Events Calendar

Join us for an insightful workshop on animal law, where we delve into a compelling California case involving Cedar, a cherished goat whose life was disrupted by law enforcement actions despite the wishes of his dedicated caretakers. This case highlights critical issues in animal protection.

Our expert for the session, Vanessa Shakib, is a leading figure in animal law and government accountability. Her impressive background includes extensive coverage by major media outlets such as CNN, Fox News, and the New York Times. Vanessa is the co-founder and co-director of Advancing Law for Animals, a pioneering non-profit law firm dedicated to advocating for animals in research and industrial food production. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School, where she has been recognized as the 2022-2023 Adjunct Professor of the Year.

(Vegan lunch will be provided. Please RSVP to ensure your spot and meal.)

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/02/79133/

From Execution Date to Release Date: The Story of Clinton Young

Join us for an eye-opening conversation with Clinton Young, a former Texas death row inmate who spent 18 years in solitary confinement for a crime he insists he didn’t commit. Convicted of two murders at the age of 19, Clinton was sentenced to death in 2003, largely based on the testimony of his co-defendants—testimony that was later proven false.

In September 2021, Clinton’s conviction and death sentence were overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals due to shocking prosecutorial misconduct. The prosecutor, while working on Clinton’s case, was also secretly serving as a law clerk for the judges who presided over the trial. This blatant violation of due process led to Clinton's release on bond in January 2022, making him the first former death row inmate to secure release on bond. He now awaits a new trial.

This event offers an extraordinary opportunity to learn about the flaws in the criminal justice system, wrongful convictions, and the fight for justice. Clinton’s case exemplifies critical legal issues surrounding due process violations, prosecutorial misconduct, and the resilience required to survive on death row.

Don’t miss this powerful session that will provide unique insight into the life of someone wrongfully convicted and highlight the crucial role lawyers play in fighting for justice.

**Food will be provided**

Date: October 3, 2024 Time: 11:50 AM - 2:00 PM Location: CCJ 2.306 - Eidman Courtroom Hosted by: The Capital Punishment Clinic/Center

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/03/79176/

Join alumni, prospective students, and friends for paella, drinks and networking! Hosted by Trey Martinez JD '96 and Rolando Rubiano BS '93, with paella from Ralph Vela, CEO Workforce Solutions Cameron and award-winning paella chef.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/03/78170/

Please join Texas Law Students for Life on Monday, October 7, at 11:50 a.m. in TNH 2.124 as  Dr. John Seago of Texas Right to Life addresses common concerns about pro-life laws and their impact on women's health—particularly in cases involving miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, or medical emergency.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/07/79299/

This speaker series considers the criminalization of reproduction—historical and contemporary, local and global—largely through the lens of reproductive justice.

RSVP

Abstract: Over the past four years, three of the largest Latin American countries have made significant strides toward the decriminalization of abortion: Argentina in December 2020, Colombia in February 2022, and Mexico in September 2023. The changes are the result of strategic rights-based litigation, cultural work, and national and regional coalition building, largely on the part of feminists who came of age in the 1990s and 2000s. These feminists had long worked for incremental change, using the Courts as allies for reform. Contrasting their strategies with those deployed today by younger feminists in the region, who not only are more inclined to use social networks and direct action but are also more focused on issues of violence and individual harm, I argue for the need to bridge gaps between old and new feminisms to continue to work toward reproductive justice.

Isabel Cristina Jaramillo Sierra is Professor of Law and Director of the Jurisprudence Department at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. She also acts as general coordinator of the Latin American Network of Feminist Legal Scholars- RED ALAS (www.redalas.net). She has written extensively on feminist legal reform and its impact on women, with particular attention to reforms related to quotas, abortion, and violence. Relevant works in English include “The New Colombian Law on Abortion" in International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics (2022) and "Abortion Reform in Colombia: From Total Prohibition to Decriminalization up to Week Twenty-Four" in The South Atlantic Quarterly (2023). She has worked as a consultant for the National Government and the Judicial Branch on gender and human rights issues; served as an expert before the Congress of the Republic; and worked as an Ad Hoc Judge for the Constitutional Court and the State Council. In 2017, she was nominated (but not elected) by President Juan Manuel Santos to the Constitutional Court. She earned her S.J.D. from Harvard Law School and an LL.B. with Honors from Universidad de los Andes.

Co-sponsored by Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies and the Latin America Initiative at Texas Law

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/07/78332/

Please join the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab (PJIL) for a film screening and panel discussion about “Solitary Confinement in Prison” on Monday, October 7, from 5:15 – 6:45 pm at the Law School (TNH 2.137). We are screening the 2023 short film “The Box: 27 Years in Solitary,” which explores the use of solitary confinement in prison. It focuses on the case of Dennis Hope, a man who spent 27 years in solitary confinement in a Texas prison and who took a lawsuit about his situation to the US Supreme Court. After the screening will be a panel discussion with Jeremy Young, Senior Producer for Fault Lines, Al Jazeera’s current affairs news program, and the producer of the film; Molly Petchenik, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project which represented Dennis Hope in his Supreme Court challenge; Chanel Jones from the Lioness Justice Impacted Women's Alliance who has lived experience in solitary in a Texas women's prison, and Robert Lilly from Grassroots Leadership, also with lived experience in solitary. The panel will be moderated by UT LBJ/Law professor and PJIL Director Michele Deitch. The event is organized by the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and is co-sponsored by the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law at the Law School. Please register for the event and help spread the word about it. Open to the Austin community.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/07/79251/

This is the first round of the Foley & Lardner Novice Mock Trial Competition. The round will be held at 6:00PM. This competition is for those who have not competed in a Texas Law intramural mock trial competition before. Please contact Kacey Simmons (kacey.simmons@utexas.edu) for more information.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/08/78832/

Join Laura Fox, a fellow with the Climate Change & Animal Agriculture Litigation Initiative (CCAALI) at Yale Law School, for a compelling workshop on animal law. Laura will share her expertise on the environmental and public health impacts of extreme farmed animal confinement, strategic litigation for protecting animals and human health, and the evolving legal landscape under different federal administrations. She will also discuss the interconnected suffering of pigs and people, offering insights into specific legal challenges and innovative solutions. (A vegan lunch will be served. Please RSVP to secure your spot.)

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/09/79134/

Learn about the Justice Center and the support and resources we provide for students interested in nonprofit, government, and legislative service. Chat over lunch with Justice Center staff and students who are involved in our projects.

Register by 12PM on Thursday, October 3rd at https://justicecenteropenhouse24.eventbrite.com.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/10/78872/

This is the second round of the Foley & Lardner Novice Mock Trial Competition. The round will be held at 6:00PM. This competition is for those who have not competed in a Texas Law intramural mock trial competition before. Please contact Kacey Simmons (kacey.simmons@utexas.edu) for more information.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/10/78833/

Join LS4BL and Professors Jim Marcus, Raoul Schonemann and Thea Posel for a lunchtime event discussing the intersection between Capital Punishment and Race.

Food will be served!

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/14/79028/

TOPIC: College Sports, Money, and Student Athletes

WHO’S INVITED: Texas Law Alumni in the Washington, D.C. area

EVENT DETAILS: Please join us for a social hour followed by an insightful talk with Professor Mechele Dickerson. Enjoy light hors d’oeuvres and drinks before the program.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Professor Mechele Dickerson is known for teaching law courses built around current events. Her latest course is studying, in real-time, the class action lawsuits involving the NCAA that will radically alter the landscape of college athletics and could result in these athletes being paid. Professor Dickerson is the Faculty Athletics Representative for the entire University of Texas and is the mother of two collegiate athletes.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/16/79257/

On Thursday, October 17, the Strauss Center hosts Michael Turner, nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, for a fireside chat with Strauss distinguished scholar Michael Mosser on “On the Ground in China: Perspectives from the Former State Department Spokesperson in Beijing.”

In this discussion and subsequent Q&A, Mr. Turner will discuss his experiences in his most recent post as spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, particularly regarding lessons he learned in managing strategic crisis communications and effectively conveying U.S. messaging priorities within an information environment ripe with disinformation.

This event is co-sponsored by the Strauss-Clements Asia Policy Program and the LBJ School of Public Affairs and is part of the Brumley Speaker Series. Lunch will be provided. This talk will be under Chatham House rules and registration is required: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/on-the-ground-in-china-perspectives-of-state-dept-spokesperson-in-beijing-tickets-1041454557617

For more information about this event, please contact Brittany Horton at brittany.horton@austin.utexas.edu.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/17/79396/

This is the final round of the Foley & Lardner Novice Mock Trial Competition. The round will be held at 6:00PM. This competition is for those who have not competed in a Texas Law intramural mock trial competition before. Please contact Kacey Simmons (kacey.simmons@utexas.edu) for more information.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/17/78834/

This is the final round of the Foley & Lardner Novice Mock Trial Competition. The round will be held at 6:00PM. This competition is for those who have not competed in a Texas Law intramural mock trial competition before. Please contact Kacey Simmons (kacey.simmons@utexas.edu) for more information.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/17/78853/

Come tailgate with TJOGEL and the KBH Energy Center!

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/19/79541/

Join leading experts on free speech and the First Amendment for an engaging and timely discussion on recent campus protests relating to the war in Israel and Gaza. They will explore what universities, including the University of Texas, have done effectively, where they’ve fallen short, and the broader implications for First Amendment rights.

Please RSVP by Monday, October 16th (see link) to reserve a seat and lunch. We hope you join us!

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/21/79177/

How does change happen? Movement in the public interest often involves vision, alliance-building, and patience. Where do lawyers and the law fit in? Author and Executive Director of Detention Watch Network Silky Shah and Professor Andrea Meza of the Government Accountability Project will discuss lessons learned from the immigrant rights movement. Professor Elissa Steglich will moderate the discussion.     Please RSVP by 12 pm, October 17.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/21/78955/

This speaker series considers the criminalization of reproduction—historical and contemporary, local and global—largely through the lens of reproductive justice.

RSVP

Abstract: President Trump’s harsh, exclusionary anti-immigrant policies were bolstered by rhetoric that demonized migrant pregnancy and motherhood. including tropes like “birth tourism,” “anchor baby,” “chain migration,” and “public charge.” The Obama and Biden administrations, in contrast, enacted and publicized policies excepting pregnant women from otherwise intensive immigration enforcement regimes, projecting an image of humanitarian concern. This paper uses critical feminist ethnography to study the impact of pregnancy-related immigration policies on the lived experiences of pregnant migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border from 2017-2022. It documents the impacts of a shifting landscape of exclusion, expulsion, deportation, detention, and release during an era of rapid migration policy change. The findings are clear: under every policy regime, pregnant women are negatively impacted. During periods characterized by increased detention, detention conditions are poor. During periods characterized by exclusion and expulsion, pregnant women are forced to wait in dangerous, precarious conditions in Northern Mexico, increasing the likelihood that they will attempt a perilous desert crossing into the United States. And during periods characterized by a greater chance of receiving humanitarian parole due to pregnancy, parole is seldom granted to partners and family members, making family separation inseparable from a supposedly humanitarian exception.

Amanda Heffernan is a nurse midwife and Assistant Professor at Seattle University College of Nursing, where she is also Clinical Placement Coordinator for the Midwifery Program. In addition, she is a Seattle University PACE (Partnership for Advancing Community Engagement) Fellow and a faculty fellow at the Seattle University Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture. Her research interests sit at the intersection of migration and reproductive justice, including the impact of detention on families and the experiences of pregnant migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. She is author of “Pregnancy in United States Immigration Detention: The Gendered Necropolitics of Reproductive Oppression” in International Feminist Journal of Politics. She received a Ph.D. in Nursing from the University of New Mexico, an MSN in Nurse-Midwifery from Frontier Nursing University, a B.S. in Nursing from the University of Washington, and a B.A. in History from Whitman College.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/21/78333/

On Tuesday, October 22, the Strauss Center hosts Alexander Gray, former Deputy Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff of the White House National Security Council, for a fireside chat with Strauss Center Director Adam Klein about what the world can expect regarding “Foreign Policy and National Security in a Second Trump Term.”

This event will be held at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and is part of the Brumley Speaker Series. Lunch will be provided and RSVPs are not required.

For more information about this event, please contact Brittany Horton at brittany.horton@austin.utexas.edu.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/22/79298/

This public panel discussion on xenophobia at the U.S.-Mexico border will feature United Nations experts, scholars, organizers, and policymakers in dialogue with the community.

Panelists:

Dr. Pablo Ceriani Cernadas, UN Committee on Migrant Workers

Dr. Ibrahima Guissé, UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Shoba Sivaprasad-Wadhia, Director of the DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

Professor Rebecca Sharpless, Author of Shackled: 92 Refugees Imprisoned on ICE Air, University of Miami School of Law

Claudia Muñoz, Community organizer, Organiza Texas

The panel will follow a day-long expert consultation on the southwest border that will contribute to an initiative of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the United Nations Committee on Migrant Workers to address xenophobia and human rights violations against migrants. If you are a UT faculty member or student and are interested in observing the consultation, please fill out the following form: https://utexas.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6u81WgpPAoSv8ea

This event is hosted by the Immigration Clinic and Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice at Texas Law, with support from the Sissy Farenthold Fund for Peace and Social Justice, Texas Global, Institute for Urban Policy Research & Analysis, Latin American Initiative at Texas Law, Latino Studies, William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law, Center for Asian American Studies, John L. Warfield Center for African & African Diaspora Studies, and Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS).

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/22/78430/

Attorneys from a variety of firms and companies will be in attendance for a networking happy hour. The event is jointly sponsored by all of the IP, Technology, and Sports/Entertainment law organizations.

RSVPs will be required before the event.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/23/78391/

Coffee Hosted by the Animal Law Student Organization and Sponsored by ALDF

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/29/79278/

Join the Justice Center's Student Advisory Board as we begin our monthly Public Interest Office Hours! These sessions are aimed at providing peer support for students who want to learn more about public interest lawyering. This month, members of the Student Advisory Board will be available to answer any questions students have about internships, classes, and more. If you're a 1L who is not sure where to begin on your public interest journey, this is also for you! Your Student Advisory Board is here to support you in forging that path. Stop by the Jamail Pavilion on Tuesday, October 29 from 12-1PM for conversation, coffee, and kolaches!

Please save the dates for our future Public Interest Office Hours, Nov.19, Dec. 19 (virtual), Jan. 14, and Feb. 11.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/29/79717/

Join the Justice Center for a mid-semester lunch as part of the EmPOWERed for Public Interest (EPI) initiative!

During “Mid-Semester Lunch: Community Conversations,” students will have the opportunity to engage with each other in an informal setting. Small group discussions will be guided by thought-provoking questions to encourage self-reflection and deeper connections. At the end of the lunch, students will have an opportunity to share their takeaways with the larger group.

Whether you want to share a personal story or listen, this event is a chance to connect with like-minded students! This event is part of the Justice Center initiative designed to support students whose lived experiences, or those of their loved ones, intersect with the legal systems they aspire to challenge in their careers. EPI gatherings seek to address the specific challenges and burnout that public interest law students may experience while advocating for vulnerable communities they personally identify with.

Please RSVP by Friday, October 25th, at 5:00 P.M.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/30/79336/

Join LS4BL and Professor Wasserman for a lunchtime event discussing the intersection between Torts and Race.

Lunch will be served!

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/31/78993/

Does the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) compel Texas emergency room physicians to perform elective abortions? Please join Texas Law Students for Life on Thursday, October 31, at noon in TNH 2.124 as Amy Hilton of the Texas Attorney General’s Office discusses Texas v. Becerra, a case about EMTALA and its interaction with Texas laws.

Full event information: https://law.utexas.edu/calendar/2024/10/31/79755/