The University of St. Thomas Law Journal, in partnership with The Infinity Project, presents: Who Decides? Picking Judges in the 21st Century.

This day-long program will examine the evolving judicial selection process at the state and federal level, and judicial diversity from a wide range of perspectives. The Infinity Project will also name the 2019 recipient of the Judge Diana Murphy Legacy Award.

Friday, March 1 (4.5 elimination of bias credits applied for)

Cost: $15

Registration at 8:30 a.m.

Program from 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Wine Reception from 3:00 - 4:00 p.m.

This year's speakers will include:

Professor Linda Greenhouse (Yale Law School) Linda Greenhouse is the Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence and Joseph M. Goldstein Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. She is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who covered the United States Supreme Court for nearly three decades for The New York Times.

Dean Alberto Gonzales (Belmont University) Dean Gonzales was nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate as the 80th Attorney General of the United States in February 2005 and served in that capacity until September 2007. He has worked as a partner at a major Houston law firm (Vinson & Elkins) and held government positions as a Justice on the Texas Supreme Court, Texas Secretary of State, General Counsel to the Governor of Texas and Counsel to the President of the United States.

Kim Askew (K&L Gates) Kim Askew practices in the area of complex commercial litigation, and was the first woman of color to chair of the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary. In 2005 and from 2012-2018, Lawdragon listed her as one of the "500 Leading Lawyers in America" and Benchmark has frequently named her one of the "Top 250 Women In Litigation."

Professor Brian Fitzpatrick (Vanderbilt Law School) Brian T. Fitzpatrick's research at Vanderbilt focuses on federal courts, judicial selection and constitutional law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ilya Shapiro (Cato Institute) Ilya Shapiro is the director of the Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute, and often speaks on constitutional issues and judicial selection. Before joining Cato, he was a special assistant/adviser to the Multi-National Force in Iraq on rule-of-law issues, and practiced at Squire Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb.

Lena Zwarensteyn (The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights) Lena Zwarensteyn is the Fair Courts Campaign Director for The Leadership Conference and is a frequent speaker on the judicial selection process. She previously served as the Director of Strategic Engagement at the American Constitution Society (ACS), where she oversaw the organization's work on judicial nominations and why courts matter.

Tracey George (Vanderbilt Law School) Tracey George brings a social science perspective to a range of topics, including judges and courts, judicial selection and elections, legal education and the legal profession, and contract law and theory. She co-authored The Gavel Gap, a web-based resource highlighting the representativeness of state courts.

Lola Velazquez-Aguilu (Medtronic) Lola Velazquez-Aguilu, currently Medtronic's litigation and investigations counsel, is Minnesota's newly appointed Chair of the Commission on Judicial Selection. She has served as a member of the selection commission since 2016, and she is a past-president of The Infinity Project.

Judge Celeste Bremer (U.S. District Court) Chief Magistrate Judge Celeste Bremer has served the Southern District of Iowa since 1985. She received The Judge Diana Murphy Legacy Award in 2014 for her ongoing efforts to address inequities in the judicial system, and for encouraging countless women to serve on the bench.

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/university-of-st-thomas-law-journalinfinity-project-cle-tickets-55737275692