Symposium to be held on diversity in law teaching”

The UW-Madison Law School will host a symposium on Diversity in Law Teaching this weekend, in conjunction with the celebration of the 25th anniversary of William H. Hastie Fellowship Program.

The Law School initiated the Hastie program to provide greater opportunity for minorities to enter law teaching, says Law Professor Linda S. Greene, chair of the symposium.

“Twenty-five years later, the program continues to identify talented minority lawyers, supervise their training as legal scholars, involve them in our exciting intellectual community, and place them as tenure-track law professors in institutions throughout the United States,” Greene says.

This event, cosponsored by UW–Madison and the Institute for Legal Studies, is also a UW Sesquicentennial celebration event.

The symposium begins Friday evening, April 23, with a reception and banquet at the Best Western Inntowner, 2424 University Ave. The banquet keynote speaker is Daniel O. Bernstine, president of Portland State University, former dean of the UW Law School and the first Hastie Fellow in 1974.

On Saturday, April 24, an all-day symposium at the Law School will include a series of panel discussions on the past, present and future of diversity in law teaching. Many of the featured speakers include people who played an influential role in developing teaching opportunities for minorities, such as UW Law School Professor Emeritus James E. Jones Jr.

Jones will moderate the first panel discussion Saturday on access to teaching positions at historically white law schools during the 1960s and 1970s. Alfred W. Blumrosen of Rutgers University will address what had to happen to create conditions of demand at these schools, and Henry W. McGee of the Seattle University School of Law will discuss early entry into law teaching. James Douglas, former president of Thurgood Marshall School of Law, will discuss lessons of the past.

The next panel, which will discuss prevalent paths to law teaching and remaining barriers to entry for minorities, includes Emma Coleman Jordan of Georgetown University. Winnie Taylor and Victoria Palacios, both former Hastie fellows, will discuss their experiences entering law teaching. Peter Carstensen of the UW Law School will serve as moderator.

Saturday’s lunch speaker, Burnele V. Powell, dean of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, will discuss the importance of law faculty diversity. The final session, to be moderated by Greene, will engage all participants in a discussion of the future of diversity in law school hiring. Leading off the discussion will be H.G. Prince, deputy director of American Association of Law Schools and Richard H. Chused of Georgetown University, the principal author of the Society of American Law Teachers Report on Diversity in Law School Teaching.

The symposium will end with a closing reception.