There are many different ways to be an effective pro-union lawyer, and different scenarios call for different tactics: join us for a moderated conversation about different approaches pro-union lawyers utilize for effective organizing and bargaining. 

Panelists Richard McCracken (McCracken Stemerman & Holsberry) and David Rosenfeld (Weinberg Roger & Rosenfeld) are both highly experienced labor attorneys with diverse experiences and approaches to labor law. The panel will be moderated by Grande Lum, SLS Senior Lecturer of Law and Director of the Gould Center for Conflict Resolution. 

Speakers will outline the three main doors for labor organizing—National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) litigation, direct action within the boundaries of the law, and direct action outside the boundaries of the law—and discuss the pros, cons, and applicability of each approach. 

This event will take place on May 7 from 1 to 2 PM.

The Florida Supreme Court issued two major decisions last week on the right to reproductive freedom in Florida. With one hand, the Court wrote the right to abortion out of the state constitution, holding that the privacy amendment to the Constitution did not protect a women's right to control her own body. With the other hand, they approved a state ballot initiative that would let Floridians this November put the right to abortion back into the state constitution. Please join the ACS South Florida, North Florida, Tampa, and Central Florida Lawyer Chapters for a panel discussion on the legal and electoral implications of these decisions.

Speakers:

Mary Ziegler is the Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law at UC Davis School of Law and a nationally recognized expert on abortion rights. She has written six books about reproductive autonomy and the law, including, most recently, Roe: The History of a National Obsession, as well as Dollars for Life: The Anti-Abortion Movement and the Fall of the Republican Establishment, Reproduction and the Constitution, and Beyond Abortion: Roe v. Wade and the Fight for Privacy. Before joining the faculty at UC Davis, she was a professor at Florida State University College of Law, where she won several teaching awards.

Courtney Brewer argued and won the abortion rights ballot initiative case before the Florida Supreme Court on behalf of Floridians Protecting Freedom. She spent decades as a leading appellate lawyer in Florida, primarily representing plaintiffs, and served as a deputy solicitor general of Florida and law clerk to former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Wells. She currently teaches legal research and writing at Florida State University College of Law.

Margaret Good is lawyer at Margaret Good Law. She has worked with Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida as both in-house and outside counsel and serves on the Executive Committee for the Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion. She represented northern Sarasota County in the state legislature from 2018-2020.

Moderator:

Sowmya Bharathi is a first-chair trial attorney and litigation partner at Akerman LLP in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She has tried 24 case to jury verdict in federal court as a former supervisory assistant federal public defender in the Southern District of Florida.

Introductions:

Jackie Pace Swigler is a corporate attorney and founder of The Jane Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to training, recruiting, and supporting a statewide network of reproductive rights attorneys in Florida. She is a former board member of the Tampa lawyers chapter of ACS and member of the Florida Path to the Bench working group.

Please plan to join the ACS Bay Area Lawyer Chapter for its Fifteenth Annual Gala: California’s Constitution—Enduring Commitment to Justice. The program features Justice Therese Stewart of the First District Court of Appeal and Justice Kelli Evans of the California Supreme Court. We are also excited to announce that Alan Schlosser will be the recipient of our Fearless Advocate award.

Keynote Conversation:

Justice Kelli Evans, ​​​​California Supreme Court

Justice Therese Stewart, First District Court of Appeal

Moderator:

Brian Goldman, Chief Deputy Legal Affairs Secretary, Office of Governor Gavin Newsom; Member, ACS Bay Area Lawyer Chapter

Fearless Advocate Award:

Alan Schlosser, Former Legal Director, ACLU of Northern California

Thank you to our early sponsor:

CHAMPION: Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP 

PATRON: Boies Schiller Flexner LLP; Lieff Cabraser; Munger, Tolles & Olsen LLP; Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP 

BENEFACTOR: Altshuler Berzon LLP; Morrison Foerster; Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP and The Norton Law Firm PC 

DONOR: Rachel Van Cleave; Outten & Golden LLP

FRIEND: The ACLU of Northern California 

For sponsorship opportunities, please contact Jordan Blisk jmcnamara@acslaw.org.

May 2, 2024

5:00-6:30 pm Reception

6:30-8:00 pm Program

Commonwealth Club

110 The Embarcadero

San Francisco, CA 94105

Lunch will be provided for registered guests.

Autocracy negates democracy—which requires that the state be responsible to an electorate composed of all eligible voters—by concentrating unconstrained power in a single individual. In his new book, How Autocrats Seek Power: Resistance to Trump and Trumpism (Routledge; March 26, 2024) UCLA Law Professor Richard Abel, Ph.D. chronicles and analyses resistance to the threat that autocracy poses in liberal democracy. He provides the definitive account of the rise of Trump’s popular support in 2016, and his failed efforts to nullify the result of the 2020 election. Shirin Sinnar, William W. and Gertrude H. Saunders Professor of Law at Stanford Law School will provide welcome remarks.

This event is co-sponsored by the Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession, the American Constitutional Society (ACS) and Neukom Center for the Rule of Law.

The ACS San Diego Lawyer Chapter invites you to our Spring Happy Hour! Please join us as we socialize over drinks, catch up, and discuss states of affairs! Learn about our upcoming programming and how to get involved with ACS’s mission in San Diego. All are welcome and FREE ONE HOUR PARKING VALIDATION! Hope to see you soon!

We are partnering with UChicago’s Moot Court to host the UChicago Law Hinton Moot Court Finals. The finalists will be arguing before four federal judges. Attending the Moot Court finals is a great way for students to get a sense for appellate advocacy, speak with federal judges, and support their peers. We would like to provide lunch for attendees.