The Agenda
8:00 AM – 9:00 AM Continental Breakfast
9:00 AM – 9:15 AM Opening Remarks
Kimball R. Anderson, Winston & Strawn LLP Vikram D. Amar, Dean, University of Illinois College of Law
9:15 AM – 11:00 AM SESSION 1
Election Law: Where Are the Red Lines?
Moderator: Vikram D. Amar, Dean, University of Illinois College of Law Congressman Eric Swalwell
Professor Catherine Ross, George Washington University School of Law Matthew Morgan, Barnes & Thornburg LLP Ryan Germany, General Counsel, Georgia Secretary of State
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM SESSION 2
Family Law: Ground Zero for Incivility and Professionalism Challenges
Moderator: Erika Harold, Executive Director, Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism
Honorable Debra Walker, Circuit Judge, Circuit Court of Cook County Professor Stephanie Tang, Baylor University School of Law Brad Trowbridge, Circuit Court of Cook County Domestic Relations Guardian Ad Litem
12:30 PM – 1:00 PM KEYNOTE
Judicial Ethics: Overview of the Existing Codes and Proposals for Change
Honorable Thomas Kirsch, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM SESSION 3
Ethical Considerations for Criminal Lawyers
Moderator: Professor Andrew Leipold, University of Illinois College of Law
Professor Irene Oritseweyinmi Joe, UC Davis School of Law Stacy Ludwig, Director of Professional Responsibility Advisory Office, Department of Justice
BJay Pak, Alston & Bird LLP
Speaker Biographies
Thomas L. Kirsch II is a Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Prior to his judicial appointment in 2020, he served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana since 2017. From 2008 until 2017, Judge Kirsch was a partner at Winston & Strawn LLP in Chicago, litigating commercial and criminal matters in trial and appellate courts across the United States and conducting corporate internal investigations. Before joining Winston & Strawn, Judge Kirsch served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Indiana from 2001 to 2008, focusing on white collar investigations and prosecutions, including the prosecution of numerous elected and appointed public officials. In 2006 and 2007, Judge Kirsch served as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice Office of Legal Policy in Washington, D.C. He is a former law clerk to the Honorable John D. Tinder in the Southern District of Indiana. Judge Kirsch is a Fellow of the prestigious American College of Trial Lawyers. He received a B.A. from Indiana University in 1996 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1999.
Vikram Amar is the University of Illinois College of Law dean and Iwan Foundation Professor of Law. Dean Amar is frequently cited and regarded as one of the most eminent authorities in constitutional law, federal courts, and civil procedure.
Prior to joining the University of Illinois College of Law, Dean Amar was a professor of law for many years within the University of California System, most recently at the UC Davis School of Law, where he served as Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. He is widely published. Dean Amar is a co-author of the six-volume Treatise on Constitutional Law (West Publishing Co., 6th ed. 2021), a co-author of Constitutional Law: Cases and Materials (Foundation Press, 15th ed. 2017), a co-author on multiple volumes of the Wright & Miller Federal Practice and Procedure Treatise (West Publishing Co. 2006), and a co-author of the treatise American Civil Procedure (Kluwer, 2008). Dean Amar has also produced over sixty articles in leading law reviews, writes regular columns on constitutional and legal education matters for national outlets, and frequently appears as a commentator in national and local media.
After earning his juris doctorate from Yale Law School, where he was an articles editor for the Yale Law Journal, Dean Amar clerked for Judge William A. Norris of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the United States Supreme Court. He practiced complex civil and criminal litigation at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Subsequently, Dean Amar served as a legal consultant for, among others, the United States Department of Justice, the National Association of Attorneys General, and the ACLU of Southern California. Dean Amar appears to be the first person of South Asian heritage to clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court and the first American-born person of Indian descent to serve as a dean of a major American law school.
Kimball Anderson is a nationally recognized trial lawyer with nearly four decades of experience at Winston & Strawn LLP. He and his wife Karen are the founders of the University of Illinois Anderson Center for Advocacy and Professionalism where he also serves as the Director of the Jerome Mirza Trial Academy.
Mr. Anderson has had a distinguished career as a trial advocate concentrating his practice on complex commercial litigation with specific expertise in consumer class actions, patent and trademark litigation, and antitrust matters. He has tried many complex commercial cases to verdict in federal and state courts, conducted two oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court, and argued numerous cases of consequence before federal courts of appeals. Mr. Anderson also served for many years as Winston & Strawn’s General Counsel and as a member of the firm’s Executive Committee.
Keynote Speaker
Among his many distinctions, Mr. Anderson is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Fellowship in the American College is extended only to the most preeminent members of the trial bar whose professional careers have been marked by the highest standards of ethical conduct, professionalism, civility, and collegiality. Mr. Anderson is also a “Laureate” of the Illinois Academy of Lawyers. He has been recognized by Benchmark Litigation as one of the top 100 trial lawyers in the United States, by Chambers USA as one of “America’s Leading Lawyers for Business,” by Best Lawyers® as 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2021 “Lawyer of the Year” for Arbitration in Chicago, and by Super Lawyers as one of the Nation’s top “Business Litigation” lawyers. He is also a “Distinguished Neutral” for the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution, the country’s leading nonprofit alternative dispute-resolution organization.
Ryan Germany is General Counsel to the Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. He served in the same role to two prior Georgia Secretaries of State, Brian Kemp and Robyn Crittenden. In this role, Mr. Germany has overseen the state’s defense of litigation challenging the results of both the 2018 election and the 2020 election. He successfully defended both elections in court. Prior to returning to his home of Atlanta to join the Secretary of State’s office, Ryan was an associate at Lightfoot, Franklin & White in Birmingham, Alabama where he practiced commercial litigation and represented clients in the securities, financial services, and aviation industries.
Erika Harold is the Executive Director of the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism and leads the Commission’s educational programming focused on advancing professionalism among the state’s lawyers and judges to build trust and confidence in the justice system. Ms. Harold is a recognized authority on professionalism, civility, leadership, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Prior to her current appointment, she served as a Commissioner with the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism. She also served on the Illinois Supreme Court Committee on Equality and the boards of directors of Prison Fellowship and Champaign County CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates). Additionally, Ms. Harold is a nationally recognized advocate of bullying prevention efforts and has spoken to more than 100,000 students about combating peer-to-peer harassment.
Irene Oritseweyinmi Joe is a Professor of Law at the UC Davis School of Law where she teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and Professional Responsibility. Prior to joining the UC Davis faculty, Professor Joe served as a fellow for the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama, was both a line defender and the Assistant Special Litigation Counsel at the Orleans Public Defenders. She was also the Assistant Training Director with the Louisiana Public Defender Board where she was responsible for creating and implementing statewide training programs for public defenders, investigators, and mitigation specialists.
Andrew Leipold is the Edwin M. Adams Professor of Law at the University of Illinois College of Law. Professor Leipold is a nationally recognized authority in criminal practice and procedure. He was appointed to a three-year term on the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts. He has also served as a consultant to the Illinois Criminal Law Reform Commission, the Governor’s Truth in Sentencing Commission, and the Office of the Independent Counsel for the Whitewater Investigation. Professor Leipold is the author of Volume 1 and Volume 1A of Federal Practice & Procedure: Criminal.
Stacy Ludwig has served as the Director of the Professional Responsibility Advisory Office (“PRAO”) at the United State Department of Justice since February 2016. In this capacity, she directs and oversees PRAO’s mission to provide professional responsibility advice and training to Department attorneys and to Assistant United States Attorneys worldwide on how to carry out their duties in compliance with the applicable rules of professional conduct. Prior to her appointment, Ms. Ludwig served as PRAO’s Acting Director, Deputy Director and an Attorney Advisor. She has also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
Matthew Morgan is a partner at Barnes & Thornburg and previously served as chief counsel and deputy chief of staff to the Vice President of the United States. In his role as a senior official at the White House, Mr. Morgan provided legal advice on constitutional questions, congressional investigations, and national security affairs. He also served as a designated ethics official and administered the compliance programs for the Vice President’s office. Mr. Morgan has wide-ranging political law experience. He has acted as general counsel to a presidential campaign, as counsel to the selection and nomination of a vice presidential candidate, and as counsel to numerous governors and members of Congress on a comprehensive portfolio of election law, campaign finance, and ethics matters.
Byung J. “BJay” Pak served as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, overseeing all federal criminal prosecutions and federal government civil litigation in his district from 2017 through 2021. As chief executive of one the largest U.S. Attorney’s Offices, he led 100+ assistant U.S. attorneys and 120+ legal professionals. Mr. Pak previously worked as an Assistant United States Attorney, prosecuting white collar crimes, including securities and health care fraud, AML/KYC matters, intellectual property crimes, export control violations. Mr. Pak also served three terms in the Georgia General Assembly as a state representative. He is now in private practice at Alston & Bird.
Catherine J. Ross is the Lyle T. Alverson Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School, where she specializes in constitutional law (with emphasis on the First Amendment) and family law, including legal and policy issues concerning children. Professor Ross is the author of A Right to Lie? Presidents, Other Liars, and the First Amendment and Lessons in Censorship: How Schools and Courts Subvert Students’ First Amendment Rights. The latter work was named the Best Book on the First Amendment by Concurring Opinions’ First Amendment News and won the Critics’ Choice Book Award from the American Education Studies Association. Professor Ross is also a co-author of Contemporary Family Law and the primary author of the American Bar Association’s landmark report on America’s Children at Risk. She is a past chair of the ABA’s Steering Committee on the Unmet Legal Needs of Children.
Eric Swalwell is the fifth term congressman representing California’s Fifteenth Congressional District, which includes San Francisco’s East Bay, in the United States House of Representatives. A leader in the House, Congressman Swalwell serves as co-chair of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee which sets the Democratic caucus’ policy agenda and makes committee assignments. He is also a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the House Judiciary Committee, the House Homeland Security Committee and its Intelligence and Counterterrorism Subcommittee. He chairs the Intelligence Modernization and Readiness Subcommittee. Prior to his election to Congress, Congressman Swalwell served as a prosecutor in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office and served on the Dublin City Council.
Stephanie Tang is an Assistant Professor of Law at Baylor Law School where she teaches Family Law and Family Law Advocacy. Prior to joining the Academy, Professor Tang litigated high-conflict divorces and parentage cases in Chicago. She has been recognized as “Young Lawyer of the Year” by the Illinois State Bar Association. Professor Tang was also selected among over 2,300 volunteer attorneys to receive the Distinguished Service Award for outstanding pro bono services by the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services, Chicago’s first and pre-eminent legal aid organization.
Bradley R. Trowbridge has extensive experience working with at-risk populations as both a counselor and a lawyer. As a counselor, Mr. Trowbridge worked for 10 years with at-risk populations, including teen mothers, the LGBTQ+ community, and the elderly. He currently practices family law with a special emphasis on serving as a Child Representative/GAL and custody evaluations. He has helped to found two agencies that provide legal services to people trying to escape abusive situations. Mr. Trowbridge has also served as Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women’s Network. He previously taught in The John Marshall Law School Family Law and Domestic Violence Clinic.
Debra Walker has served as a Cook County Circuit Court Judge since her election in 2008. For over a decade, she has been assigned to the Domestic Relations Division where she hears disputes pertaining to custody, visitation, property division, maintenance, child support, and domestic violence. Judge Walker is recognized as a bar leader on the tenets of professionalism and civility. She has served on the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism since its inception, chaired the Commission for six years, and was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court to serve on the Special Supreme Court Committee on Civility, which recommended the establishment of the Commission. Judge Walker is also a past president of the Illinois Judges Foundation, a past president of the Illinois Bar Foundation, and a past president of the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois.
AndersonCenter
Kimball R. and Karen Gatsis for Advocacy and Professionalism
As
the heart of the trial advocacy program at Illinois, the Kimball R. and Karen Gatsis Anderson Center for Advocacy and Professionalism aims to provide “best in class” training to College of Law students in two distinct areas.
First, the Center offers training in a wide variety of advocacy skills, including trial advocacy, appellate advocacy, negotiations, and alternative dispute resolution. Second, the Center provides College of Law students with innovative classes and programs relating to the professional responsibility obligations attendant to client advocacy. Especially in today’s highly charged and politicized environment, students must have the ability to advocate in a professionally responsible manner. This professional responsibility component, already part of the College of Law’s advocacy-training culture, is an important aspect that distinguishes the Anderson Center from other advocacy programs in American legal education.
The Center focuses its efforts in the following areas:
• Advocacy and Professionalism Coursework
• Trial Team and Moot Court Competitions
• Scholarship and Training for Academics and Practicing Attorneys
The Center was founded through the generosity of Kimball R. Anderson and Karen Gatsis Anderson, who received their bachelors’ degrees from the University of Illinois in 1974 and their Juris Doctor degrees from the College of Law in 1977. The Andersons are longtime benefactors of the College of Law, having launched a number of initiatives at the College, including the College’s public interest fellowship program and the construction of the Anderson Courtroom in the College of Law main Champaign-based campus.
In addition to the Anderson Courtroom, the Center utilizes the Prentice H. Marshall Advocacy Suite for a number of its various activities. The Advocacy Suite provides a multipurpose learning environment, easily adapted for use as a courtroom, a traditional classroom, and for a variety of practice-based exercises. The Advocacy Suite is equipped with the latest in courtroom technology and legal practice software.
The Anderson Center is led by Professor Anthony Ghiotto, who has world-class experience in both advocacy and professional ethics and is supported by an array of faculty and administrators at the College of Law. The Center also benefits from the energy and expertise of notable practicing attorneys around the nation who serve on the Anderson Center Advisory Board.
Kimball and Karen Gatsis Anderson
Learn more about the Anderson Center at law.illinois.edu/andersoncenter
