Hear a Lecture, There a Lecture
Selected Lectures, Conferences and Events, Fall 2025–Spring 2026
Daynard Public Interest Law Fellows
Twice a year, the Daynard Public Interest Law Fellows Program brings nationally recognized public interest leaders to campus.
Frontline Solutions in the Age of Political and Climate Disruption
Left to Right: Professor Sharmila Murthy, who moderated the roundtable, with Elizabeth Yeampierre ’83; Sophia Owen ’14, director of environmental justice legal services and senior attorney at Alternatives for Community and Environment; and Miles Gresham, policy director for Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts.
Photograph by David Leifer
10.6–10.8.25 » Elizabeth Yeampierre ’83, co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance and executive director of UPROSE, came to Boston as the fall Daynard Fellow. She delivered a community lecture, “Frontline Solutions in the Age of Political and Climate Disruption,” and participated in a roundtable discussion, “Building a Cross-Sectoral Movement When the Sky Is Falling.”
Meeting the Moment: Law, Courage and the Path Forward for Transgender Rights
Jennifer Levi (left) and Dee Farmer
Photograph by David Leifer
2.2–3.26 » Jennifer Levi, senior director of transgender and queer rights at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law), came to campus as the spring Daynard Fellow. Levi delivered a community lecture, “Meeting the Moment: Law, Courage and the Path Forward for Transgender Rights,” and participated in a discussion, “Doe/Moe/Jones v. Bondi: A Case Study,” with Dee Farmer, a trailblazing transgender rights advocate whose prison case reached the Supreme Court and helped establish prison officials’ duty to protect people from known risks of sexual violence.
The Four-Part Series: Lawyering in a Time of Authoritarian Threat
Suzanne Summerlin (left) and Professor Ryan Quinn ’19 discussed how federal workers’ unions have pushed back against the federal administration by fighting in court to protect both collective bargaining rights and the future of federal agencies targeted by the administration.
Photograph by Michael Manning
FALL 2025 » This four-part series included critical conversations examining how legal advocates respond to threats against democratic institutions and the rule of law. The open classroom discussions were a key component of Professor Rachel Rosenbloom’s course Lawyering in a Time of Authoritarian Threat.
- Resisting the Intersecting Attacks on Immigrants and on Pro-Palestine Speech featuring Mahsa Khanbabai, founder of Khanbabai Immigration Law
- Resisting the Attack on Queer and Trans People featuring Chase Strangio ’10, co-director of the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project
- Resisting the Attack on Civil Rights and Racial Justice featuring Rahsaan Hall ’98, president and CEO of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts
- Resisting the Attack on Federal Workers featuring Suzanne Summerlin, founder of Summerlin Labor Strategies
Hope Lewis Distinguished Lecture
Cheryl Harris, Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at UCLA Law, a leading scholar in critical race theory recognized for her foundational contributions to the field, delivered the 2026 Lewis Lecture: “Meeting the Moment: 25 Years of Critical Race Studies.”
Photograph by Michael Manning
3.26.26 » The Hope Lewis Distinguished Lecture honors the late Professor Hope Lewis, a globally renowned legal scholar, human rights advocate and beloved Northeastern Law professor from 1992 until her untimely death in 2016.
Annual Health Law Lecture
10.29.25 » Elizabeth G. Taylor, executive director of the National Health Law Program, delivered the Center for Health Policy and Law’s annual lecture: “You Shouldn’t Need a Lawyer to See a Doctor — But Millions Do.” Drawing on her decades of advocacy for low-income patients, Taylor argued that systemic barriers — from coverage denials to complex enrollment processes — effectively force people to take legal action just to access basic medical care.
Often the fight seems never-ending and progress is difficult to see. But we can’t give up.
Annual Health Law Conference: Navigating the New Health Law Landscape
Dr. Rachel Pearson, author of No Apparent Distress: A Doctor’s Coming-of-Age on the Front Lines of American Medicine, delivered the keynote address, “Creative Constraints: Storytelling for Healing and Advocacy in Complicated Times.”
4.3.26 » This conference brought together legal scholars, practitioners and policymakers to explore pressing health law issues across panels on topics including Medicare/Medicaid, AI in healthcare, vaccine policy, FDA regulation and state innovation.
Salus Populi Judicial Education Program
11.14.25 » This full-day, interactive, seminar-style program provided judges with an introduction to the social determinants of health and their relationship to judicial decision-making. Topics included population health, socio-ecological health, poverty, structural racism and housing.
Public Health Advocacy Institute
Online Gambling and Public Health: An International Movement
4.24.26 » This landmark international symposium highlighted a comprehensive public health approach to the prevention of gambling harm, with policy discussions including international experts and state and federal legislators. (Professor Richard Daynard, president of PHAI, was honored with a congressional proclamation during the conference.)
The Six-Part Series: Issues in Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
In her talk, Professor Rebecca Hamilton focused on expanding international accountability mechanisms — through refined criminal law, tort and regulatory frameworks — to hold corporate enablers of mass atrocities (such as financiers, weapons suppliers and technology companies) legally responsible, closing the gap left by the International Criminal Court’s narrow focus on direct perpetrators.
Photograph by David Leifer
FALL 2025 » The Center for Global Law and Justice’s lecture series on cutting-edge issues in human rights and humanitarian law featured leading scholars in international law and related fields.
- Climate Change on Trial: Mobilizing Human Rights Litigation to Accelerate Climate Action featuring Professor César Rodríguez-Garavito, chair of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, NYU School of Law
- Apologies, Political Violence and Dealing with the Past featuring Kieran McEvoy, chair in peace, security and justice and professor of law and transitional justice at the Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queen’s University Belfast
- The Price of Consent featuring Professor Zohra Ahmed, Boston University School of Law
- Evidence-Based Transitional Justice featuring Professor Mara Revkin, Duke University School of Law
- Enablers of Atrocity featuring Professor Rebecca Hamilton, American University Washington College of Law
- The Master Narrative in Human Rights featuring Nathan Patz, Professor of Law and Matiangai Sirleaf, Maryland Carey Law
Valerie Gordon Human Rights Lecture
Left: The Black Law Students Association selected Lamar Richards ’28 (left) to receive the annual Spirit of Valerie Gordon Book Award for his essay “Not Homeless Enough for Help: Why Congress Must Redefine Homelessness After Grants Pass and Loper Bright.” Right: Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU’s Human Rights Program (HRP), delivered the 31st annual Gordon Lecture. Under his leadership, HRP has filed human rights lawsuits, published groundbreaking reports and advocated before regional and international human rights bodies.
Photograph by Michael Manning
03.27.26 » The annual Valerie Gordon Human Rights Lecture celebrates the memory of the late Valerie Gordon ’93, a fierce advocate for human rights in the US and internationally.
Social Media Design and the Law: Where Does Accountability Lie?
This panel featured (from left) Professor Elettra Bietti, Professor Laura Edelson of Northeastern University’s Khoury College of Computer Sciences, Yaël Eisenstat, director of policy and impact for Cybersecurity for Democracy, and Thomas McBrien, counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
Photograph by David Leifer
03.27.26 » The annual Valerie Gordon Human Rights Lecture celebrates the memory of the late Valerie Gordon ’93, a fierce advocate for human rights in the US and internationally.
11.13.25 » This panel brought together legal and technical experts to examine whether Section 230’s broad immunity protections should apply to social media platforms whose algorithmic design choices knowingly harm users, using a multi-district litigation involving Meta as a lens to explore the intersection of platform accountability, First Amendment law and algorithmic systems.
Trademark Law and Free Speech
2.3.26 » Professor Lisa Ramsey of the University of San Diego School of Law spoke about her new book, Trademarks and Free Speech: Conflicts and Resolutions (Cambridge University Press, 2026).
The starting point should be freedom of expression and the ability to use all words, symbols and designs to compete in the marketplace.
Influencer Law: Memes, Marketing and the Law
2.26.26 » This panel explored how copyright, trademark, right of publicity and false advertising law apply to the complex world of influencers — real, fake and everything in between.
Office of Alumni/ae Relations and Alumni/ae Association
Denise Carty-Bennia Memorial Bar Awards Reception
4.22.26 » The 33rd annual reception honoring Professor Denise Carty-Bennia’s legacy as a highly regarded attorney, educator, advisor, mentor and friend to countless Northeastern Law students included bar awards for 10 third-year students.
Office of Alumni/ae Relations
Annual Labor and Employment Program
12.03.25 » The Annual Labor and Employment Program featured two panels: One examined the sweeping impact of the current administration on federal labor agencies like the EEOC, DOL and NLRB, covering policy shifts, staffing and budget cuts, and the firing of top officials. The second panel tackled the current legal and regulatory landscape around DEI programs, discussing litigation risks, enforcement trends and strategies for structuring legally defensible initiatives. This event was generously sponsored by Fisher Phillips and Morgan, Brown & Joy.
Federal Labor and Employment Agencies Update
Left to Right: Michael Maccaro ’04, Paige McKissock ’13 and Professor Ryan Quinn ’19
Photograph by David Leifer
Panelists
- Michael Maccaro ’04 (left), Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane
- Paige McKissock ’13 (center), Segal Roitman
Moderator
- Professor Ryan Quinn ’19 (right)
DEI Under Scrutiny
Left to Right: Deepa Desai ’16, Anne Kinnane ’92 and Professor Kiana Baskin
Photograph by David Leifer
Panelists
- Deepa Desai ’16 (left), Fisher Phillips
- Anne Kinnane ’92 (center), Boston Consulting Group
- The Honorable Kalpana Kotagal (virtual), US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Moderator
- Professor Kiana Baskin (right)
Share
The Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive recently expanded its collection with 290 new victims and more than 5,000 new documents.
Professor Quisquella Addison took a group of undergraduates to Rwanda for a month through Northeastern’s Dialogue of Civilizations program.
In April, Professor Margaret Burnham’s colleagues, students and fellow travelers came together for a symposium to honor that work, celebrate Burnham’s retirement and recommit to carrying the torch forward.
