Hear a Lecture, There a Lecture

Fall 2023 Lectures, Conferences and More

Hema Sarang-Sieminski ’05, deputy director of Jane Doe Inc. (JDI), returned to came to Northeastern Law for three days in October as a Daynard Public Interest Law Fellow.

Daynard Public Interest Law Fellows Program

In the Muddy Spaces: On Collective Liberation and Our Work to End Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence

Photos by David Leifer

LEFT TO RIGHT: Sarang-Sieminski ’05 was joined in a roundtable, “Moving the Mainstream Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Movements Toward Healing, Accountability and Abolition,” which featured: Lola Remy, director of pro bono programs for the Women’s Bar Foundation of Massachusetts; Professor Hayat Bearat, interim director of Northeastern Law’s Domestic Violence Institute (panel moderator); and Morgan Wilson ’17, CEO of Wilson Consulting.

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.

Center for Health Policy and Law

Conflicts of Law and the Abortion War between the States — A Conversation with Paul Schiff Berman

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.

Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE)

Constitutionalizing Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

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.

Criminal Justice Task Force and Center for Law, Equity and Race

Jail-to-Jobs Pipeline Project Roundtable

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

Center for Law, Equity and Race (CLEAR)

Potential Strategies to Address Black Land Loss

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.

George Weekes and the Caribbean Radical Tradition: A Labor Narrative and Lessons for Today’s Labor Movement in the US

Photo by Catherine McGloin

Professor Selwyn Cudjoe of Wellesley College (left) in conversation with Professor Karl Klare (center) and Dr. Godfrey Vincent of Wilberforce University

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.

Center for Law, Information and Creativity (CLIC)

Slanted: Stories and Songs with Simon Tam and The Slants

Photos by Michael Manning

RIGHT: Joe X. Jiang (left) and Simon Tam of The Slants performed for a law school audience. Bottom left: Professor Alexandra Roberts introduced the program.

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.

Center for Health Policy and Law

Annual Lecture: Trans Health, Prisons and Democracy

Photos by Michael Manning

LEFT: Gabriel Arkles, one of the nation’s top litigators for transgender rights. RIGHT:: Mehreen Butt (right), managing director of the Center for Health Policy and Law, conversed with attendees at the annual health lecture.

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.

Office of Development and Alumni/ae Relations

Annual Labor and Employment Program

Photos by Michael Manning

LEFT: Bryan Decker ’92 (left) introduced a panel on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) featuring Jennifer Abruzzo (virtual), NLRB general counsel; Joe McConnell ’93 (seated, left), a partner with Morgan, Brown & Joy; and Ryan Quinn ’19 (seated, right), an attorney at Segal Roitman. RIGHT: This panel on the impact of the Supreme Court on DEI and LGBTQ+ rights and religious accommo-dations featured (from left) Beth Myers ’09, a partner with Burns & Levinson; Kiana Pierre-Louis, assistant dean for DEI at Northeastern Law; Laurie Bishop ’08, a partner with Hirsch Roberts Weinstein; and Joshua Abrams ’97, senior attorney with Mass General Brigham

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.

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Spotlight

  • A judiciary representative of the population it serves is a fundamental necessity, says Justice Ramon Ocasio III ’88.

  • “Let your work be a beacon that lights the way for others, a testament to the values you have embraced in your time here.” Senator William “Mo” Cowan ’94 told the more than 200 JD, LLM and MLS students who graduated on May 10, 2024, in Matthews Arena.

  • Northeastern Law’s Center for Health Policy and Law (CHPL), in collaboration with Northeastern University Bouvé College of Health Sciences’ Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research, has received $1 million from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to support and expand upon Salus Populi, the nation’s first education program for judges that provides critical information about the social determinants of health