S.J. Quinney College of Law Events and Webinars

Justice Clarence Thomas, the longest-serving Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, has in recent years expressed idiosyncratic views on some key First Amendment issues. He has gained particular attention for staking out bold new positions on the free-speech treatment of both the press and social media. Justice Thomas urged, in one instance, that the Court reconsider the watershed media-law case of New York Times v. Sullivan, which interprets the First Amendment to make it difficult for public officials to bring libel suits and suggested, in another, that the Court should adjust its constitutional free-speech approach to take into account potential censorship within the highly concentrated, privately owned information infrastructure of digital platforms. In this webinar, media law experts RonNell Andersen Jones and Jeffrey Hunt explore the contours of Justice Thomas’s views, considering their origins, their place within the Justice’s wider jurisprudence, and their likelihood of gaining traction with the fuller Court.

Panelists:

Jeff Hunt, Shareholder, Parr Brown Gee & Loveless

RonNell Andersen Jones, Lee E. Teitelbaum Endowed Professor of Law, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law

This episode was originally recorded and broadcast on May 7, 2021

A Wallace Stegner Center Green Bag - Kurt Repanshek traces the history of bison from their near extinction to present-day efforts to bring them back to the landscape—and the biological, political, and cultural hurdles confronting these efforts. Repanshek explores Native Americans’ relationships with bison and presents a forward-thinking approach to returning bison to the West and improving the health of ecosystems.

Kurt Repanshek is an award-winning journalist well versed in public lands, wildlife, recreation, environmental, and development issues. After graduating from West Virginia University in 1979, he was hired in 1980 by The Associated Press, initially as a temporary legislative relief staffer, but offered a full-time job late that same year. In 1988, when wildfires swept across Yellowstone National Park and captured the world’s attention, he directed and provided coverage of the fires for The Associated Press. He has a diverse journalistic background, having written about the rich biodiversity that lies within Great Smoky Mountains National Park and launched National Parks Traveler, the world’s top-rated editorially independent website dedicated to daily news and feature coverage of national parks and protected areas.

Originally Broadcast and recorded January 28, 2021

By SJ Quinney, College of Law, University of Utah. Utah Law, ULaw 

A Conversation on the Barriers of Advancement and Retention of Women Lawyers and Insights into Gender Discrimination in Utah – a 2020 Study

Please join Dean Elizabeth Kronk Warner for her monthly dean’s book review. This month we will be discussing the findings of the survey, Barriers to Advancement: Findings from the 2020 Study of Gender & Racial Bias in Utah’s Legal Profession, along with insights into gender discrimination in Utah.  This topic was selected because March is Women’s History Month.

On the panel will be Dr. Christy Glass, Professor of Sociology & Interim Director Center for Intersectional Gender Studies & Research, Utah State University, Mica McKinney, Vice President of Legal Affairs and General Counsel, Utah State University and Margaret Plane, Special Counsel, Park City Municipal Corporation.  They will discuss the findings of the survey, discrimination in Utah and some helpful guidance and recommendations for increasing representation of women and avoiding bias in hiring and promotion decisions.

To view the study please visit https://initiative.utahwomenlawyers.org/

The study took the findings from over forty-five interviews that took place with a diverse group of interviewees, including women of color, LGBTQ+ women, solo practitioners, judges and women employed outside of the Salt Lake City area. Interview questions focused on work history, career mobility and work/life balance.

Project Summary of the Study

Study’s Purpose

Originally recorded and broadcast March 31, 2021

Please join Dean Elizabeth Kronk Warner for her monthly dean’s book review. The book to be reviewed will be, His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope by Jon Meacham, it is an intimate and revealing portrait of the civil rights icon and longtime U.S. congressman, linking his life to the painful quest for justice in America from the 1950s to his passing on July 17, 2020.

Meacham calls Lewis, a believer in the injunction that one should love one’s neighbor as oneself, Lewis was arguably a saint in our time, risking limb and life to bear witness for the powerless in the face of the powerful and he had an unshakable belief in the power of hope.

In many ways he brought a still-evolving nation closer to realizing its ideals, and his story offers inspiration and illumination for Americans today who are working for social and political change.

Please RSVP with the link provided in this email. Once registered you will receive the link to participate.

This book may be purchased or you can contact the Marriott Library to request an eBook.  Here is the link to the library:  Marriott Library Borrowing Dept.  You do not need to purchase or read the book to participate in this book review.

Panelists:

Leslie P. Culver, Professor (Clinical) of Law, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law

Kathryn Bond Stockton, Dean, School for Cultural & Social Transformation and Distinguished Professor of English, University of Utah

Jeanetta Williams, President, NAACP Salt Lake Branch & Tri-State Conference of Idaho, Nevada and Utah-Former Member, NAACP National Board of Directors

A Conversation discussing black businesses in Utah and what legal and business activities/reforms would be helpful to support/promote black owned businesses.

Panelists:

Moderated by Dean Elizabeth Kronk Warner

Sponsored by the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law and the David Eccles School of Business, in honor of Black History Month

Originally broadcast and recoded on February 25, 2021

This podcast will discuss how COVID has impacted law firm operations in that last year, including attorney flexibility and mobility, client expectations, emerging practice areas and how the new changes will be further impacted by Utah’s new regulatory reform experiment.

Panelists:

Hosted by Lori Nelson

Originally aired and recorded February 12, 2021 @ 12:00 pm 

The climate change-stricken Colorado River Basin not only provides water to forty-million people, including along Utah’s Wasatch Front. It also contains ancestral homelands of 29 Native American tribes as well as pervasive, sublime public lands such as Grand Canyon National Park. 

Vision & Place: John Wesley Powell & Reimagining the Colorado River Basin—a recent volume commemorating the historic 1869 Powell Expedition’s sesquicentennial—explores the basin’s past, present, and future. A panel of authors will discuss Powell’s distinct vision for the basin and broader “Arid Region,” the ways that vision has and has not shaped the landscape, and ultimately what lies ahead for the basin’s water, public lands, and Native Americans.

Moderated by Jason Robison 

Originally broadcast February 18, 2021 @ 12:00 pm

Jason Robison is a Professor in the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources program at the University of Wyoming College of Law, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law this spring 2021. His writing revolves around water, public lands, and Native Americans, particularly in the western United States. Professor Robison is lead editor of Vision & Place: John Wesley Powell & Reimagining the Colorado River Basin (Univ. of California Press, 2020). He is also author of Law of Water Rights & Resources (Thomson Reuters, 2020) and editor of a forthcoming volume commemorating the 1922 Colorado River Compact’s centennial—Cornerstone: The Next Century of the Colorado River Compact.