The symposium is inspired by a law review article
co-authored by the Honorable William G. Young, Judge of the United States
District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and New England Law Professor
Jordan M. Singer. In the article, titled "Bench Presencce: Toward a More
Complete Model of Federal District Court Productivity," the authors propose
"bench presence" - the number of hours a trial judge spends adjudicating issues
in the open courtroom - as a critical measure of a trial court's overall productivity.
The Benchmarks Symposium will feature eleven panelists as
well as an intriduction to the bench presence model by Professor Singer and a
keynote address at lunch by Judge Young. The three panels will (1) respond
to the "bench presence" model proposed; (2) discuss alternatives for evaluating
judicial productivity, the prudence of doing so, and the meaning of those
evaluations; and (3) present the practitioner and administrative perspectives on
judicial productivity, why it is important and what changes are needed.
The keynote lunch featuring Judge Young, will be held at Legal Seafood's
Park Plaza location.
Seating for the Keynote Lunch will be limited so an RSVP will be
required (
RSVP here ).
Please email
sarah.e.lowdon@nesl.edu
for more information.
Schedule
9:00 am - Introduction to "Bench Presence"
by Professor Jordan M. Singer of New England Law |
Boston
9:30 a.m. - Panel One: Reactions & Responses to Bench Presence
-
Dean Steven Gensler of Oklahoma University College of Law
-
Professor Linda Mullenix of the University of Texas at
Austin
-
Professor Chad Oldfather of Marquette University Law
School
11:00 a.m. - Panel Two: Other Methods of Judicial Evaluation
-
Former Justice Rebecca Love Kourlis, Director of the
Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) at the
University of Denver
-
Malia Reddick, Director of the Quality Judges Initiative
at IAALS
-
Professor Mark Spottswood of Florida State University
-
Professor Carloyn Dubay of Charlotte School of
Law
1:00 p.m. - Keynote Lunch, featuring United States
District Court for the District of Massachusetts Judge William G. Young at Legal
Seafood's Park Plaza Location.
RSVP
required, seating is limited. RSVP
here.
3:00 p.m. - Panel Three: Practitioner Panel
-
Chief Justice Paula M. Carey of the Massachusetts Trial
Court
-
Robert M. Farrell, Clerk of the Court for the United State
District Court for the District of Massachusetts
-
Sara Jane Shanahan, Partner at Sherin and Lodgen LLP
-
Jonathan M. Albano, Managing Partner at Bingham McCutchen
LLP