Symposium Celebrating History of Women Lawyers

Rutgers School of Law - Newark presents:

“Rutgers School of Law-Newark Celebrates Women Reshaping American Law” - Feb. 13, 2009

United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be the keynote speaker for the symposium "Rutgers School of Law-Newark Celebrates Women Reshaping American Law" on Friday, February 13, 2009.
The all-day event marks the publication of a new book Equal: Women Reshape American Law (Norton, February 2009), which tells the narrative history of the pioneering work of women lawyers to compel the law and the legal profession to address gender discrimination.  Opening remarks at the symposium will be delivered by the book's author, Fred Strebeigh, a Yale University professor of non-fiction writing. He will discuss his research and the integral role of Rutgers School of Law-Newark in advancing gender equity for women.  Professor Catharine A. MacKinnon of the University of Michigan Law School will deliver the closing remarks.

Speakers also include Diane Crothers, Esq. (Rutgers '74), co-founder of the Women's Rights Law Reporter; Janice Goodman, Esq., former director, Rutgers Women's Rights Litigation Clinic; Diana Guza-Wells (Rigelman) (Rutgers '72), J.D., M.D., who, as a Rutgers law student, was involved with Justice Ginsburg's first gender discrimination legal work; Professor Emerita Annamay Sheppard (Rutgers '58), faculty member in the Rutgers Women's Rights Litigation Clinic; and Clinical Professor and Director of the Special Education Clinic Esther Canty-Barnes (Rutgers '81).

For more information and online registration, please see http://law.newark.rutgers.edu/WomenReshapingAmericanLaw.html.  Please register by Feb. 6, 2009.

Two panels will follow Justice Ginsburg's keynote luncheon address. In the first, women who feature prominently in Equal: Women Reshape American Law will discuss their successful pioneering litigation and legislative efforts in the areas of pregnancy discrimination, sexual harassment, and violence against women. Speakers will be: Professor Sarah E. Burns, New York University School of Law; Professor Sally F. Goldfarb, Rutgers School of Law-Camden; Professor Catharine A. MacKinnon, University of Michigan Law School; Professor Victoria Nourse, Emory University School of Law and University of Wisconsin Law School; Professor Susan Deller Ross, Georgetown University Law Center; and Professor Wendy Webster Williams, Georgetown University Law Center.

The second panel will focus on the history of women in the legal profession. Speakers will include: the Hon. Marilyn H. Loftus (Rutgers '61) (Ret.), Appellate Division, New Jersey Superior Court, chair of the first judicial gender bias task force in the country; Diane Serafin Blank, Esq., the named plaintiff in a 1970s class action lawsuit challenging a major law firm's hiring practices as discriminatory against women; Ann Berger Lesk (Rutgers '77), a partner of Fried Frank and president of the New York County Lawyers' Association; Professor Twila Perry, Rutgers School of Law-Newark; Lynn Hecht Schafran, Esq., senior vice president and director, National Judicial Education Program, Legal Momentum (formerly NOW Legal Defense Fund); and Associate Professor Diana Sclar, Rutgers School of Law-Newark.