This panel discusses the numerous changes and challenges facing federal labor and employment agencies. Potential issues include executive orders' impact on the EEOC's priorities; the Supreme Court's pending ruling on the firing of political appointees with just-cause protection; constitutional challenges to the NLRB; and disruptions in the ability of the MSPB, FLRA, and Office of Special Counsel to enforce federal employee protections. The panel also explores how these changes and challenges may impact employers and employees.
This workshop gives faculty the opportunity to present a work-in-progress and to receive substantive feedback on their work from scholars with varying degrees of experience in the academy who write in similar or related fields. Each participant both submits their own work and reviews that of their fellow participants in advance of the meeting, leading to a more interactive exchange of ideas. Unlike other works-in-progress programs, the participants in this session are chosen from a request for submissions.
This workshop gives faculty the opportunity to present a work-in-progress and to receive substantive feedback on their work from scholars with varying degrees of experience in the academy who write in similar or related fields. Each participant both submits their own work and reviews that of their fellow participants in advance of the meeting, leading to a more interactive exchange of ideas. Unlike other works-in-progress programs, the participants in this session are chosen from a request for submissions.
This discussion group explores emerging trends and challenges in teaching legal research to first-year and upper-level law students. Participants examine strategies for integrating AI-powered research tools, developing new or revised courses aligned with evolving professional competencies, and preparing students for the research components of the NextGen Bar Exam. The session provides opportunities to share innovative teaching approaches, discuss assessment methods, and consider how legal research instruction can best support future-ready law graduates.
This is an ongoing working group, open to all interested parties, developing an update to the 2015 best practices and model recommendations. Online delivery is significantly different because online can be part of an existing course, a course that is part of a traditional curriculum, or an program operated under a variance. The participants will work on a forthcoming book project related to updating guidelines, recommendations, and good practices to help schools with their continuous improvement of online learning and pedagogy. This discussion is intended for anyone already working on the project or interested in joining this ongoing effort.
As the tools available for legal research and citation evolve, so must our teaching. This panel explores how law professors can effectively teach foundational research and citation skills while also preparing students to navigate--and critically assess--emerging technologies._x000D_ _x000D_ Panelists will discuss ways to balance traditional strategies with the realities of modern practice, where legal research platforms and generative AI tools are rapidly changing lawyers' everyday tasks. _x000D_
This discussion will focus on the Trump Administration's efforts to strip universities (and law schools, to the extent some have been swept up in those efforts) of federal funds for reasons ranging from failure to control antisemitic harassment on campus to efforts to seize control of university hiring, admissions, and education. It will focus on the (likely ongoing) litigation involving Harvard, as well as the many universities that have settled in ways that surrender control over how the university functions. This panel will explore issues of academic freedom for students, faculty, and the university as a whole.
Tax faces both new challenges and the ongoing impacts of perennial problems. This panel addresses both from a productive range of approaches. Panel members bring comprehensive expertise on both state and federal tax law and policy. The panel addresses questions of access to justice in tax, tax administration, state tax policy, tax as a check on accumulated power, and more.
This panel addresses issues related to legal mentoring. While many surveys of new lawyers show that they want mentors, little research has been conducted about best practices in legal mentoring. This panel joins legal scholars and actively practicing lawyers to discuss what good legal mentoring might entail, potential characteristics of good legal mentors, and what mentees gain from mentoring opportunities. The hope is that this discussion will lead to additional research and thinking on legal mentoring.
This workshop revolves around demonstrations of teaching by award-winning professors who have thought long and hard about their craft and their role. With studies showing that engagement and motivation are important factors in learning, these teachers illustrate how their teaching promotes engaged and motivated students. This is a particularly useful session for those wondering how to minimize distractions, use collaboration, interact with students, and promote long-term learning.
This panel addresses the negative emotions and concerns that newer (and sometimes experienced) professors face: Am I good enough? Did I make a mistake in class? Did I make a mistake with my colleagues? Did I damage my career? What will people who matter think of me? The panelists will discuss how to navigate the less-than-perfect trajectories common in law professor careers and how to reach a place of confidence and success in the academy. In addition, they will address how transparency regarding vulnerability and failure can serve as assets in connecting with students. Their contributions draw on personal experience, neuroscience, and perspectives from the dean's suite.
Families find themselves in court for many reasons and the standards and procedures that apply are often shifting and opaque. This panel explores how courts and court systems evaluate and adjudicate issues within the family unit. Panelists and their papers address a series of issues that might arise, ranging from domestic violence to evidentiary issues to custody disputes involving transgender parents to the sealing of court records.
Constructing exams that are valid and reliable is one of the most important and challenging tasks we have as professors. Grading in a fair and efficient manner requires careful thought and planning. A panel of experienced professors addresses topics such as generating ideas, different question types and formats (including multiple choice questions), drafting the exam, fairness issues, grading, and giving feedback.
This panel brings together a diverse group of scholars who are currently examining several significant and emerging issues shaping modern business and mass-tort restructuring. The presentations will explore the evolution and increasing use of liability-management exercises ("LMEs") in both the U.S. and Europe, as well as the scope, application, and potential limits of the bankruptcy court's injunctive powers in complex cases. Panelists will also address developing questions involving the treatment of future claims in mass-tort bankruptcies and the interpretation of the absolute priority rule in Subchapter V proceedings.
The Trump Administration has demonstrated its willingness to use force against other states, such as Venezuela and Iran, as well as against non-state actors, such as suspected drug traffickers in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Such uses of force by the executive branch are subject to both international law and constitutional law limitations. This panel will examine whether the Trump Administration's uses of force can be justified under international law, and in particular under the law of self-defense in light of its imminence requirement. This panel will also examine whether the Trump Administration's uses of force amount to constitutionally authorized unilateral executive action, or if the president is required to obtain congressional approval.
Employers have long used emerging technology to improve their businesses. Currently, these technologies, especially AI, are being used in numerous ways including screening and evaluating job applicants, monitoring work, tracking productivity, interacting with and managing workers, scheduling, and replacing human workers. This discussion group considers the impact of these technologies on the workplace and their interaction with current and possibly new labor and employment laws. We will also discuss how workers can shape the use of AI and other technologies, such as through unions.
This discussion group offers a forum for consumer law, commercial law, and bankruptcy scholars to workshop a work-in-progress or emerging idea for a future project. The scope of this discussion group encompasses any contract, consumer, commercial and/or bankruptcy law-related theme and is intentionally broad. Discussants briefly present an idea for an early-stage project (5-10 minutes) and receive feedback from other discussants._x000D_ _x000D_
Associate deans for faculty research discuss how they use innovative methods to promote faculty scholarship and raise the profiles of individual faculty members and their institutions. Discussants share ideas about ways they have introduced new programming, changed existing processes, implemented new incentive programs, maximized efficiency, encouraged and incorporated the use of AI into the development and promotion of faculty scholarship, and creatively problem-solved in their roles._x000D_
The state's power to separate children from their parents is wielded in a variety of ways, including through the child protection system. This panel uses a critical lens to examine how the state polices families and how decisions about child welfare are made in a wide range of contexts. Participants will provide perspectives on religion and child custody as well as international frameworks, kinship care, and abolition of the family policing system.
