Colleges and universities face special challenges in designing and implementing procedures to respond to campus sexual and gender-based misconduct, while maintaining an academic community with equal educational opportunities for all students.
In this episode Suzanne Goldberg, Professor of Law at Columbia Law School and Executive Vice President for University Life at Columbia University, and Gil Sparks, member and past Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Delaware, discuss what schools are doing to implement procedures that are both effective and fair for those who have suffered from such misconduct and for those accused.
Suzanne Goldberg
The founding director of Columbia Law School’s trailblazing Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic, Suzanne Goldberg has led the clinic since joining the faculty in 2006. One of the country’s foremost experts on gender and sexuality law and a leading advocate and attorney for the LGBTQ+ community, she is also co-director of the Law School’s Center for Gender and Sexuality.
Since April 2024, she has served in the U.S. Department of State as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights. Prior to that role, since September 2023, she served as Senior Advisor and Legal Expert to the Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons at the U.S. Department of State. She began her federal service in January 2021 as deputy assistant secretary for Strategic Operations and Outreach in the Office for Civil Rights (serving as acting assistant secretary) at the U.S. Department of Education.
An award-winning teacher who has received the Law School’s Willis L.M. Reese Prize for Excellence in Teaching and been named the Public Interest Professor of the Year, Goldberg has served as Columbia University’s inaugural executive vice president for university life since 2015. In this role, she works to broaden and reinforce the university’s commitment to respect, inclusion, and ethical leadership among students, faculty, and administrators.
Goldberg launched her career as an advocate at Lambda Legal, the country’s first and largest legal organization focused on achieving full equality for LGBTQ+ people. While at Lambda, she worked on immigration, employment discrimination, and family law matters as well as two cases that became cornerstone gay rights victories at the U.S. Supreme Court: Lawrence v. Texas, the landmark decision that struck down Texas’s sodomy law, and Romer v. Evans, which overturned an anti-gay Colorado constitutional amendment. She has continued this advocacy as a professor at Columbia, filing briefs in nearly every marriage equality case in the United States.
From 2000 to 2006, Goldberg was on the faculty of Rutgers University School of Law, where she directed the Women’s Rights Litigation Clinic. Goldberg has also served as a clerk to Justice Marie Garibaldi of the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Goldberg is a frequent commentator and analyst for the news media on the MeToo movement, sexuality and gender law, and discrimination law and litigation issues. Her commentary has been featured on the ABC News program 20/20, CNN, and other television networks as well as on the radio and in news outlets around the world.
Professor Goldberg is currently on leave serving in the federal government.
Gil Sparks
Gil Sparks is a consulting member of the Corporate & Business Litigation Group and the Delaware Corporate Counseling Group. Gil is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers; a fellow of the American Bar Foundation; a fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers; an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Governance Counsel; a member and past Chairman of the Corporate Laws Committee of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association; and a member of The American Law Institute.
He is former chairman of the Corporation Law Section, Delaware State Bar Association, and the Delaware State Board of Bar Examiners; and former co-chairman of the Professional Liability Litigation Committee of the ABA Litigation Section. Gil is co-author of Delaware Corporation Law and Practice (Matthew Bender 1988-Present). He also serves as a member of the Planning Committee of the Tulane Corporate Law Institute of which he is a former chair. He is also a member and past Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Delaware. Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business has described Gil as the “dean of the [Chancery] bar.” Gil was named a Delaware Super Lawyer in 2014 and has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America for various areas of law. He was selected as one of the leading M&A lawyers by the Legal Media Group’s Guide to the World’s Leading Mergers and Acquisitions Lawyers in 2008 and he is regarded as “one of the most influential players in corporate governance,” as stated in Directorship 100’s in 2007.
For a transcript of the full episode, please contact communications@ali.org.
