U.S. Supreme Court Crystal Ball

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Save the dateMay 8, 20245:00 PM - 7:00 PM (EDT) Add to Calendar

Venue Location

Old South Meeting House

310 Washington Street
Boston, Massachusetts

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Organizer

Organizer: New England Legal Foundation, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

Phone: +1 7815267714

Contact Person: Elizabeth Miner

Email: eminer@newenglandlegal.org

Event Details

New England Legal Foundation is excited to present the SCOTUS Crystal Ball. Each year at this point in May, many of the cases before The Supreme Court have been decided. There are few that remain, and those that do often have the most intricacies. Join us and for a discussion about the details of the remaining cases, the arguments given and what a decision on either side of the case may mean.

We are excited to welcome back Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale, Professor Akhil Amar to moderate the discussion between constitutional law scholars." This event is open to the public and the media and will be live-streamed on Zoom by GBH. All attendees must register to attend.

Speakers

Akhil Reed Amar

Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University

Akhil Reed Amar

Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University

https://law.yale.edu/akhil-reed-amar

Akhil Reed Amar is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, where he teaches constitutional law in both Yale College and Yale Law School. After graduating from Yale College, summa cum laude, in 1980 and from Yale Law School in 1984, and clerking for Judge (later Justice) Stephen Breyer, Amar joined the Yale faculty in 1985 at the age of 26. He is Yale’s only living professor to have won the University’s unofficial triple crown — the Sterling Chair for scholarship, the DeVane Medal for teaching, and the Lamar Award for alumni service.

Amar’s work has won awards from both the American Bar Association and the Federalist Society, and he has been cited by Supreme Court justices across the spectrum in more than four dozen cases — tops among non-emeritus scholars. He regularly testifies before Congress at the invitation of both parties; and in surveys of judicial citations and/or scholarly citations, he typically ranks among America’s five most-cited mid-career legal scholars. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has written widely for popular publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and The Atlantic. He was an informal consultant to the popular TV show The West Wing and his scholarship has been showcased on many broadcasts, including The Colbert Report, Tucker Carlson Tonight, Morning Joe, AC360, 11th Hour with Brian Williams, Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream, Fareed Zakaria GPS, Erin Burnett Outfront, and Constitution USA with Peter Sagal.

He is the author of more than a hundred law review articles and several books, most notably The Bill of Rights (1998 — winner of the Yale University Press Governors’ Award), America’s Constitution (2005 — winner of the ABA’s Silver Gavel Award), America’s Unwritten Constitution (2012 — named one of the year’s 100 best nonfiction books by The Washington Post), and The Constitution Today (2016 — named one of the year’s top ten nonfiction books by Time magazine). His latest and most ambitious book, The Words That Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840, came out in May 2021. He has recently launched a weekly podcast, Amarica’s Constitution. A wide assortment of his articles and op-eds and video links to many of his public lectures and free online courses may be found at akhilamar.com.

Jeremy Christiansen

Partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

Jeremy Christiansen

Partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

https://www.gibsondunn.com/lawyer/christiansen-jeremy-m/

Jeremy M. Christiansen is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He is a member of the firm’s Appellate and Constitutional Law, Litigation, Administrative and Regulatory, and Intellectual Property Practice Groups.

Jeremy represents clients from a wide variety of industries in high-stakes litigation, appellate, and administrative law matters, including constitutional and agency action challenges, government enforcement defense, intellectual property matters, commercial disputes, and labor and employment cases. His practice encompasses all stages of litigation from complaint to trial to appeal. He has represented parties in numerous federal and state trial courts, and parties and amici in federal appellate courts across the country, including the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, and D.C. Circuits, as well as the Supreme Court of the United States. He has presented numerous oral arguments before state and federal trial courts and federal appellate courts (including en banc argument). He was named by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in Appellate Practice (2020 – 2023) and in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America for Appellate Practice (2021 – 2024) and Administrative / Regulatory Law (2024).

Before joining the firm, Jeremy served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jay S. Bybee of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and to the Honorable Thomas R. Lee of the Utah Supreme Court. Jeremy graduated summa cum laude and Order of the Coif from the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah, where he served on the Executive Board of the Utah Law Review.

Edwina Clarke

Partner at Goodwin Procter LLP

Edwina Clarke

Partner at Goodwin Procter LLP

https://www.goodwinlaw.com/en/people/c/clarke-edwina

Edwina Clarke is a partner in the firm’s Litigation department and a member of its Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation practice.

Edwina’s work focuses on appellate matters and complex civil litigation in federal courts, and she has experience in a wide range of areas including ERISA litigation, patent litigation, and constitutional law. Edwina has drafted and contributed to briefs in numerous state and federal appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. She has also authored and contributed to dispositive motions in trial courts throughout the country. Edwina also maintains an active pro bono practice, with recent experience in immigration, criminal, and housing law.

Before joining Goodwin in 2017, Edwina served as a law clerk for Justice Stephen G. Breyer and Justice David H. Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court. She has also clerked for Judge David J. Barron of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Judge J. Paul Oetken of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and Judge Stephen R. Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Felicia Ellsworth

Partner-in-Charge, Boston Office Vice Chair, Litigation/Controversy Department at WilmerHale

Felicia Ellsworth

Partner-in-Charge, Boston Office Vice Chair, Litigation/Controversy Department at WilmerHale

https://www.wilmerhale.com/en/people/felicia-ellsworth

Vice-chair of WilmerHale’s Litigation/Controversy Department and a member of the firm’s global Management Committee, Felicia Ellsworth is a first-chair trial lawyer and experienced appellate advocate who is widely recognized for combining her significant trial experience with her recognized appellate skill to represent clients in complex disputes at all stages of litigation.

Felicia is known for her successful representation of clients in complex, high-stakes disputes in both state and federal courts, and has extensive experience representing clients in government-facing litigations and investigations, including those brought by state Attorneys General. She has argued in numerous appellate courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. She is a member of the American Law Institute, and is routinely recognized as a leading trial and appellate and litigator in industry publications, including The American Lawyer, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and Law360.

Felicia was among the lead trial and appellate counsel to Harvard University in Students for Fair Admissions vs. President and Fellows of Harvard College, the case in which the Supreme Court ultimately overturned decades of affirmative action precedent, where Felicia first secured a victory for Harvard in both the District Court, which earned her the "Litigator of the Week" title in October 2019, and the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Felicia has also represented numerous clients in disputes on a wide range of legal issues with a particular emphasis on complex disputes in the areas of administrative law, commercial law, constitutional law, the First Amendment, intellectual property, and real property.

Zack Tripp

Partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

Zack Tripp

Partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

https://www.weil.com/people/zachary-tripp

Zack Tripp is Co-Head of Weil’s Appeals and Strategic Counseling practice. He has extensive experience litigating before the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal and state appellate courts, as well as litigating and advising clients on high-stakes legal issues at the trial level. Zack’s work has encompassed a broad range of subjects, including intellectual property, bankruptcy, antitrust, and securities, among other issues. Drawing on his earlier career as a software engineer, Zack also co-leads the Firm’s artificial intelligence task force.

Zack has argued 12 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, briefed many other Supreme Court cases, filed more than 100 briefs at the certiorari stage, and presented argument before numerous other federal and state appellate courts. He joined Weil from the U.S. Department of Justice, where he served for five years as an Assistant to the U.S. Solicitor General. In that role, he represented the United States in litigation in the Supreme Court, and assisted in coordinating the government’s appellate strategy in lower courts nationwide.

Zack previously served as Special Counsel to the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense and Attorney Adviser at the U.S. Department of State.

Sponsors and Partners

Akhil Reed Amar

Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University

Jeremy Christiansen

Partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

Edwina Clarke

Partner at Goodwin Procter LLP

Felicia Ellsworth

Partner-in-Charge, Boston Office Vice Chair, Litigation/Controversy Department at WilmerHale

Zack Tripp

Partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

Organizers