Author: mef21011

2025 Day Pitney Visiting Scholar Program – Judicial Ethics

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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

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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

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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

CPILJ Symposium 2025 – The Corporation and the Public Interest

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The Corporation and the Public Interest: The Environment, Diversity, and Human Rights

Annual Symposium hosted by the Connecticut Public Interest Law Journal.

Environmental, social, and governance issues have brought the roles and responsibilities of the contemporary business corporation to the forefront of the public agenda and have changed the nature of legal practice. This symposium gathered a select group of leading experts to discuss issues of corporate sustainability and societal impact. It consisted of three panels on topics that lie at the intersection of corporate activity and the public interest: the environment, diversity, and human rights. View the videos here.

Panel One: The Corporation and the Environment
Moderator: Professor Jack Lienke, University of Connecticut School of Law
Panelists:

  • Professor Sarah Haan, Washington and Lee University School of Law
  • Professor Madison Condon, Boston University School of Law
  • Professor Anne Tucker, Georgia State University College of Law

Panel Two: The Corporation and Diversity
Moderator: Professor Sachin Pandya, University of Connecticut School of Law
Panelists:

  • Professor Lisa Fairfax, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
  • Professor Atinuke Adediran, Fordham University School of Law
  • Professor Darren Rosenblum, McGill University Faculty of Law

Keynote Fireside Conversation
Panelists:

  • Professor Aaron Dhir, University of Connecticut School of Law
  • Professor Michael Fakhri, University of Oregon School of Law and U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
  • Director Leilani Farha, The Shift, and former U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing

Panel Three: The Corporation and Human Rights
Moderator: Professor Richard Wilson, University of Connecticut School of Law
Panelists:

  • Professor Jena Martin, St. Mary’s University School of Law
  • Attorney Maryum Jordan, EarthRights International
  • Professor Stephen Park, University of Connecticut School of Business

In Conversation: The Role of the States in Preserving Democracy

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This roundtable discussion debated the present and future role of the states in developing and maintaining democratic values and institutions.

Speakers included:
Tony Derron (Bigelow Fellow, University of Chicago Law School)
Dan Farbman (BC Law School)
Julie Murray (ACLU State Supreme Court Initiative)
Rick Su (UNC Law School)

Moderator:
Kiel Brennan-Marquez (UConn School of Law)

Housing in the 21st Century: Problems, Progress, and Predictions

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A Connecticut Law Review Symposium

Access to safe and affordable housing remains a challenge for millions of Americans. Historical and systemic factors, including redlining and discriminatory lending practices, have disproportionately affected minority communities, contributing to disparities in home ownership and exacerbating the housing affordability crisis. Unsafe or inaccessible rental housing, as well as rising rental costs, create additional barriers to housing security nationwide. While progress has been made due to the passage of the Fair Housing Act and other consumer protection laws, the affordable housing crisis and tenant rights’ violations persist. Moreover, the use of artificial intelligence in housing markets and public housing is raising new concerns. Leading scholars discussed some of these problems and innovative efforts to address them. Participants also shared their predictions for future housing law and policy needs and made recommendations for how to move forward. View the videos here.

Keynote speaker: Richard Rothstein
Author of The Color of Law—A Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America (2017); and Just Action—How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law (2023, and co-authored by Leah Rothstein).

Panel 1: A Better Fair Housing Act – Evaluations & Recommendations
Moderator: Professor James Matthews
Panelists: Professor Melvin Kelley, Professor Rigel Olivieri, & Professor Stacy Seicshnaydre

Panel 2: Understanding AI’s Effect on Tenants, Prospective Buyers, and Housing Markets
Moderator: Professor Nadiyah Humber
Panelists: Dr. Michael Akinwumi, Senior Counsel Marc Epstein, & Dr. Erin McElroy

Panel 3: Housing Access & Affordability: Challenges and Proposed Solutions
Moderator: Professor Jeffrey Gentes
Panelists: Professor Rashmi Dyal-Chand, Professor Julie Gilgoff, Professor Anika Singh Lemar, & Professor Nicole Summers