Violence Against Women Act Symposium Program

Symposium Celebrating the

Fifteenth Anniversary

of the Violence Against Women Act

and Honoring its Champion

Vice President Joe Biden

Presented by Legal Momentum*
and
The Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law

Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C.
April 22, 2009


9:15 – 9:30  Welcoming Remarks

  • T. Alexander Aleinikoff, Dean, Georgetown University Law Center
  • Jessica N. Heaven, Symposium Editor, The Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law
  • Irasema Garza, President, Legal Momentum
  • Lynn Hecht Schafran, Director, National Judicial Education Program, and Senior Vice President, Legal Momentum, Symposium Chair

9:30 – 10:30  Present at the Creation:  Drafting and Passing the Violence Against Women Act  (VAWA)

  • Professor Victoria Nourse, LQC Lamar Professor of Law, Emory School of Law and Burrus-Bascom Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin Law School; formerly Special Counsel to then-Senator Joe Biden
  • Professor Sally Goldfarb, Rutgers University School of Law; formerly Senior Staff Attorney, Legal Momentum
  • Patricia Reuss, Senior Policy Analyst NOW (National Organization for Women); formerly Vice-President for Government Relations, Legal Momentum
  • Hilary Shelton, Executive Vice President for Advocacy, NAACP, and Director, NAACP Washington Bureau; formerly Federal Policy Program Director, United Methodist Church.
  • Moderator:  Helen Neuborne, Director, Quality Employment, Ford Foundation; formerly President, Legal Momentum

10:30 – 10:40   Q & A with the audience

10:40 – 11:00   Break- Audience transfers to Hart Auditorium for Award Presentation to Vice President, Joe Biden

11:00 – 11:45   Award to Vice President Joe Biden for Initiating and Championing the Violence Against Women Act

Audience Returns to Gewirz Student Center to Resume Symposium

11:45 – 12:45  The VAWA Civil Rights Provision: Shaping It, Saving It, Litigating It, Losing It 

  • Judge Mary Schroeder, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; formerly President, National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) 
  • Professor Julie Goldscheid, CUNY (City University of New York) Law School; formerly Senior Staff Attorney, Legal Momentum
  • Professor Judith Resnik, Arthur Liman Professor of Law, Yale Law School
  • Fred Strebeigh, Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Yale University; Author, Equal: Women Reshape American Law (2009)
  • Moderator: Professor Martha Davis, Northeastern University School of Law; formerly Legal Director, Legal Momentum

12:45 – 12:55  Q & A with the audience

12:55 – 1:45    Lunch (Box Lunches Provided)

1:45 – 2:45   The Impact of VAWA:  Billions (yes, with a B) for Prevention, Victim Services, Law Enforcement, Underserved   Populations and the Courts, and Looking Ahead to VAWA IV

  • Claudia Bayliff, Project Attorney, National Judicial Education Program, Legal Momentum; formerly Assistant Director, Boulder County Colorado Rape Crisis Team
  • Lisalyn Jacobs, Vice President for Government Relations, Legal Momentum
  • Leslye Orloff, Director, Immigrant Women Program (IWP), Legal Momentum
  • Lynn Hecht Schafran, Director, National Judicial Education Program to Promote Equality for Women and Men in the Courts (NJEP), and Senior Vice President Legal Momentum
  • Louisa Terrell, Legislative Affairs Office of President Barack Obama; formerly Special Counsel to then-Senator Joseph Biden [Invited]
  • Moderator: Juley Fulcher, Director of Policy Programs, Break the Cycle; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Georgetown University; formerly consultant to Legal Momentum

2:45 – 2:55  Q & A with the audience

2:55 – 3:00 Closing by Irasema Garza, President, Legal Momentum