Impact litigation has long been a way for a relatively small number of lawyers to make systemic changes through the courts. However, jobs in impact litigation can be competitive and hard to find. There is also a great deal of confusion about how impact litigation works, and what the day-to-day life of an impact litigator looks like. This panel explores the many forms that impact litigation can take, and how to break into impact litigation as a career.
Panelists:
Phylicia Hill, Director of Impact Litigation, Legal Aid DC
Antonio Ingram, Senior Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund; Racial Justice Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School
Rylee Sommers-Flanagan, Founder and Executive Director, Upper Seven Law
Anne Swift, Senior Counsel, Democracy Forward
Moderator:
Zack Gima, Vice President of Strategic Engagement, American Constitution Society
From detaining student protesters to threatening to deport rival politicians, President Trump has weaponized the immigration system to suppress dissent. In this event, Professor Alina Das and advocate Ramya Krishnan discuss how these attacks chill speech across the board, examine the unique challenges of defending free speech in the immigration context and describe how lawyers can resist efforts to silence non-citizens and citizens alike.
Featuring:
Alina Das, James Weldon Johnson Professor and co-director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at New York University
Ramya Krishnan, senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute and a lecturer in law at Columbia Law School
Taonga Leslie, Director of Policy and Program for Racial Justice, American Constitution Society
In recent months, as federal mass deportation efforts have ramped up, there has been a deeply disturbing escalation of violence by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers against journalists, observers, and peaceful protesters alike. Scores of violent assaults on reporters have resulted in a growing number of serious injuries and prompted press lawsuits against DHS in Los Angeles and Chicago. Plaintiffs assert that the violence is both excessive and officially sanctioned, part of a concerted effort to silence the press and keep the American people in the dark.
The American Constitution Society, the Center for Media and Democracy, and Common Cause held a briefing about the dire threat federal law enforcement violence posed to our First Amendment rights to speech, assembly, and a free press, including the right to record ICE activity and anti-ICE protests.
Speakers:
Nora Benavidez, Senior Counsel and Director of Digital Justice and Civil Rights, Free Press
Are you interested in clerking, but don't know where to begin? Join ACS for The Basics of Clerkship Applications, a virtual event on the nuts and bolts of clerkship applications for state and federal courts. The call covers all the steps of the application process, including selecting courts and judges; cover letters; resumes; and recommendations. Anyone considering clerkships, including 1Ls, 2Ls, 3Ls, or new lawyers in practice should attend.
Opening Remarks:
Judge Dale Ho, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Panelists:
Victoria Sheber, Former Judicial Clerk, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
Joey Vettiankal, Former Judicial Clerk, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky
Jasmine Marchbanks-Owens, Judicial Clerk, Mississippi Court of Appeals
Blake Phillips, Former Judicial Clerk, Montana Supreme Court
Moderator:
Thea Cohen, Director of Strategic Engagement, American Constitution Society
Eight months into President Trump's second term, right-wing operatives continue to target diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Through a growing web of hostile executive orders, state bans, and private lawsuits, enemies of diversity are using law to chill discussion of race, gender, sexuality and other "divisive" concepts. In the face of these attacks, diversity defenders are turning to the First Amendment — and in many cases, they are winning.
In this event, practitioners from across the country will share how they have successfully used arguments from freedom of speech, academic freedom, and freedom of association to defend inclusion in recent cases. Together, we will explore opportunities for First Amendment strategies to strengthen DEI programs going forward.
Featuring:
Lawrence Lustberg, Director, John J. Gibbons Fellowship in Public Interest & Constitutional Law, Gibbons P.C. (Saadeh v. New Jersey State Bar Association)
Robert McDuff, Director of the George Riley Impact Litigation Initiative, Mississippi Center for Justice (Jackson Federation of Teachers v. Fitch)
Katy Youker, Director, Economic Justice Project, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Chicago Women in Trades v. Trump)
Moderated by:
Taonga Leslie, Director of Policy and Program for Racial Justice, American Constitution Society
Join ACS for our Annual National Supreme Court Preview, where a diverse group of constitutional and legal experts share insights into the key issues and cases to watch in the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court Term.
Last Term, the conservative-dominated Supreme Court demonstrated that it remains committed to reshaping the law to fit the demands of the conservative legal movement while frequently using the so-called "Shadow Docket" to enable some of the most harmful policies of the Trump administration without explanation. At a time when the Supreme Court has allowed the rule of law to be stretched to the breaking point, the significance of the upcoming Term cannot be overstated. What can we expect as the justices prepare to once again weigh in on the power of the President and the civil and constitutional rights of voters, racial and sexual minorities, immigrants, students, the criminally accused, and other vulnerable communities?
Welcome Remarks:
Zinelle October, ACS Executive Vice President
Speakers:
Mark Joseph Stern, Senior Writer, Slate Magazine (moderator)
Carlos A. Ball, Distinguished Professor of Law and Judge Frederick Lacey Scholar, Rutgers Law School
Alexis Hoag-Fordjour, David Dinkins '56 Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for Criminal Justice, Brooklyn Law School
Pamela S. Karlan, Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law and Co-Director of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, Stanford Law School
Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, Samuel Weiss Faculty Scholar, Director of the Center for Immigrants' Rights Clinic, and Clinical Professor of Law, Penn State Dickinson Law
