Justice Breyer Heads Impressive Roster of Annual Meeting Speakers
[Editor’s Note: The Institute congratulates Solicitor General Elena Kagan on her nomination to the Supreme Court. Ms. Kagan was scheduled to address the membership at the Institute’s Annual Dinner on May 18, but she is no longer able to join us at that event. Former Solicitor General Seth Waxman, one of the country’s premier Supreme Court and appellate advocates, has agreed to speak at the Annual Dinner. Mr. Waxman, currently a partner and Chair of the Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation Practice Group at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, served as Solicitor General from 1997 through January 2001. See http://2010am.ali.org/ for up-to-date Meeting information.]
At 2:00 p.m. on Monday, May 17, during the Institute’s 87th Annual Meeting at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer will deliver remarks on “Making the Constitution Work: A Supreme Court Justice’s View.” Justice Breyer will discuss key moments in the Supreme Court’s history that illustrate the importance of public acceptance of its decisions and the challenges the Court has faced in achieving public acceptance, as well as what the Court must do in the future to maintain the public’s trust. Justice Breyer, who taught for many years at Harvard Law School and at the Kennedy School of Government, has also worked as a Justice Department lawyer, an assistant Watergate special prosecutor, and chief counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 1980 he was appointed by President Carter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, becoming chief judge in 1990. In 1994 President Clinton appointed him to the Supreme Court. An Institute member since 1977, Justice Breyer spoke at ALI’s Annual Dinner in 1997.
ABA President Carolyn B. Lamm will speak at the Opening Session on May 17. She is a partner with White and Case in Washington, D.C., concentrating in international arbitration, international trade matters, and international commercial litigation. Ms. Lamm joined the Institute in 1984 and was elected to its Council in 2000. She serves as an Adviser to the Restatement Third of the U.S. Law of International Commercial Arbitration and was an Adviser for Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments: Analysis and Proposed Federal Statute.
Solicitor General of the United States Elena Kagan will address the membership at the Annual Dinner on May 18. Before her confirmation, she was the Charles Hamilton Houston Professor of Law and the dean of Harvard Law School. A leading scholar of administrative law, Solicitor General Kagan came to Harvard Law School as a visiting professor in 1999. She was appointed dean in 2003. From 1995 to 1999, Solicitor General Kagan served in the White House, first as Associate Counsel to the President and then as Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council.
ALI Treasurer Bennett Boskey will speak at the May 18 lunch honoring new life (25-year) members and new 50-year members. He will become Treasurer Emeritus at the close of the Annual Meeting. An ALI member for 59 years, Mr. Boskey was elected to the Council in 1972 and became Treasurer in 1975. He has been an Adviser on the Restatement Second of Judgments, the Restatement Third of Foreign Relations Law, the Complex Litigation Project, the Federal Judicial Code, and the current Nonprofit Organizations project. He has also served on the Institute Program Committee, the Capital Campaign Steering Committee, the Finance and Development Committee, the Style Manual Committee, and the Investment Committee. Mr. Boskey, currently in solo practice in Washington, D.C., received the Institute’s Distinguished Service Award in 2007.
Dean Christopher F. Edley, Jr., will address the membership during lunch on Wednesday, May 19. He became the first African American to lead a top-ranked U.S. law school in 2004, when he joined the University of California at Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) as dean and professor of law after 23 years at Harvard Law School. Dean Edley’s academic work is primarily in the areas of civil rights and administrative law. At UC Berkeley, Dean Edley is founder and faculty Co-Director of the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity. In July 2009 he was appointed by UC President Mark Yudof and Board of Regents Chairman Russell Gould to a 20-person commission on the future of the University.
Other special events scheduled before or during the Meeting include:
- an optional Dine-Around on Sunday, May 16, in which members without dinner plans may join other ALI members for dinner at one of several area restaurants by signing up at the Mayflower’s Concierge Desk;
- a CLE Program and Members Consultative Group meeting on the ALI’s World Trade Law project, on May 16 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Mayflower’s Rhode Island Room;
- a CLE program, Developments in Legal Ethics, on May 16 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the State Room at the Mayflower;
- a reception and buffet on May 17 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at The Newseum;
- a special session on new project development led by ALI Director Lance Liebman and Paul L. Friedman, Senior Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and Chair of the Program Committee, at 8:30 a.m. on May 19.
Some events require advance registration or ticket purchase. Complete information is available on the Institute’s website, www.ali.org, and in the Annual Meeting program mailed to members and Meeting invitees.