Liman Colloquium Goes Local: Federalism and Public Interest Law, March 6-7

The 11th annual Arthur Liman Public Interest Law Colloquium, “Liman at the Local Level: Public Interest Advocacy and American Federalism,” will be held at Yale Law School on Thursday, March 6, and Friday, March 7, 2008.  This year’s Colloquium will examine state and local contributions to public interest advocacy, the kind of innovation that takes place at the local level, the role of state-level public officials, the legal parameters and opportunities of constitutional federalism, and how advocacy networks structure themselves in relationship to the federalism structure of the United States. 

Participants and speakers will include scholars from law and the social sciences from Columbia, Emory, NYU, the University of Virginia, and Yale Universities; judges; state attorneys general; local government officials; students; leading public interest advocates; and the Liman Public Interest Fellows.

The first panel discussion, on Thursday at 4:30 p.m., examines the roles taken by state attorneys general, city attorneys, and other officials.  Panelists will include Richard Blumenthal, the Attorney General of Connecticut; Robert Hermann, Director, New York Governor’s Office of Regulatory Reform; Dennis Herrera, City Attorney of San Francisco; William Marshall, Ohio Solicitor General; and James Tierney, Director of the National State Attorneys General Program at Columbia Law School and former Attorney General of Maine.

Friday's panels will address:  “Revising the History and Understanding the Present: The Role of Local Leadership and Advocates”; “Coordination Across States: Horizontal Federalism”; “Defining the Public Interest: The Role and Networks of State Courts”; “Mapping Public Interest Advocates Onto the Federal Structure of the United States: Conflicts and Coordination, Local Chapters and National Offices”; and “Vertical Federalism: The Pros and Cons of National Preemption.”

Lunchtime speakers, addressing the roles of state and federal courts, will be Margaret H. Marshall, Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court; Ellen Ash Peters, former Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court; Randall T. Shepard, Chief Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court; and the Honorable Janet C. Hall, U.S. District Judge, District of Connecticut, who is also the current chair of the Committee on Federal-State Jurisdiction of the Judicial Conference of the United States.

The Liman Program supports Yale Law School graduates pursuing public interest projects; summer Fellows at Barnard, Brown, Harvard, Princeton, Spelman, and Yale Universities; reading groups; workshops; and specific focused efforts. 

Eight Liman Fellows who are graduates of Yale Law School have been selected for public interest fellowships in 2008-2009.  The Fellows and their host organizations are: Justin Cox, CASA de Maryland, Silver Spring, MD; Zahra Hayat, National Center for Youth Law, Oakland, CA; Stacie Jonas, Southern Migrant Legal Services, Nashville, TN; Deborah Marcuse, Community Services Administration, Mayor’s Office, City of New Haven, CT; Allegra McLeod, Immigration Justice Project, San Diego, CA; Marisol Orihuela, ACLU of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA; Michael Tan, ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, New York, NY; and Tianna Terry, Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia.  

To register for the Liman Colloquium, email Lucinda Currell at lucinda.currell@yale.edu or call 203-432-9165. Advance registration is required and space may be limited.

For more information, including the complete schedule, a description of panels and speakers, bibliographical materials, and information on the Liman Programs, Workshop, and Fellows, visit the Liman website at www.law.yale.edu/liman.