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Taking in the Talks

A Look Back at Some of the Law School's 2018 Speakers

Law School Communications

"Lunchtime talks" have long been a tradition at the University of Chicago Law School, with many dozens of speakers visiting each year to discuss and debate legal issues, share their experiences, and offer students insight about career paths. Some talks, of course, take place at other times, but on any given day, it is common to have two or three lunchtime events from which to choose. Below, you'll find a sampling of the speakers who visited the Law School in 2018. 

  • Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit: “51 Imperfect Solutions: States and the Making of American Constitutional Law”
  • Standish E. Willis, Civil Rights Attorney, and Christine Haley, Chicago Torture Justice Center: “Policing, Trauma & Reparations: Understanding the Torture Orchestrated by Jon Burge”
  • (From left) Judge Diane Wood, Professor Paul Woodruff, Professor Martha Nussbaum, and (on screen) Justice Stephen Breyer.
    Justice Stephen Breyer, US Supreme Court (via videoconference); Diane Wood, Chief Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School; Paul Woodruff, Professor at the University of Texas at Austin; and Martha C. Nussbaum, Professor at the University of Chicago Law School: “Plenary Panel of the War in Law and Literature Conference”
  • Noel J. Francisco, US Solicitor General: “The Federalist Society Presents the Lee Otis Award to Noel Francisco, ’96.”
  • Vandhana Bala, General Counsel of Mercy for Animals: “Preventing Animal Abuse”
  • Kelly Ayotte, Former US Senator for New Hampshire: “The Judicial Confirmation Process: Guiding Justice Gorsuch”
  • Judge James C. Ho, US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit: “Hitting the Ground Running: A Discussion with Judge James C. Ho”
  • Owen Fiss, Professor at Yale Law School: “Equality in a Fragmented Society”
  • Larry Krasner and Bob Listenbee, Philadelphia District Attorney's Office: “A Q&A with Philadelphia District Attorneys Larry Krasner and Bob Listenbee: Revolutionizing the Prosecutor's Role in the Criminal Justice System”
  • Barry Wimpfheimer, Northwestern University, “Does Jewish Law Exist?”
    Judge Joan Donoghue
  • John G. Malcolm, The Heritage Foundation: “Current Topics in Criminal Justice Reform”
  • Selwyn Rogers, University of Chicago Medicine Trauma Center: “Health Care Disparities in Black Communities”
  • Judge Joan Donoghue, International Court of Justice: “The International Court of Justice”  
    Judge John Z. Lee at the Edward Levi Distinguished Visiting Jurist talk.
  • Jamil Dakwar, American Civil Liberties Union's Human Rights Program: “Human Rights in the Age of Trump”
  • Judge John Z. Lee, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois: “Discretion in the District Court”
  • Lior J. Strahilevitz, Professor at the University of Chicago Law School: “Interpreting Contracts via Surveys and Experiments”
  • Rachel Meeropol, Center for Constitutional Rights: “Litigating ‘Ag-Gag’”
  • Lorie Chaiten, Reproductive Rights Project of the Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU, Inc.: “Reproductive Health and Rights: Current Threats and Opportunities”
  • Judge Ann Claire Williams, US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (retired): “BLSA Presents Ann C. Williams with the James B. Parsons Legacy Award”
  • Jonathan Masur, Professor at the University of Chicago Law School: “The Behavioral Law & Economics of Happiness”
  • Alexis Mansfield and Colette Payne, Cabrini Green Legal Aid: “Incarcerated Mothers”
  • Allyson Nadia Field, Professor at the University of Chicago: “Racial Representation in Hollywood & Film”
    Judge Ann C. Williams speaking to students after receiving the James B. Parsons Legacy Award.
  • Gidon Bromberg, EcoPeace Middle East: “Water Security in the Middle East”
  • Deborah Tuerkheimer and David Dana, Professors at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law: “The Flint Water Crisis & Environmental Justice”
  • Katherine O'Regan, Professor at New York University Wagner School of Public Service, and Daniel Hemel and Jeff Leslie, Professors at the University of Chicago Law School: “Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Panel”
  • Damien Levie, Trade and Agriculture Section of the European Union Delegation: “Brexit Negotiations: A Conversation with Damien Levie”
  • Christina Rivers, Professor at DePaul University: “Felony Disenfranchisement Laws & Political Power”
  • Mary Anne Case, Professor at the University of Chicago Law School: “Cultivating an Incest Taboo in the Workplace”
  • Laura M. Grisolano, Bridge Mediation & Leadership Solutions LLC: “Landing in the Sweet Spot: How I Accidentally Created the Perfect Job”
  • Valerie Jarrett, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School, and Emily Buss, Professor at the University of Chicago Law School: “A Q&A on Law in the Era of #MeToo”
  • Latoya Baldwin Clark, Professor at UCLA Law: “Race & Police Trust”
  • John Hudson, Professor at the University of St Andrews: “F.W. Maitland, Common Law, and Civil Law”
    Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton at an Edward Levi Distinguished Visiting Jurist talk.
  • Martha C. Nussbaum, Professor at the University of Chicago Law School: “The Radical Utilitarians”
  • Wendy Davis, Deeds Not Words: “Owning Your Power Through Deeds”
  • Judge Ruben Castillo, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois: “Reflections on the Law After Four Decades”
  • Flint Taylor, Civil Rights Attorney: “Litigating the Black Panther Movement: The Assassination of Fred Hampton”
  • Nicholas Stephanopoulos, Professor at the University of Chicago Law School: “The Fight Against Gerrymandering”
  • Andrew Verstein, Professor at Wake Forest School of Law: “Privatizing Personalized Law”
  • Bob McNamara, Institute for Justice, and Pete Horkan, Opternative: “Revisions Tech Innovation VS. Government Regulation: Making a Spectacle of Economic Protectionism”
  • Anand Swaminathan, Loevy & Loevy, and Dima Khalidi, Palestine Legal: “The Palestinian Exception to Freedom of Speech”
  • John W. Rogers, Jr., Ariel Investments: “The 2018 Earl B. Dickerson Lecture”
  • Genevieve Lakier, Professor at the University of Chicago Law School: “The Contested Conception of Equality in First Amendment Law”
    Professor Jonathan Masur delivering the Coase Lecture.
  • Damon Jones, Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School for Public Policy: “Property Taxes and Consumption Smoothing”
  • Pavel Malyi, Matrix Capital: “Why Was Russia Lost: Are Institutions To Be Blamed?” 
  • Amir Jina, Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy: Climate Change and Global Inequality”
  • Martin Smolek, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic: “Exit from the EU: The Czech Perspective”
  • Janet Smith, Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Susana Vasquez, Office of Civic Engagement, University of Chicago: “Affordable Housing Development in Woodlawn”
  • Jim Hepburn, Department of Justice's Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section: “A Conversation with Dept. of Justice Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Attorney”
  • Melissa Crouch, the University of New South Wales, Sydney: “The Constitution, the Military and the State in Myanmar: The Power and Limits of Aung San Suu Kyi’s Government”
    Neal Katyal delivering the Schwartz Lecture
  • Neal Katyal, Professor at Georgetown University: “The Supreme Court and National Security: Lessons from History” 
  • Judge Allison Eid, US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit: “A Perspective from the Bench”
  • Shen Kui, Professor at Peking University Law School: “Why Administrative Law in China and How It Works”
  • Deepak Gupta, Supreme Court Litigator, and Lee Fennell, Professor at the University of Chicago Law School: “Cities vs. Mortgage Discrimination”
  • Liisa Thomas, Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, Mary Smith, The VENG Group, and Ted Ullyot, Former General Counsel, Facebook: “Law in the Information Age”
  • Jason Motlagh, Author of "Burma in Transition," and Nahal Toosi, POLITICO: Crisis in Myanmar: The Rohingya Refugees & The American Response”
  • Judge Beryl Howell, United States District Court for the District of Columbia: “Practice Methods of Improving Fairness in Sentencing”
    Judge Beryl Howell
  • Perri Irmer, DuSable Museum of African American History: “Stout Luncheon featuring Perri Irmer, '91, President & CEO of the DuSable Museum of African American History” 
  • Kelly Albinak Kribs and Maria Woltjen, Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights: “The Crisis at the Border: An Update from the Young Center”
  • Allyson Ho, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher: “How to Run an Appellate Practice”
  • Maya Steinitz, Professor at the University of Iowa College of Law: “The Case for an International Court of Civil Justice”
  • Omri Ben-Shahar, Professor at the University of Chicago Law School: “Food Deception”
  • Greg Asbed, The Coalition of Immokalee Workers: “Ending Forced Labor and Sexual Violence in the Fields through Worker-Driven Social Responsibility”
    Valerie Jarrett at the Legal Forum's "Law in the Era of #MeToo" symposium
  • Saul Levmore, Professor at the University of Chicago Law School: “If the Common Law was Efficient, Why Did It Decline?”
  • Ilya Shapiro, Cato Institute: “The Fallacy of Judicial Restraint”
  • Ameya Pawar, Alderman, 47th Ward of the City of Chicago: “Bringing Basic Income to Chicago”
  • Sharon Fairley, Civilian Office on Police Accountability: “Police Accountability in the City of Chicago”
  • Yuval Feldman, Professor at Bar-Ilan University: “The Law of Good People”
  • Jim Sonne, Professor at Stanford University Law School: “The Law and Culture of Religious Liberty”
  • Erica Kirkwood, GMA Construction Group: “Discussing the BWLA and Institutional Support for African-American Lawyers” 
  • Marcelo Halpern, Perkins Coie: “Marcelo Halpern on Blockchain & Digital Currency”
  • Justice Goodwin Liu, California Supreme Court: “The Asian Pacific American Law Students Association Presents California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu”
    Dean Thomas J. Miles with Yale Law Professor Owen Fiss during this year’s Jorde Symposium
  • Naiara Testai and Erika Asgeirsson, National Immigrant Justice Center: “The Intersections of Immigration, Domestic Violence, and Sex Trafficking with the National Immigrant Justice Center”
  • Lindsey Marcus, Franczek Radelet P.C.: “Keeping up with the Gig Economy”
  • Mary Ellen O'Connell, Professor at the University of Notre Dame, and Eric A. Posner, Professor at the University of Chicago Law School: “Making Human Rights Law Effective: What Will It Take?” 
  • Leonard Leo, The Federalist Society: “Anatomy of a Supreme Court Nomination”
  • Kamran Bajwa, Kirkland & Ellis LLP: “Introduction to Islamic Law”
  • Sai Prakash, Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law: “Synchronicity and the Making of Supreme Law”
  • Clark Neily, Cato Institute: “Civil Forfeiture”