Month: February 2025

2025 Day Pitney Visiting Scholar Program – Judicial Ethics

Judicial Ethics, the Supreme Court, and the Rule of Law

Dean Eboni S. Nelson, the Connecticut Law Review, UConn School of Law, and Day Pitney LLP were pleased to present the 2025 Day Pitney Visiting Scholar Program.

Through the contributions and volunteer efforts of Day Pitney personnel, the Day Pitney Visiting Scholar program promotes positive developments in the law, legal scholarship, and legal and community education. The 2025 Program honored Distinguished Professor Charles Geyh, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, and his scholarly contributions to the study of judicial conduct and ethics. Professor Geyh spoke on the current Supreme Court, judicial ethics, and the future of the rule of law.

Professor Geyh’s scholarship has appeared in over 100 books, articles, book chapters, reports, and other publications. He is the author of Who Is to Judge? The Perennial Debate Over Whether to Elect or Appoint America’s Judges (Oxford University Press 2019); Courting Peril: The Political Transformation of the American Judiciary (Oxford University Press, 2015); When Courts and Congress Collide: The Struggle for Control of America’s Judicial System (University of Michigan Press 2006); and Judicial Disqualification: An Analysis of Federal Law (3d ed. Federal Judicial Center 2020). In addition, he is coauthor of Judicial Conduct and Ethics (6th ed., Lexis Law Publishing 2020) (with Alfini, Lubet and Shaman); andUnderstanding Civil Procedure (6th ed. 2019) (with Shreve and Raven-Hansen); and editor of What’s Law Got to Do With it? What Judges Do, Why They Do It, and What’s at Stake (Stanford University Press 2011).

Professor Geyh has served as an expert witness in the Senate impeachment trial of Federal District Judge G. Thomas Porteous; director of and consultant to the ABA Judicial Disqualification Project, and as reporter to four ABA commissions (the Joint Commission to Evaluate the Model Code of Judicial Conduct, the Commission on the 21st Century Judiciary, the Commission on the Public Financing of Judicial Campaigns, and the Commission on the Separation of Powers and Judicial Independence). He has likewise served as director of the American Judicature Society’s Center for Judicial Independence; consultant to the Parliamentary Development Project on Judicial Independence and Administration for the Supreme Rada of Ukraine; assistant special counsel to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on the impeachment and removal of Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Rolf Larsen; consultant to the National Commission on Judicial Discipline and Removal; and legislative liaison to the Federal Courts Study Committee.

Legal Issues Arising from the President’s Executive Orders

Legal Issues Arising from the President’s Executive Orders
This Law School Roundtable featured Professors Jon Bauer, Anya Bernstein, Kiel Brennan-Marquez, and Susan Schmeiser who lead a discussion with the Law School community about some of the most important legal issues surrounding President Trump’s executive orders during his first few weeks in office. Associate Dean Anne Dailey moderated the discussion.

2025 CATIC Symposium: Real Estate Law

Real Estate Law as a Catalyst for Closing the Racial Wealth Gap

The racial wealth gap in the United States has witnessed alarming growth in recent years, with BIPOC households now possessing less than 25% of the wealth held by their white counterparts. A substantial portion of this wealth gap can be attributed to disparities in housing. Owning a home remains a principal method for building and transferring wealth, constituting approximately 70% of an individual’s net worth. However, challenges such as housing discrimination, restrictive zoning laws, income disparities and lending practices have created barriers to homeownership, particularly for BIPOC individuals and first-time homebuyers.

Real estate lawyers and practitioners have a unique opportunity to address this critical issue by creating new pathways to homeownership for increasingly diverse communities. Industry professionals examined how real estate law plays a pivotal role in the short-term provision of affordable housing to underserved communities and, in the long term, contributes to the wealth accumulation of Black individuals and families. View the videos here.

Topics:
1. Housing, Real Estate and Lending Discrimination
2. Affordable Housing, Zoning and Law Reform
3. Community Education and Coalition Building

Opening Remarks: Dean Eboni Nelson, UConn School of Law

Panel 1: Housing, Real Estate and Lending Discrimination
Panelists:
Prof. Nadiyah Humber, UConn School of Law
Attorney Judith Rothschild, City of Hartford Director of Licenses and Inspections, Housing Liaison
Attorney Michael Powers, CATIC Title Counsel

Panel 2: Affordable Housing, Zoning and Law Reform
Panelists:
Prof. Kristen Haseney, UConn School of Business
Pete Harrison, Director of Desegregate CT & CT State Director, Regional Plan Association
Attorney William Hennessey Jr., Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey LLP
Attorney Dwight Merriam

Panel 3: Community Education and Coalition Building
Panelists:
Prof. Kristen Haseney, UConn School of Business
Fanita Borges, Residential Sales Manager, Affordable Lending Officers, Liberty Bank
Marcus Smith, Director, Research, Marketing and Outreach, Connecticut Housing Finance Authority
Marcus Ordoñez, Executive Director, Hartford Land Bank