+ law student, who is not living openly, into a job offer from a firm without a strong diversity footprint? Or, one that does not demonstrate a strong culture of inclusion and acceptance of minority attorneys? What if that offer is from a firm or a company located in one of the five states without criminal hate crime laws? Or, if the offer is from a state that does not protect the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals from on-the-job discrimination? How should career service directors have these conversations with students who are closeted? Matthew Shepard believed that he had a career ahead of him in the foreign service or as a diplomat. He enjoyed living overseas, traveling, and engaging in thoughtful conversations with those who were different from him. One of his lasting legacies is that everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or sexual identity, should be welcomed into any profession and should be accepted and valued for who they are. Following a brief review of the mission and work of the Foundation started by his parents and that bears his name, the speakers will discuss the challenges LGBTQ+ law students and young lawyers face as they enter and navigate a legal career. Additionally, the speakers will discuss the broad and expansive effects of bias crimes, especially on those individuals who were not directly targeted, to demonstrate the catastrophic impact of the expression of hate. The workshop will conclude with a discussion of substantive steps veteran attorneys can take to enhance the legal experience of LGBTQ+ law students and young lawyers.Cynthia Deitle (Matthew Shepard Foundation)
Judy Shepard (Matthew Shepard Foundation)
Melanie Wilson (University of Tennessee College of Law)Franklin 12 Medicare for All - what's in it (or should be) for LGBTQ persons? Medicare for All is more than just a slogan. From Congress to state legislatures, Medicare for All proposals are taking center stage as we head into the 2020 presidential elections. However, these proposals vary widely, from buy-in programs to true, single payer health care. This workshop examines the various types of Medicare for All proposals as well as efforts to build upon the coverage gains under the Affordable Care Act in the wake of Trump sabotage. Panelists will examine the health care needs and policy priorities for LGBTQ persons, including: HIV/AIDS including prescription drugs and viral suppression, non-discrimination protections, and access to Pre Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP); LGBT reproductive health and access to assisted reproductive technologies; Health care refusals and their impact on LGBT access to care; Mental and behavioral health needs, including access to substance use disorder treatment and LGBTQ-specific suicide prevention programs; Immigration and access to care; Barriers and coverage exclusions for gender affirming care; Intersectionality of LGBTQ identities and addressing health care disparities; Nondiscrimination protections and enforcement.Daniel Bruner (Whitman-Walker Health)
Abigail Coursolle (National Health Law Program)
Sharita Gruberg (Center for American Progress)
Bridget Schaaff (National LGBT Task Force)
Wayne Turner (National Health Law Program)Franklin 5 New Frontiers of Environmental and Energy Law: from Climate Change to Corporate Sustainability This workshop will address recent and forthcoming environmental and energy legal changes, with a special focus on how companies are adapting to climate change, developing sustainability programs, and meeting the sustainability disclosure requirements. The speakers will provide an overview of relevant legal issues from the past two years, including regulatory changes and court decisions. The panel will present examples from various industries to show how the private sector is changing its relationship to sustainability and environmental issues. For the energy sector, the workshop will address the deployment of renewable energy generation, greenhouse gas emissions regulation, and legal liability issues for hazards posed by climate change (e.g., storms and fires). For the broader corporate sector, the workshop will cover how large corporations are changing their internal compliance policies and meeting new reporting obligations. The workshop will also survey the global landscape of emerging sustainability disclosure requirements across both sectors and offer key insights on how to reduce risk and communicate effectively about sustainability topics of interest to stakeholders.Romulo “Romy” Diaz (PECO Energy)
Marshall Morales (Sidley Austin LLP)
Paula Schauwecker (Beveridge & Diamond PC)
Kevin Minoli (Alston & Bird)Franklin 9 On the Basis of Sex(ual Orientation or Gender Identity): Administrative Options for LGBTQ+ Employees in a Time of Title VII Uncertainty The year is 2019, and 29 states still have no state law explicitly prohibiting discrimination against private employees on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) has never passed in both houses of Congress, and federal circuit courts are split on whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act includes discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity as forms of “sex-based discrimination.” Despite this, LGBTQ+ employees often have remedies they might not know of, and can frequently seek recourse through the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or a state or local Fair Employment Practices Agency (FEPA), even if they do not have a claim under Title VII or protection under a federal, state, or local statute. Further, LGBTQ+ tenants, patrons, or students may be able to file with a state or local human rights agency regarding discrimination in housing, public accommodations, or educational institutions even if they cannot file with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Department of Justice (DOJ), or in court. In addition to filling a gap in available remedies for LGBTQ+ complainants, these agencies often offer other benefits for LGBTQ+ complainants that courts do not, such as a lack of filing fees, a confidential process, or mandatory mediation. In this workshop, individuals from several state and local human rights agencies talk about the roles these enforcement agencies play in addressing discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals across the country, as well as the difficulties and successes they have experienced in working with their state or city's unique anti-discrimination laws. They will also provide practitioners and legal services providers with tips and strategies for navigating the administrative processes of different jurisdictions. Special attention will be given to the practical challenges and political pressures these agencies face in enforcing the newest amendments to these laws to include gender identity and expression, personal appearance, protections for pregnant workers, and a prohibition on potential employers considering credit records or criminal history.Zachary Egan (New Jersey Division on Civil Rights)
Eduardo Juarez (San Antonio Field Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)
Megan Stanley (City of Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations)
Jaime Wojdowski (District of Columbia Office of Human Rights)Franklin 6 Pathways to the Judiciary Each year, members of the judiciary come together to discuss their career trajectory and provide advice to young professionals interested in ascending the bench. Representing a diverse array of judges, panelists will discuss both the appointed and elected processes for judges in different jurisdictions as well as ethical guidelines or standards associated with panelists’ paths to becoming judges or retaining their positions. Additionally, the challenges of being an openly LGBT judge, especially in relation to judicial ethics codes, will also be a focus. Members of the International Association of LGBT Judges will be available during and after the session to talk further with attendees.Judge John Arrowood (North Carolina Court of Appeals)
Judge Tara Flanagan (Superior Court of the State of California )
Justice Shannon Frison (Massachusetts Superior Courts)
Judge Robert Lee (Civil Division of the Broward County Court of Florida)
Judge Javier Vargas (Family Court of the State of New York, Kings County)Franklin 10 Transgender Parents and Children in Custody Proceedings The increased backlash against the significant gains of the trans rights movement has started seeping into many different areas of law. Increasingly, nontransgender spouses and nonaffirming parents of transgender children are using their spouse's or child's transgender status to restrict their access to their children and to transition-related care. This panel will give an overview on the many issues facing transgender and gender nonconforming children and parents involved in custody proceedings. Panelists will give an overview of the state of the current law, discuss recent case law, and discuss challenges and strategies for continued litigation of these cases.Christine Henry Andresen (CHA Law Group, PC)
Alana Chazan (Chazan Family Law, P.C.)
Celeste Fiore (Argentino Family Law & Child Advocacy, LLC)
Asaf Orr (National Center for Lesbian Rights)Room 402 and 403 Walking the Path to Partnership There is no Rosetta stone that translates precisely what an attorney must do to become a partner. There is not a list of boxes to be checked. The assessment for partnership is more complex and subtle than that. Please join us to hear from several openly LGBT law firm partners to learn about their journeys along the path to partnership. These partners will address when they first considered partnership a goal, how they started moving in the direction of partnership, how they found mentors and sponsors and what kept them at their firms when other opportunities knocked. They will also cover some of the complexities of intersectionality and how to leverage your LGBT identity and work as an asset.Beth Bernstein Connors (Blank Rome LLP)
Susan Gault-Brown (Morrison & Foerster LLP)
Colleen McGarry (Fox Rothschild LLP)
Connie Montoya (Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP)
James Moore (O’Melveny & Meyers LLP)
Dimitri Portnoi (O’Melveny & Meyers LLP)Franklin 8 3:45 pm - 5:15 pm Concurrent Session F TBA Before, During and After: What are an employer's responsibilities when an employee transitions gender? One of your company's employees is transitioning gender over the next year. As an employer, what are your legal obligations before, during and after the transition? Furthermore, are there any leading corporate practices for this process, beyond simply following the law?Danielle Healey (Fish & Richardson)
Tristan Higgins (diversity & inclusion speaker, author, and consultant)
Dru Levasseur (National LGBT Bar Association)
Sarah J. Moore (Fisher & Phillips LLP)
Melanie L. Webber (Fisher & Phillips LLP)Room 402 and 403 Consensual Non-Monogamy, Polyamory, and Polyparenting In various ways, family law and other areas of law encourage and incentivize monogamy. Adultery, for example, remains a crime in the majority of U.S. jurisdictions. Despite this, an increasing number of people in relationships embrace polyamory, live in triads (also known as throuples), quads, or other relationship forms in which at least one person involved has more than one concurrent romantic/sexual/intimate adult relationships or, if coupled, practice consensual non-monogamy. Further, these people are being more open about their poly-relationships. In addition, at least some of these non-traditional families are parenting and an increasing number of jurisdictions are legally recognizing poly-parenting in various ways. This panel will consider the legal and social implications of polyamory and non-monogamy from a variety of perspectives. In particular, the panel will look at the current legal landscape for poly-families, the ways that such families can legally protect their partnerships and their children, even in more conservative jurisdictions, and the sorts of legal reforms that might be pursued to protect and support poly-families in their various forms. The panel will consider (i) practical legal strategies to help polyamorous people and people in poly-relationships to prevent or minimize legal problems (about finances, property, custody of children) and to address these and other legal challenges when they arise in litigation and other disputes, (ii) empirical research on poly-families from a leading social-science researcher, and (iii) longer-term proposals for changes to family law and policy.Diana Adams (Chosen Family Law Center, Inc.)
Christine Henry Andresen (CHA Law Group, PC)
Elisabeth Sheff (Sheff Consulting)
Edward Stein (Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University)411 Corporate Counsel Speed Networking **By invite only. ***Not for CLE credit.TBA Salon I Estate Planning: Everything You Need to Know But Didn’t Think to Ask! You skipped “Wills, Trusts & Estates” in law school, but are getting a queasy feeling that your work for your client may have an impact on your client’s estate planning issues—but are not sure how, or what to do about it. Or, you’re just plain concerned about your own future and the future of key people in your life. Either way, this session is for you! It will provide an overview of basic and more advanced estate planning issues to highlight the things you or your client needs to consider and do, and the impact marriage may have. It will review in particular the basic document tools for estate planning: Healthcare Power of Attorney & Advance Directive; Durable General Power of Attorney; Last Will and Testament; Disposition of Bodily Remains. It will also address pitfalls and how to avoid them: prenuptial agreements; proper execution of documents; litigation regarding the validity of estate planning documents; guardianship options. Finally, the session will provide a brief overview of public benefits to which your client or client’s family members may be entitled (e.g., Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, et al.), and the eligibility requirements for those benefits. The session will provide guidance on how to avoid inadvertently jeopardizing eligibility for public benefits and offer some alternatives for simple estate planning for low-income individuals and couples.Dale Noll (Akerman LLP)
Brad Richter (Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP)
Murray Scheel (Whitman-Walker Health)Franklin 6 Law School Congress & Affiliate Group Meeting Not for CLE credit.TBA Room 412 Pushing Back Against "No Promo Homo" Laws and Other Restrictions on LGBTQ-Affirming Curricular Content Every day in America's public schools, more than 9 million students are subjected to anti-gay curriculum laws, commonly referred to as "No Promo Homo" (NPH) laws, that prohibit teachers from discussing LGBT people or subjects in a positive light or, sometimes, discussing them at all. These NPH laws are present in 7 states, and they have significant negative impacts on LGBT students and their classmates. Progress has recently been made in rolling back Utah's NPH law, and there may soon be more challenges to NPH laws in state legislatures and in the courts. Beyond these laws, there are also significant policy restrictions in place in some states, and there were recent legislative efforts in South Dakota to prohibit discussions of transgender issues in K-12 schools.Eliza Byard (GLSEN, Inc.)
William Eskridge (Yale Law School)
Kevin Hall (Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP)
Shannon Minter (National Center for Lesbian Rights)Franklin 11 (NEW LOCATION) Shhh It's a Secret (or Isn't It?): Practical Ins and Outs of Health Care Privacy and Cybersecurity Health care privacy is a big deal. Deciding what to disclose to your health care provider is one thing; sharing that information with your employer or grandmother is another. In our age of big data, wearable technology, and transnational mega-mergers, health care privacy is just one breach away from becoming embarrassing publicity. Even sooner than the breach point, privacy is a defining issue in determining whether to seek and receive health care, such as preventative care, chronic care support, and substance abuse treatment, for many sexual minorities. This panel will discuss four major privacy laws that address health information (HIPAA; 42 CFR Part 2; GINA; GDPR) using real-world examples, interactive polling, and cybersecurity tips applicable toLGBTQ health care consumers and attorneys who counsel LGBTQ clients and community organizations. (Spoiler alert: HIPAA is a much stronger shield than it is a sword.)Cameron Faber (Los Angeles LGBT Center)
Greg Fosheim (McDermott Will & Emery LLP)
Sumaya Noush (Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP)
Colin Wright (Landis+Gyr)Franklin 7 SOGI Issues in the Courts: What Courts Are Doing to Assure Procedural Fairness and Advance Access to Justice for LGBTQ+ Court Users Courts play an essential function in the delivery of justice. Ensuring procedural fairness through the courts, both in principle and in practice, is central to the delivery of justice, experiences of equitable treatment, and perceptions of respect and fairness for LGBTQ+ court users. This session provides an overview of the national Fair Courts initiative as context for the panelists to discuss specific examples of how courts are taking proactive steps at the systems-level and in courtroom/program contexts to advance procedural fairness and access to justice for LGBTQ+ court users and justice system stakeholders based on diversity and inclusion-informed best practices. The panelists will offer a number of concrete examples of current institutional initiatives, training programs, and procedures/policies, and the Q&A segment of the session will provide attendees with an opportunity to raise challenges they see for feedback from both the panelists and other session attendees.Lisa R. Burke (New Jersey Judiciary - Administrative Office of the Courts)
Ethan Rice (Lambda Legal)
Matthew Skinner (Office of Court Administration, New York State Unified Court System)Franklin 10 The Alternative Path to Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Among the many challenges facing the legal profession is the struggle to increase diversity, inclusion and equity. Law firms are under significant pressure from clients to present diverse slates when pitching for work. Often times they’re left struggling to meet these requirements. What if there was another way to help advance efforts for greater inclusion? What role do alternative legal service providers play in supporting law firms and in-house legal departments? Join us for a lively discussion on how law firms, in-house legal departments and alternative legal providers can partner in harmony to increase diversity and drive us towards greater inclusion and equity.Debbie Epstein Henry (Consultant)
Ari Joseph (Brown Rudnick LLP)
Kenneth Sanchez (Bliss Lawyers for Southern California and Western States)
Farhaad Virani (Amazon Studios)Room 401 The Criminalization to Incarceration Pipeline of LGBTQ+ People This workshop will discuss how discrimination in employment, schools, and housing have propelled LGBTQ+ persons into the system of mass incarceration at disproportionate rates, where they often fall victim to sexual violence, harassment, and anti-LGBT+ bias. A recent study by the Williams Institute found that the incarceration rate of self-identified lesbian, gay, or bisexual persons was more than 3 times that of the US adult population. Once incarcerated, LGBT people are sexually assaulted by other inmates at a disproportionate rate. Regarding incarcerated transgender people, a 2009 survey of California prisons found they experience sexual victimization at a rate 13 times higher than those who are not transgender. Similarly, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJ) estimated that incarcerated transgender people are almost ten times more likely to have been sexually abused than others in the general prison population. The panel will focus on litigation skills for prison litigation including the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) and the administrative grievance process, the use of Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) in litigation, and constitutional claims. Panelists are litigators who have been counsel in some of the leading cases challenging corrections policies and practices concerning LGBTQ people and people living with HIV. As such, the panel will discuss Edmo v. Idaho, a challenge to Idaho Department of Corrections ban on gender confirmation surgery for transgender persons; Diamond v. Georgia, a challenge to Georgia DOC's freeze-frame policy denying incarcerated persons access to hormone therapy and other forms of care; Hicklin v. Precythe, a challenge to an identical Missouri DOC's freeze-frame policy, and Dorn v. Michigan DOC, a challenge to Michigan DOC's policy directive that disciplined people living with HIV with administrative segregation. Panelists will also discuss policy and legislative efforts currently underway to address harms that LGBT+ people face while in state custody, federal custody, and immigration detention.Chinyere Ezie (Center for Constitutional Rights)
Demoya Gordon (Law Enforcement Bureau, New York City Commission on Human Rights)
Richard Saenz (Lambda Legal)
Amy Whelan (National Center for Lesbian Rights)Franklin 9 The Global Movement for LGBTIQ Freedom: Colonial-Era Anti-Sodomy Laws, American Evangelicals, "Gender Ideology," and Why It All Matters On September 6, 2018, the Supreme Court of India held the country's 1938 British anti-sodomy law unconstitutional. That decision lifted the threat of criminal sanction from 1.3 billion people. But 1.7 billion people in more than 75 countries around the globe remain subject to these colonial-era anti-LGBTIQ statutes prohibiting and penalizing same-sex adult relationships. From Kenya and Nigeria to Jamaica to Singapore, teams of lawyers and activists are challenging these laws in at least nine countries currently. It is a time of growing public awareness of the crushing effects of these antiquated laws, and of intensified calls for change among business and civil society leaders. Meanwhile, some of the American evangelical leaders and religious legal organizations with the most extreme anti-LGBTQ views have taken their crusades overseas. While most continue their anti-equality campaigns in the United States, many also have joined forces with religious and political extremists in Africa, Europe, parts of Asia and elsewhere. They are helping to fuel right-wing movements and oppose legal reform efforts, often peddling the debunked junk science about LGBTQ people the US courts have rejected in marriage and parenting cases and in current litigation about transgender identity. This panel will examine litigation, repeal and reform efforts underway globally, the goals and impacts of American anti-LGBTQ hate groups, and positive influences Americans and American institutions can provide worldwide.Ping "Hoping" Hou (OutRight Action International)
Sahar Moazami (OutRight Action International)
Jenny Pizer (Lambda Legal)
Fabiana Quaini (Quaini Law Firm)
Keola Whittaker (McGuireWoods)Franklin 5 Title IX and the Future of Protection for Students Title IX, the federal law protecting K-12 and post-secondary students from discrimination based on sex, has become a political hot potato in recent years with changing federal guidance on who it protects and what it requires of educational institutions. There has been increasing public conversation and litigation about sexual assault and sexual harassment on campuses, as well as backlash on the application of Title IX protections to transgender students. On this panel, lawyers who are outside counsel or work directly for school districts, colleges, and universities will discuss the state of Title IX law and the future of its protections for straight-identified and LGBTQ students. Topics will include: interpretation of federal guidance on prevention and response to allegations of sexual assault or sexual harassment, implementation of Title IX requirements by K-12 and post-secondary institutions, challenges facing schools related to Title IX, proactive strategies to protect students, predictions for the future of federal guidance on Title IX, and trends in harassment complaints and investigations. We will also discuss Title IX protections specific to the LGBTQ community and trends in case law applying Title IX to transgender students, including in access to sex-segregated facilities.Brad Domangue (New York University)
Ashland Johnson (The Inclusion Playbook)
Sharon McGowan (Lambda Legal)
Asaf Orr (National Center for Lesbian Rights)
Jessica Witte (Thompson & Horton)Franklin 8 5:15 pm - 6:15 pm Finance Law Reception (Sponsored by Bank of America) Registered Finance Institute attendees only.Salon J 5:15 pm - 7:15 pm Conference Reception (Sponsored by BMW) Salons E/F - Friday, August 9
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Friday, August 9, 2019
Time Event Speakers Location 7:30 am - 2:30 pm Sponsor and Attendee Check-In Grand Ballroom Foyer, Level 5 8:00 am - 9:00 am Judge Leadership Meeting Salon J 8:00 am - 10:15 am Law Student Career Planning Programming (NALP) and Continental Breakfast (Sponsored by Walmart Legal) ; Salon H Career Planning Program Law students and career development professionals only. ***Not for CLE credit.Logan Anderson (Pepper Hamilton LLP)
Marla Butler (Thompson Hine)
Gary Greener (UCLA School of Law)
Matthew Jannusch (Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office)
James Leipold (NALP)
Jason Wu (The Legal Aid Society)Salon H 8:30 am - 12:30 pm Finance Law Institute 411/412 8:30 am - 12:30 pm Intellectual Property Law Institute (Sponsored by Microsoft) Room 408 and 409 8:30 am - 5:30 pm Transgender Law Institute Salon L 8:30 am - 5:30 pm Trust & Estates Law Institute Room 405 8:30 am - 10:00 am Lateral Program Salon K Making The Move: Best Practices for Lateral Candidates Considering a move in the next few years? Wanting to know more about the job market for laterals, and how to best position yourself as your seniority increases? This workshop will address the unique needs of law firm associates considering a lateral move. Our panel of experts will discuss topics including the best timing for lateral moves, the pros and cons of working with a recruiter, resume tips and suggestions, the job application process, relocation searches, interview "dos and don'ts", and how to manage the offer and acceptance stage of a search. Attendees will leave with a solid understanding of the lateral search process and with a sense of market trends - and they will feel prepared should a change be in their future. ***Not for CLE credit.Buddy Apple (Wegman Partners)
Ru Bhatt (Major, Lindsey & Africa)
Karl C. Riehl (Epstein Baker & Green, P.C.)
Kathy Silver (Jackson Walker)Salon K 8:30 am - 12:30 pm Employment Law Institute Room 414 and 415 9:00 am - 1:30 pm Judicial Institute and Lunch Salon J 10:15 am - 11:45 am How to Go In-House TBA Career Advice for Law Students and Laterals from Seasoned In-House Counsel (Sponsored by T-Mobile) What kinds of skills, experience, and working habits do in-house recruiters look for in prospective attorneys hoping to go in-house? In this workshop, experienced in-house counsel will discuss the best strategies needed for attorneys to land in-house employment. We will discuss ways to gain business acumen in firm positions and how to market this experience to hiring companies. In addition, we will talk about the importance of choosing an industry and how to gain expertise in order to forge connections with potential employers. Making connections is not only a good way to meet people who can help you search for a new position, but it is also a great way to learn more about the ins and outs of business law and the kinds of challenges you may face as in-house counsel. Participants will leave this workshop with a better idea of the path to in-house counsel and the crucial resources needed to proceed, as well as the confidence to go out and pursue the job of their dreams.Elizabeth Hecht (GlaxoSmithKline plc)
Barry Parsons (Freddie Mac)
Jim Rogers (Cars.com)Salon I 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Recruiter and Student Lunch (Sponsored by Walmart Legal) Salon H 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm Corporate Counsel Luncheon Program (Sponsored by ACC Foundation) Corporate Counsel Only Please; Salon I ACC Presents: Building a Diverse Leadership Pipeline and Disrupting General Counsel Demographics Simply put, general counsel of Fortune 500 companies are sorely lacking in diversity and fail to reflect society. Empowering diverse, rising stars in legal departments to become general counsel has never been more important. It is imperative that legal departments, in cooperation with external organizations, develop succession plans and talent management initiatives with diversity in mind. Join this panel of in-house counsel dedicated to increasing diversity among Fortune 500 general counsel to explore not only the importance of diversity at the general counsel level, but how we can achieve more balanced representation. Moderated by Susanna McDonald.Susanna McDonald (Association of Corporate Counsel)
Karyn Polak (Transamerica)
Joey White (Office Depot)
Stephanie Williams (IKEA North America Services, LLC)Salon I 1:45 pm - 4:00 pm Insurance Law Institute Room 407 Insurance Law Institute Cameron Faber (Los Angeles LGBT Center)
John P. Fischer (Barnes & Thornburg LLP)
Linda Kornfeld (BlankRome)
Morgan J. Tilleman (Foley Lardner LLP)TBA 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm Career Fair Franklin Hall B, Franklin Hall Foyer, and Grand Ballroom Foyer 1:30 pm - 4:00 pm Lawyering En Español ; Room 413 Lawyering in Español All Spanish-speaking attorneys and attorneys serving Spanish-speaking clients are welcome for this collaborative session. Moderated by Eduardo JuarezEduardo Juarez (San Antonio Field Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) Room 413 1:30 pm - 5:00 pm Corporate Counsel Institute Salon I 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm Nuts & Bolts Academy for Judicial Candidates The LGBT Bar’s “Nuts & Bolts Academy for Judicial Candidates” seeks to provide interested legal professionals with the tools they need to end up on the other side of the bench. This intensive workshop welcomes legal professionals from all backgrounds and parts of the country, as the LGBT Bar believes diverse perspectives bring diverse experiences to the bench – and diverse experiences lead to better judgments. Invitation is required. Please see the Judicial Nuts & Bolts page for more information and to apply to attend (applications close July 31).406 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm Pro Bono Clinic Room 414 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm Farewell Reception Franklin B Foyer