Program

The Old Post Office – 433 W Van Buren St, Chicago, IL 60607

7 – 8 a.m. REGISTRATION/CHECK-IN

7:30 – 8 a.m. CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST

8 – 8:15 a.m. WELCOME/OPENING REMARKS

• Roman Silberfeld, Immediate Past President, International Academy of Trial Lawyers
  
• Hon. Benes Z. Aldana (Ret.), President & CEO, The National Judicial College
  
• Andrew Bradt, Faculty Director, Civil Justice Research Initiative
  
• Reginald M. Turner, Jr., President, American Bar Association
  
• Hon. Anne M. Burke, Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Illinois

8:15 – 8:45 a.m. KEYNOTE ADDRESS

• Doug Jones, former U.S. Senator and U.S. Attorney from Alabama, member of the law firm ArentFox Schiff; introduction by J. Mark White, Founder and Partner, White, Arnold & Dowd P.C., past President, International Academy of Trial Lawyers

8:45 – 10:20 a.m. DEMOCRACY AND THE COURTS
Independent, impartial courts are critical to ensuring the fairness and legitimacy of democratic political systems. Yet in the United States and other traditional democracies, anti-democratic forces are trying to politicize the courts and reduce their independence, threatening the very foundations of democracy. This panel will assess the danger to democracy of this assault on the courts and propose tactics to defend against them.

• MODERATOR: David Corn, Bureau Chief, Mother Jones magazine, On-Air Analyst, MSNBC
  
• Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean, University of California, Berkeley School of Law
  
• Hon. Reggie Walton, Senior Judge, U.S. District Court for District of Columbia
  
• Hon. Ganna Vronska, Justice, Supreme Court of Ukraine
  
• Alicia Bannon, Judiciary Program Director, Brennan Center for Justice
  
• Kim Lane Scheppele, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and University Center for Human Values

10:20 – 10:35 a.m. BREAK

10:35 a.m. – 12:05 p.m. SOCIAL MEDIA AND COUNTERING DISINFORMATION
The spread of disinformation by public and private entities on social media platforms such as Facebook has undermined faith in the courts, both in the United States and abroad. Not only have judges and other judicial officers encountered threats of violence, they have been targets of rising real-world violence driven by disinformation. This panel will explore how state and non-state actors are threatening judicial independence through social media and what can be done about it.

• MODERATOR: Hon. Robert Torres, Justice, Supreme Court of Guam
• Hon. Robert M. Brutinel, Chief Justice, Arizona Supreme Court
• Philippa H. Stewart, Head of Digital Communications, Clooney Foundation for Justice
  
• Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, Dean Emerita, Pacific McGeorge School of Law
• Leslie C. Levin, Hugh Macgill Professor of Law, University of Connecticut, School of Law

12:05 – 1:50 p.m. LUNCH AND FUTURE OF THE SUPREME COURT PROGRAM

• MODERATOR: Hon. Jeremy Fogel (Ret.), Executive Director, Berkeley Judicial Institute
• Marin K. Levy, Professor of Law, Duke University School of Law
• Melissa Murray, Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law, New York University
  School of Law
• Hon. Thomas Griffith (Ret.), U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
• David A. Kaplan, Author of The Most Dangerous Branch, former Newsweek Legal Affairs Editor, Adjunct Professor, New York University

1:50 – 2 p.m. BREAK

2 – 3:30 p.m. RACIAL JUSTICE AND THE COURTS
This panel will address issues of implicit bias and systemic racism in the law and how real, longstanding shortcomings in our justice system undermine public support for the judiciary and threaten the system’s sustainability. The panelists will examine these topics through a wide variety of approaches and perspectives.

• Moderator: Hon. George W. Draper III, Justice, Supreme Court of Missouri
• Jerry Kang, Distinguished Professor of Law and Distinguished Professor of Asian American Studies, UCLA School of Law
• Hon. Anne M. Burke, Chief Justice, Illinois Supreme Court
• Hon. Anita Josey-Herring, Chief Judge, Superior Court of the District of Columbia
• Deanie Brown, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Illinois Supreme Court
• Eva Paterson, Co-founder and President, Equal Justice Society
• Victor D. Quintanilla, Professor of Law, Val Nolan Faculty Fellow, Indiana University Maurer School of Law

3:30 – 3:45 p.m. BREAK

3:45 – 5:15 p.m. NEXT STEPS TO PROTECT THE JUDICIARY
Thought leaders will facilitate in brainstorming concrete, specific steps that each sector of the legal profession can take to protect the independence of the judiciary. Then all will reconvene to share insights and ideas.

• Group 1: HOW CORPORATE LEADERS CAN RESPOND Led by: Veta T. Richardson, President and CEO, Association of Corporate Counsel, and Ricky Raven, Senior Vice President – Deputy General Counsel, Allstate Insurance
• Group 2: HOW JUDGES CAN RESPOND Led by: Hon. Bernice Donald, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and Hon. Scott Bales (Ret.), former Chief Justice, Arizona Supreme Court
• Group 3: HOW PRACTITIONERS CAN RESPOND Led by: Judy Perry Martinez, Of Counsel, Simon, Peragine, Smith and Redfearn; American Bar Association President, 2019-2020; and Laurel Halbany, Associate, Kazan Law
• Group 4: HOW NONPROFITS AND FOUNDATIONS CAN RESPOND Led by: Qudsiya Naqui, Officer, Pew Charitable Trusts, and Jocelyn D. Larkin, Executive Director, Impact Fund
• Group 5: HOW THE LEGAL ACADEMY CAN RESPOND Led by: David Yellen, Chief Executive Officer, Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System

NEXT STEPS SUMMARY

5:15 – 5:45 p.m. CLOSING ADDRESS

• Hon. Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Chief Justice of California

5:45 – 5:50 p.m. WRAP-UP AND ADJOURNMENT

• Roman Silberfeld and Hon. Benes Z. Aldana (Ret.)

Subject to change. Times are approximate.