Legal Commentary

The Michigan State University College of Law is pleased to announce that the Second Annual Junior Faculty Federal Courts Workshop will take place on its campus October 22?23, 2009. The inaugural workshop, held in April 2008 at the American University Washington College of Law, was a resounding success attended by junior scholars from 30 law schools, resulting in publications in numerous preeminent journals. We aim to continue this tradition.

The workshop pairs junior and senior, federal-courts scholars in a day-long, works-in-progress workshop. Senior scholars who have confirmed their attendance for this year?s workshop are Susan Bandes (DePaul University School of Law), Martha Field (Harvard Law School), Martin Redish (Northwestern University School of Law), and David Shapiro (Harvard Law School).

Drafts of papers will be distributed to participants prior to the workshop, which begins with dinner on Thursday, October 22. On Friday, October 23, following breakfast, two panels of junior scholars, composed of three to four persons each, will present papers in the morning. After lunch, two panels of junior scholars will present papers in the afternoon. Each panel will be assigned a senior scholar who will provide commentary on the paper and lead the group discussion.

The workshop is open to non-tenured, or newly tenured, academics who teach Federal Courts (or an equivalent course) or whose scholarly agenda encompasses topics ordinarily associated with such a course. Those who do not currently hold a faculty appointment but expect that they will during the 2010-2011 academic year are also welcome. There is no registration fee for this conference.

Those who plan to attend the workshop are asked to RSVP by July 31, 2009 to Sally Rice at Michigan State University College of Law (events@law.msu.edu). Please indicate whether you will attend the dinner on October 22.

Persons wishing to present a paper are asked to e-mail an abstract by June 29, 2009 to Lou Mulligan (mulligan@law.msu.edu). A committee of past participants will select papers no later than July 3, 2009.

Michigan State College of Law is pleased to provide all participants with meals while attending the workshop and has secured a block of rooms at a discounted rate.

Conference Flyer here. I attended (although did not present) at the first conference in April 2008, organized by our own Steve Vladeck and his AU colleague Amanda Frost, and it was a terrific program, with some excellent papers and great give-and-take. I am hoping to present something this year, provided I kind figure out which of two projects to do. I also would note that two of the senior mentors--DePaul's Susan Bandes and Northwestern's Marty Redish--were among my mentors in law school.