U.Va. Conference On Public Service And The Law To Feature U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh And Appeals Court Judge Diana Motz

February 25, 2000 -- A conference to promote public interest careers among law students at the University of Virginia March 3-4 will feature dozens of practicing attorneys, policy-makers and law students from around the country who will emphasize the lasting personal and social value to be found in public-service career paths. Among speakers will be U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, D- Ind., and U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Diana Gribbon Motz.

At the opening session at 7 p.m. Friday, March 3, in Caplin Pavilion, Sean Maloney, a 1992 graduate of the U.Va. law school who has served as an assistant to President Clinton since 1997, will discuss his experiences working in the White House as the youngest member of the president’s senior staff.

Conference sessions Saturday, March 4, will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with panel discussions on such public-interest law topics as immigration and refugee law, child advocacy, poverty law, human rights, the death penalty, civil rights, women’s issues and the environment.

The conference, open to the public, is sponsored by the law school’s Mortimer Caplin Public Service Center.

"The student leaders arranging the conference have worked with great skill to bring together practicing lawyers, leading academics, and students for in-depth discussions of the core issues confronting the lawyer in public service," said law Dean Robert E. Scott. "Thomas Jefferson established this law school with the express purpose of creating a unique training ground for public servants that would be an integral part of a great university. We care deeply about our obligation to promote the ideals of the lawyer as public citizen and the notion that educated citizens, and especially legally educated citizens, can, and therefore must, strive to make a difference in the world."

Judge Motz will speak at an informal brown-bag luncheon, sponsored by the Virginia Law Women, in Slaughter Hall 366 at 1 p.m. March 4. She will discuss her involvement in the VMI case about enrolling women, as well as opportunities and challenges women face in choosing legal careers. Judge Motz graduated from the U.Va. law school in 1968. She was appointed to the bench by President Clinton in 1994.

A special session at 2 p.m. March 4 will focus on the death penalty in the South.

Bayh, an 1981 alumnus of the U.Va. law school, will deliver the conference keynote address at 7:15 p.m. March 4 in Caplin Auditorium. A former two-term governor of Indiana, he has been hailed a rising star on the national political scene.

The conference will conclude at 8 p.m. March 4 with the unveiling of a bust of U.Va. law alumnus Robert F. Kennedy. The bust of the former U.S. attorney general, senator and presidential candidate has been given to the school by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights (see related announcement for details.)

A complete conference schedule is on the web at www.geocities.com/uvaconference.

Contact: Denise Forster, (804) 924-4678; Bob Brickhouse, (804) 924-6856

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: please contact the Office of University Relations at (804) 924-7116. Television reporters should contact the TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.
SOURCE: U.Va. News Services

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