Events & Programs

It is a rare day when there is not an outside speaker, panel discussion, conference, symposium, "town meeting," brown-bag lunch forum, faculty workshop, or public lecture happening at Duke Law School. The programming is part of a deliberate strategy to nurture the values of leadership and professionalism in our students.

The Office of Public Interest and Pro Bono sponsors numerous events throughout the year to underscore that commitment, keeping students engaged in the discussion of public issues and public service. Some of the annual activities are described below:

• Public Interest Kickoff
• Public Interest Retreat
• Faculty Lives in Public Service
• Public Interest Book Club and Speakers Series
• Table Talk and Public Interest Summer Employment Recognition Day
• Women Judges' Forum

Public Interest Kickoff

Each fall the Office of Public Interest and Pro Bono sponsors the Public Interest Kickoff and Sign Up, an annual event promoting public interest and public service activities at the Law School. Students have the opportunity to sign up for pro bono or public interest event planning committees during this event.

Public Interest Retreat

Started in 1998, the annual Public Interest Retreat is a time for students, faculty and administrators interested in and committed to public service to spend a night away from school in a retreat setting reflecting on their public service aspirations and achievements. Speakers working in public interest are invited to address participants and participate in small group activities and workshops. Retreat attendance has grown to more than 90 people. For the past several years, we have invited the other North Carolina law schools to each send two students.

The 2008 public interest newsletter contains feature articles on the 2008 retreat on pages 8-9. These are the agendas for the first ten years of the Retreat: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, and 1999.

This year's Public Interest Retreat will be Feb. 6-7, 2009 at the New Hope Camp and Conference Center, which is about 15 miles west of the Law School. The theme is "Public Interest Remix: A New Spin on Lawyering."

The announcement for registration for the 2009 Public Interest Retreat is: Get in touch with what motivated you to come to Law School! Join your classmates in a woodsy retreat setting; hear inspiring speakers who have found a way to provide public service from several different sectors; commune with nature and each other; come early for hiking and other fun outdoor activities; enjoy ice breakers and a DJ party; sleep in rustic bunk rooms nestled under a pine forest; eat great food; enjoy companionship, conversations and time for reflection with your peers - the perfect antidote for all that ails you! And all for just $30.00!!!

Faculty Lives in Public Service

Throughout the year, the Office of Public Interest and Pro Bono sponsors “Faculty Lives in Public Service,” a lunch speaker series that offers students an opportunity to meet and listen to the stories of faculty who have held positions in government or non-profit organizations, participated in pro bono opportunities, or used their scholarship for public service.

Some of our featured faculty speakers have been:

• Professor Carolyn McAllaster on her inspiration for starting Duke’s AIDS Legal Assistance Project and the valuable service it provides for a highly stigmatized, largely indigent segment of the population.
  
• Professor James Coleman on his representation of the unpopular client - convicted serial killer and death-row inmate Ted Bundy.
  
• Professor Jonathan Wiener on his public service work addressing climate change and other health and environmental risks. He helped organize the Americorps National Service program in 1993 and has held many other government and service positions.
• Professor Michael Tigar on his representation of controversial, high-profile criminal defendants and how law students can begin immediately to promote the ideals of the justice system. Past clients, many of whom Tigar represented as court-appointed counsel or pro bono, have included: Lynne Stewart (NY defense attorney representing "the Blind Shiek" in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing case and herself convicted of aiding a terrorist organization); Terry Nichols (Oklahoma Federal Building bombing defendant); Angela Davis (Black Panther Party activist once placed on FBI's Most Wanted list, now a professor); John Demjanjuk (convicted of Nazi war crimes in the U.S., deported, exonerated in Israel, returned to the U.S., sentence overturned, charged for a different set of Nazi war crimes, convicted, and deported to Ukraine); the Chicago Seven (acquitted of conspiring to incite rioting at the 1968 Democratic National Convention); H. Rap Brown (Black Panther Party activist - riot and arson charges - coined the phrase "Burn Baby Burn!"); John Connally (former Texas governor acquitted of accepting a $10,000 bribe to regulate dairy prices); and Kay Bailey Hutchison (current U.S. Senator, acquitted of records tampering as the Texas State Treasurer).
• Visiting Professor Denny Lewis, a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell (New York) and past chair of its pro bono committee.
• Professor Sara Beale on her law reform efforts related to the federal government's role in criminal justice matters, including as the Reporter for the Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules, which drafts the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, as associate reporter for the Workload Subcommittee of the Federal Courts Study Committee (where much of her work focused on the Sentencing Guidelines) and as the reporter for a three branch federal-state working group convened by Attorney General Janet Reno to consider the principles that should govern the federalization of criminal law. Beale also served as a member of an American Bar Association task force studying the federalization of criminal law. She has argued before the Supreme Court on six occasions, representing the United States and as appointed counsel for an indigent defendant.
• Senior Lecturing Fellow Deborah Ross, a member of the N.C. House of Representatives and the Executive/Legal Director for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina for over seven years.

Read more about the public service of these and other Duke Law faculty members on the faculty profiles section of the Duke Law website.

Public Interest Book Club and Speakers Series

Public Interest Book Club and Speakers Series offers students a chance to explore and discuss current legal issues in a literary context through a series of presentations and discussions. For ten years, this was a very structured program with a calendar of events and speakers set the year before. See the 2001-2002 Public Interest Book Club Announcement.

Women Judges’ Forum

Each spring, female judges from several trial and appellate levels of the North Carolina court system visit Duke Law School to encourage female students to consider the judiciary as a career choice. The judges, mostly from the N.C. Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, speak candidly about the barriers they faced as they aspired to office and how they overcame them, especially in the days before many women lawyers served on the courts.

This event, which is now held at most law schools in North Carolina each year, was started by N.C. Court of Appeals Judge Linda McGee working with the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys.

Table Talk and Public Interest Summer Employment Recognition Day

The fall Public Interest Summer Employment Recognition Day honors students who spent the previous summer working in the public sector. Activities marking the day include a celebratory breakfast and “Table Talk,” a peer mass-counseling event at which honorees share their experiences with and offer public interest career advice to their fellow students in such areas as civil rights, legal aid, criminal law, environmental law, international law, etc. See the list of participants for Fall 2008 Summer Public Interest Recognition Day "Table Talk" Peer Counseling.