Pamela Karlan, the founding director of Stanford Law School’s Supreme Court Litigation Program and one of the nation’s leading experts on voting and the political process, will present the 2008 John Field Simms/Alumni Association Memorial Lecture on March 6 at 5:30 p.m. at the University of New Mexico School of Law.
Photo: Pamela Karlan
The topic of Karlan’s lecture, “What Can Brown Do for You?” will focus on the current debate about the significance of Brown vs. Board of Education, the ground-breaking 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down official racial segregation of public schools. She will then tie this discussion to one of the most widely cited pieces of legal scholarship ever written, Herbert Wechsler’s 1959 article, “Toward Neutral Principles in Constitutional Law.”
In addition to her work with the Supreme Court Litigation Program, Karlan is also the co-author of three leading casebooks and author of over 48 articles on constitutional law and related subjects. She has served as a commissioner on the California Fair Political Practices Commission and as an assistant counsel and cooperating attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. She is a widely recognized commentator on legal issues and is featured frequently on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and other news programs.
Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1998, she was a professor of law at the University of Virginia School of Law and served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun and Judge Abraham D. Sofaer of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She earned her J.D., M.A. and B.A. at Yale University.
The John Field Simms Memorial Lecture was established in 1954 by Albert Simms in memory of his brother, John, who, prior to his service on the New Mexico Supreme Court, was a highly respected trial lawyer and also served as a UNM regent. The UNM School of Law Alumni Association now donates funds annually to support the Simms lecture series, allowing it to be held every other year.
Members of the State Bar of New Mexico may earn 1 general CLE credit for attending the lecture. The cost of the lecture for CLE students is $20 in advance and $25 at the door. The lecture is free if not attended for credit. For more information, contact Claire Conrad at 277-0080 or conrad@law.unm.edu.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu