2024 Summit Agenda

8:00 AM – 10:00 AM    AJEI Board Meeting

9:00 AM – 12:00 PM    Check-in and registration

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM  AJC Board Meeting

1:00 PM – 1:30 PM Presentation of Colors and Welcome

Welcome –

• Hon. Jacqueline H. Nguyen, Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Immediate Past Chair, Appellate Judges Education Institute, Chair, AJEI Education Committee

Joint Welcoming Remarks –

• Hon. Kimberly S. Budd, Chief Justice, Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
• Hon. Julie Rikelman, Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

1:30 – 2:30 PM: Plenary 1: When States Litigate, And How To Encourage (Or Discourage) State Involvement In Your Case

• Christopher G. Browning, Jr., Partner, Troutman Pepper*
• Andrea Joy Campbell, Massachusetts Attorney General
• Dan Schweitzer, Director and Chief Counsel of the National Association of Attorneys General’s Center for Supreme Court Advocacy
• Michael A. Scodro, Partner, Mayer Brown & Former Illinois Solicitor General

2:30 PM – 3:30 PM: Plenary 2: How Adversary Nations Can Erode Public Trust in America’s Legal System

• Hon. Jeremy D. Fogel, Executive Director, Berkeley Judicial Institute
• Moderator: Hon. M. Tia Johnson, Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
• Dean Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, Senior Adviser, Defending Democratic Institutions, Center for Strategic and International Studies

3:30 PM – 3:45 PM: BREAK

3:45 PM – 5:00 PM: Plenary 3: Beyond the Gavel: Ethics and Wellness for the Legal Community *Seeking ethics credit

• Hon. Steven David (Ret.), Indiana Supreme Court
• John A. “Sean” Doyle, General Counsel for MCNC and Well-Being Consultant
• Moderator: Hon. Christopher M. Goff, Justice, Indiana Supreme Court
• Terry Harrell, Executive Director of Indiana Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Opening Reception & Sandra Day O’Connor Award – The Westin Boston Seaport

• 6:45 p.m. Sandra Day O’Connor Award presentation

7:00 AM – 8:00 AM: Breakfast

8:00 AM – 9:00 AM: Plenary 4:  The Collective-Action Constitution

• Moderator: Hon. J. Michelle Childs, Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
• Prof. Neil S. Siegel, David W. Ichel Distinguished Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science, Duke Law School

9:00 AM – 9:15 AM: BREAK

9:15 AM – 10:15 AM: Break-out 1: Ten Years After Ferguson – What’s Changed?

• Beth A. Colgan, Professor of Law, University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law
• Hon. Lisa Foster (Ret.), Co-Executive Director, Fines and Fees Justice Center
• Moderator: Justice Laurie McKinnon, Justice, Montana Supreme Court
• Hon. Stuart J. Rabner, Chief Justice, New Jersey Supreme Court

9:15AM – 10:15 AM: Break-out 2: Playing Chess: How Appellate Lawyers Can Shape the Record Long Before Appeal

• Moderator: Hon. Jennifer Choe-Groves, U.S. Court of International Trade
• Gretchen Harris Sperry, Co-Chair appellate practice/Partner, Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLP
• Shelley Merkin, Legal Counsel, Ford Motor Company
• Hon. Sam A. Thumma, Arizona Court of Appeals

10:15 AM – 10:30 AM: BREAK

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM: Plenary 5: Fireside Chat with Former Solicitor General Neal Katyal

• Neal Katyal, Partner, Hogan Lovells, and former Acting Solicitor General of the United States

11:30 AM – 11:45 AM: BREAK

11:45 AM – 12:45 PM: Plenary 6: Sound off the alarm!  DEI is not officially dead—at least not in the legal profession!

• Hon. Goodwin H. Liu, Justice, California Supreme Court
• Moderator: Hon. Briana Zamora, Justice, New Mexico Supreme Court

12:45 PM – 5:00 PM: Free Time – Optional Tours -Local Events/Hospitality

6:00 PM – 7:00 PM: Council of Appellate Lawyers (CAL) Meet and Greet (All AJEI attendees invited)

7:30 PM – 10:00 PM: CAL Dine-Around for Lawyers and Judges (Optional/additional charge)

7:30 PM – 9:30 PM       CASA T-Shirt Dinner  The Hub Pub

7:30 AM – 8:30 AM: Breakfast and Optional CAL Roundtable Discussions

1. Specialty Appellate Courts
2. LGBTQ+ Legal Issues
3. Amicus Briefing
4. Court Rules
5. Shadow Dockets
6. Use of Unpublished Decisions
7. The Psychology of Appellate Advocacy and Persuasion
8. Parallel Proceedings in Multiple Venues
9. Preparing for Oral Argument
10. The Seinfeld Table: The Table About Nothing

8:30 AM – 10:00 AM: Plenary 7: Sua sponte decision making and supplemental briefing: balancing appellate judges’ decisional discretion and parties’ interests

• Hon. Jeffrey S. Bivins, Chief Justice, Tennessee Supreme Court
• Moderator: Sarah Cravens, Visiting Professor, Washington & Lee School of Law
• Hon. John C. Few, Justice, South Carolina Supreme Court
• Brian J. Paul, Partner, Faegre Dinker Biddle & Reath, LLP

10:00 AM – 10:15 AM: BREAK

10:15 AM – 11:15 AM: Break-out 3: Questions You Should Ask Before, and Must Be Able To Answer During, Appellate Oral Argument

• Moderator – Carol Rooney, Partner, Butler, Weihmuller, Katz, Craig
• Hon. Dalila A. Wendlandt, Justice, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
• Jill M. Wheaton, Senior Counsel, Dykema Gossett PLLC
• Joshua L. Wolinsky, Senior Law Clerk, United States Court of Appeals for Veteran’s Claims

10:15 AM – 11:15 AM: Break-out 4: Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You: Transparency, Ethics, and the Judiciary 

• Hon. Robert H. Edmunds (Ret.), former associate justice, Supreme Court of North Carolina; Counsel, Fox Rothschild, LLP
• Carolyn Dubay, Deputy Judicial Integrity Officer, Office of Judicial Integrity, Administrative Office of the United States Courts
• Robert H. Tembeckjian, Administrator & Counsel, New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct

11:15 AM – 12:30 PM: Plenary 8 – SCOTUS Update

• Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, UC Berkeley School of Law

12:30 PM – 2:00 PM: CAL/CASA Business Meetings

2:00 PM – 3:15 PM: Break-out 5: Criminal Law Update

• Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, UC Berkeley School of Law

2:00 PM – 3:15 PM: Break-out 6: It’s Past Time for Real e-briefing

• Moderator: Brian C. Miller, Partner, Royston Rayzor
• Brian Knudsen, Thomson Reuters
• Raffi Melkonian, Partner, Wright Close & Barger
• Hon. Peter W. Sacks, Justice, Massachusetts Appeals Court
• Jennifer Shircliff, Staff Attorney, Indiana Supreme Court Services

3:15 PM – 3:30 PM: BREAK

3:30 PM – 5:00 PM: Plenary 9: The Ethical Tightrope: Navigating Media Influence and Judicial Integrity

• Julia Allison, Founder of Reimagine Media, Social Media Influencer
• Justin Elliott, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Reporter at ProPublica
• Prof. Noah Feldman, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law and Director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law at Harvard Law School
• Peter Shaplen, Media Trainer and Crisis Communicator
• Moderator: Hon. Robert J. Torres, Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Guam

6:00 PM – 7:00 PM    Saturday Night Reception
7:00 PM – 9:30 PM    Saturday Dinner & Entertainment

7:30 AM – 8:30 AM: BREAKFAST

8:30 AM – 8:45 AM: Recognizing Our Veterans

• Hon. James E. Lockemy, Chief Judge, South Carolina Court of Appeals

8:45 AM – 9:45 AM: Plenary 10:  John Adams and Thurgood Marshall: Running Against the Wind to Gain Liberty and Justice for All

• Prof. Joyce Lee Malcolm, Author, Historian & Constitutional Scholar
• Hon. Frank Sullivan (Ret.), Professor of Practice at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law
• Prof. Michael Meltsner, Matthews Distinguished University Professor of Law Emeritus, Northeastern

9:45 AM – 10:00 AM: BREAK

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM: Break-out 7: When Justice Fails – Threats to an Independent Judiciary

• Hon. Bernice Donald (Ret.), former U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Judge in Residence at The National Judicial College
• Hon. Reba Ann Page, U.S. Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM: Break-out 8:  Legal Writing – A Workshop in Practical Linguistics

• Prof. Jill Anderson, Professor, University of Connecticut School of Law
• Dr. Elizabeth Coppock, Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, Boston University
• Prof. Ann L. Nowak, Director of the Writing Center, and Adjunct Professor of Law, The Touro Law Center

11:00 AM – 11:15 AM: BREAK

11:15 AM – 12:15 PM: Plenary 11:  Commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Reflection on Its Legacy

• Moderator: Prof. David Cole, National Legal Director of the ACLU and Professor in Law and Public Policy at Georgetown
• Prof. Sherrilyn Ifill, Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Civil Rights at Howard Law School, and Former President & Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Inc.
• Johnathan J. Smith, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Department of Justice

12:15 PM – 12:30 PM: Conclusion and Preview of 2025 Summit