Legal Symposium: Fix Our Constitution
All-Inclusive Gender Equality Under the Law
Using Hopin, VoteEqualityUS is hosting a series of legal panels and symposiums (we are ALL Zoomed out). Hopin has the ability to look and feel a little more like a conference than just a meeting / presentation. Tickets are free and open to the public with the exception of small-group facilitated discussions after panels, which are reserved for law students only. We will host a series of legal symposiums this coming spring. Some offerings will be in a block format (series of panels all in the same day) and others in a series over days / weeks. This page will be updated with symposium offerings as they are finalized.
Symposium contents:
The 28th Amendment (Equal Rights) will bring America one step closer to its promise of liberty and justice for all. Bright, young legal minds want to discuss legal strategies to address discrimination, particularly at the intersection of gender, race, class, and ethnicity.
VoteEqualityUS will host virtual legal symposiums on gender equality, inviting students from over 30 law schools to participate. In addition to the more traditional panels of experts, our symposiums will include small-group discussion, during which students discuss and develop litigation strategies using the 28th Amendment to challenge gender inequality.
Each symposium will begin with the following:
- Our lead panel which discussing the case Virginia v Ferriero with the lead counsel and plaintiffs (Attorneys General of Illinois, Nevada, and Virginia).
- A short video by the VoteEqualityUS interns introducing a wide variety of areas and experiences in which gender discrimination impacts Americans.
Next, students will join a one hour panel discussion, selected during registration, followed by a short break and a one hour small group discussion facilitated by a practitioner, professor, or subject matter expert.
The panels and discussions will cover specific areas of gender inequality in American society, the lives affected, and how our legal system impacts the issue. The facilitated sessions will focus on litigation strategies: using the 28th Amendment to challenge gender inequality.
Secondary panels will differ for each symposium but will be selected from this list of topics:
- Criminal justice reform (panelists listed below)
- Education
- Employment law
- Pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare (panelists listed below)
- Gender violence
- Healthcare
- International law
- Law enforcement
- Military
- Housing
Criminal justice reform
The panelists are Nora Demleitner, the Roy L. Steinheimer Jr. Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law; Jayne Downing, Executive Director at Center for Hope and Safety; and Deborah Golden, an attorney specializing in prisoner rights and complex civil rights litigation. The panel will be moderated by Zoe Spencer, Emmy award winning writer, freedom fighter, and professor at Virginia State University.
Pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare
The panelists are Melissa Murray, professor of family law, criminal law, constitution law, and reproductive rights at NYU Law School; Vicki Shabo, senior fellow, paid leave policy and strategy, at the New America Foundation; and Tamar Holoshitz, associate at Paul, Weiss and a lead lawyer on the Virginia v Ferriero amicus brief. The panel will be moderated by Anne Weisberg, Women's Initiative Director at Paul, Weiss.
International law
The panelists are Jody Heymann, MD, PhD, and Founding Director, WORLD Policy Analysis Center; Antonia Kirkland, Esq. and Global Lead for Legal Equality and Access to Justice, Equality Now; and Melissa Upreti Vice Chair of the UN Working Group of the Human Rights Council on the issue of discrimination against women and girls and Senior Director, Program and Global Advocacy, Center for Women's Global Leadership, Rutgers University. The panel will be moderated by Shelby R. Quast, Esq., human rights attorney and Co-Founder, VoteEqualityUS.