Events Calendar

Join the Justice Center for a community-building session for public interest law students whose lived experiences intersect with the legal systems they seek to challenge in their careers. Law schools need to do more to support the well-being, needs, and leadership development of students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, students with disabilities, immigrant students, LGBTQ+ students, formerly incarcerated students, and students with families who have been impacted by the criminal or immigration enforcement systems. This space is meant to build a positive community for students who not only have these experiences, but whose public interest work as attorneys may be directly tied to their lived experiences and/or those of their loved ones. This program seeks to serve as a space for dialogue, mentorship, and resource-sharing that is tailored to the particular needs, and strengths, of students in this position.

Monday, November 7, noon to 1:30 Goodwin Conference Room (Room 1.312, ground floor of the Connally Center)

Lunch provided. Please RSVP to Liza Soria liza.soria@law.utexas.edu by Wednesday, November 2.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2022/11/07/70556/

Join us for a deep dive into the history and future of Affirmative Action. Professor Arnold Jin will lead us in a discussion about what Affirmative Action is, its constitutional roots, and understanding the arguments made both in support of the policy, and against it to the Supreme Court this term.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2022/11/09/71585/

An opportunity for alumni in the Fort Worth area to meet Texas Law's new dean, Bobby Chesney.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2022/11/09/70452/

An opportunity for alumni in the Dallas area to meet Texas Law's new dean, Bobby Chesney.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2022/11/10/70930/

Come grab a sweatshirt during the cold front! Sweatshirts are $50 and all sales benefit public interest students.

3L big law students: come learn how to get a free sweatshirt!

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2022/11/16/71766/

On Wednesday, November 16, the Strauss Center is hosting the mini-conference, “Crypto Wars: Blockchains, Cryptocurrencies, and American National Security” during its inaugural Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Policy Week. This conference features experts on the intersection of blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies and national security and law.

Are cryptocurrencies the next frontier in innovation or a threat to national security? How will decentralized finance, the metaverse, and other “Web3” applications affect counterterrorism, sanctions, and intelligence gathering? Is Bitcoin a danger to the climate or a better way to finance green energy? Strauss Center experts will consider these and other questions during the inaugural Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Policy Week.

This event is free and open to the public. No RSVP required. Lunch will be served. For more information on this event, contact Susan Crane at scrane@austin.utexas.edu.

Agenda:

2:00 – 2:30pm – Arrival: coffee and lunch will be served

2:30 – 2:35pm – Welcome Remarks: Adam Klein, Director of the Strauss Center for International Security and Law

2:35 – 3:15pm – “Blockchain Investigations”: Sujit Raman, General Counsel with TRM Labs and former Associate Deputy Attorney General with the U.S. Department of Justice

3:15 – 4:15pm – Keynote Remarks: Juan Zarate, Global Co-Managing Partner and Chief Strategy Officer of K2 Integrity and former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes

4:15 – 5:00pm – Panel Discussion: “Crypto Ask Me Anything”

-Sina Kian, Chief Strategy Officer & General Counsel at Aleo and Technology, Security, and Global Affairs Fellow at the Strauss Center for International Security and Law

-Sujit Raman, General Counsel with TRM Labs and former Associate Deputy Attorney General with the U.S. Department of Justice

-Chinmayi Sharma, Scholar in Residence at the Strauss Center for International Security and Law and Lecturer at the University of Austin School of Law

-Moderator: Adam Klein, Director of the Strauss Center for International Security and Law

5:00 – 6:00pm – Reception in Bass Lecture Hall Lobby: Light refreshments will be served

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2022/11/16/71625/

Melissa Murray will give an address entitled “Race-ing Roe and Woke Warriors: Weaponizing Racial Justice at the Supreme Court.”

Professor Melissa Murray of New York University School of Law is a leading expert in family law, constitutional law, and reproductive rights and justice. Murray’s award-winning research focuses on the legal regulation of intimate life and encompasses such topics as the regulation of sex and sexuality, marriage and its alternatives, the marriage equality debate, the legal recognition of caregiving, and reproductive rights and justice. She is also a cohost of the podcast Strict Scrutiny. For more of her complete biography, visit: https://its.law.nyu.edu/facultyprofiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=profile.biography&personid=40825

This event has been accredited by the State Bar of Texas for 1.00 hour of CLE credit.

This event is open to the public. Professor Murray’s talk in the Eidman Courtroom will be followed by a reception in the Jamail Pavilion.

Hosted by the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law. Her address is cosponsored by the Center for Women in Law and Texas Law’s Office for Equity and Inclusion, along with the American Constitution Society Austin Lawyer and Texas Law Chapters, the Chicano/Hispanic/Latino Law Students Association, If/When/How, Law Students for Black Lives, the Public Interest Law Association, and the Thurgood Marshall Legal Society.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2022/11/16/68645/

On Thursday, November 17, the Strauss Center is hosting a panel of experts in energy and cryptocurrency as part of its inaugural Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Policy Week. Dr. Carey King, Assistant Director at UT Austin’s Energy Institute joins UT research scientist Dr. Joshua Rhodes and Strauss Technology, Security, and Global Affairs Fellow Sina Kian in discussing energy consumption involved in cryptocurrency mining and the implications of this consumption.

Are cryptocurrencies the next frontier in innovation or a threat to national security? How will decentralized finance, the metaverse, and other “Web3” applications affect counterterrorism, sanctions, and intelligence gathering? Is Bitcoin a danger to the climate or a better way to finance green energy? Strauss Center experts will consider these and other questions during the inaugural Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Policy Week.

This event is free and open to the public. No RSVP required. Lunch will be served. For more information on this event, contact Susan Crane at scrane@austin.utexas.edu.

Biographies

Dr. Carey King performs interdisciplinary research related to how energy systems interact within the economy and environment as well as how our policy and social systems can make decisions and tradeoffs among these often competing factors. Dr. King’s research goals center on rigorous interpretations of the past to determine the most probable future energy pathways. He is a research scientist at The University of Texas at Austin and Assistant Director at the Energy Institute. He also has appointments with the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy within the Jackson School of Geosciences and the McCombs School of Business. He has both a B.S. with high honors and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He has published technical articles in the academic journals Environmental Science and Technology, Environmental Research Letters, Nature Geoscience, Energy Policy, Sustainability, and Ecology and Society. He has also written commentary for American Scientist andEarth magazines as well as major newspapers such as the Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, and Austin American-Statesman. Dr. King has several patents as former Director for Scientific Research of Uni-Pixel Displays, Inc.

Dr. Joshua Rhodes is a research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, a non-Resident Fellow at Columbia University, and a Founding partner of IdeaSmiths LLC. His current work is in the area of smart grid and the bulk electricity system, including spatial system-level applications and impacts of energy efficiency, resource planning, distributed generation, and storage. He is interested in policy and the impacts that good policy can have on the efficiency of the micro and macro economy. He is a regular contributor to Forbes and is an AXIOS Expert Voice. He also sits on the boards of Catalyst Cooperative. He holds a double bachelors in Mathematics and Economics from Stephen F. Austin State University, a masters in Computational Mathematics from Texas A&M University, a masters in Architectural Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin.

Sina Kian is Chief Strategy Officer & General Counsel at Aleo, a startup building a decentralized blockchain that uses cryptography to provide significantly enhanced data security and privacy capabilities. Si

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2022/11/17/71606/