10.2–4.23 ›› Hema Sarang-Sieminski ’05, deputy director of Jane Doe Inc., came to Northeastern for three days in October as a Daynard Public Interest Law Fellow. Sarang-Sieminski spoke about the need for creating responsive public policy, promoting collaboration, raising public awareness and supporting Jane Doe Inc.’s member organizations. She emphasized the need for providing comprehensive prevention and intervention services to end sexual assault and domestic violence.

9.15.23 ›› Professor Paul Schiff Berman of George Washington University Law School spoke about how the Supreme Court’s Dobbs abortion decision has created perhaps the biggest set of nationwide conflicts-of-law problems since the era of the Fugitive Slave Act before the Civil War. In this talk, Berman, a leading scholar on the interaction of legal systems, discussed the current state of the law with regard to how such conflicts-of-law questions might be resolved in the abortion context.

11.10.23 ›› Together with the Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota Law School, PHRGE co-hosted this exploration of the ways in which economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights are (or are not) embedded in national or subnational constitutions. Speakers shared experiences with constitutional drafting as well as thoughts about constitutional construction and the role of international human rights law in those processes. The overarching focus was on the impacts of constitutionalizing ESC rights.

11.30.23 ›› Northeastern Law’s Criminal Justice Task Force, part of the Center for Law, Equity and Race, convened its inaugural Jail-to-Jobs Pipeline Project roundtable in November, facilitated by Professor Deborah Ramirez. More than 20 criminal justice experts gathered to advise and assist the task force in creating a robust structure that provides justice-involved individuals with successful employment development, with the goal of reducing recidivism across Massachusetts.

I am grateful to all of the roundtable members for helping to create the infrastructure and architecture necessary for this pipeline.”

— Professor Deborah Ramirez

12.5.23 ›› CLEAR hosted a workshop discussion with practitioners and scholars focused on issues related to Black land ownership, loss and retention and the cultivation of generational wealth within the Black community.

11.17.23 ›› This CLEAR event featured a presentation by Dr. Godfrey Vincent, author of Rebels at the Gates: The Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) in the Era of George Weekes, 1962–1987. Vincent discussed the struggles for workers’ rights in the Caribbean from the 1960s to the 1980s and the lessons this history provides for today’s US labor movement as it addresses working conditions.

10.26.23 ›› When Simon Tam started an Asian American dance rock band called The Slants, he didn’t realize that he was starting an entire movement around freedom of expression and discussions on identity. The band flipped stereotypes with their bombastic live shows and community activism. But when Simon applied to register a trademark on the band’s name, the government dragged him all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. Tam came to Northeastern to share his gripping, funny, enlightening and ultimately uplifting story and to sign copies of his memoir, Slanted: How an Asian American Troublemaker Took on the Supreme Court.

10.27.23 ›› Gabriel Arkles, a former Northeastern Law faculty member and current litigation director at the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, spoke about the rights of trans people to access healthcare and to apply for a legal name change regardless of criminal history. He also spoke about the need for safer treatment in jail.

12.6.23 ›› Northeastern Law’s annual Labor and Employment Program provides a unique opportunity to hear from recognized experts in the field of labor and employment law. As always, those in attendance made new connections and heard new perspectives on issues of critical importance to attorneys, judges, neutrals, government practitioners, union representatives, in-house counsel and human resources professionals.