Law schools play a critical role for the entire legal profession and for our American society, both in training future lawyers in direct legal skills and knowledge, and also in establishing norms for how the next generations of attorneys view their fellow professionals. Law schools help set standards for the rights, responsibilities, and courtesies which should be extended to fellow lawyers, within the legal profession, and by extension, to all people. In expanding their understanding of what policies and practices best support their LGBTQ+ constituencies (whether students, faculty, or administrators), law schools thus have the opportunity to better support those constituencies during their time in the building, and to imbue respect for LGBTQ+ people in all who pass through their doors. Our esteemed panel of current and former LGBTQ+ Dean of law schools will discuss the progress that American legal education has made with respect to LGBTQ+ acceptance and support, will grapple candidly with challenges that still remain including those impacting students and faculty with intersectional identities such as racial minority status and disability, and will suggest routes for productive law school community advocacy. All registered Conference attendees are welcome; law school students, faculty, and administrators are particularly encouraged to attend. Not for CLE credit.
Out in Leadership: Reflections from LGBTQ+ Law School Deans
Speakers: Dean Mary Anne Bobinski (Emory University School of Law); Dean Larry Cunningham (Charleston School of Law); Dean Anthony Niedwiecki (Mitchell Hamline School of Law); Dean Kellye Testy (The Law School Admission Council);