Posted on 02/04/2006 7:43:08 PM PST by new yorker 77
Yale Law School professor Vicki Schultz will headline Thomas Jefferson School of Law's sixth annual Women and Law Conference Feb. 10.
As this year's Ruth Bader Ginsburg lecturer, Schultz will give the keynote speech, focusing her remarks on the conference's theme, "Sexuality at Work."
The event will be held from 3 to 6:30 p.m. in Room 200 of the school's Courtyard Building.
"We always select a lecturer who is extremely well known and a person who is at the cutting edge of women's legal issues," said conference co-founder and organizer Susan Bisom-Rapp.
"(Shultz's) work in sexual harassment law is quite cutting edge. She takes a look at the way sexual harassment law has been implemented in the work place and thinks it has gone way too far. And she considers herself a feminist."
According to Bisom-Rapp, Shultz thinks the law is not necessarily designed to prohibit dating, hugging or the telling of dirty jokes at work.
"She says some feminists interpret it as basically eliminating what is perfectly legitimate behavior in the workplace," said Bisom-Rapp, who teaches employment discrimination law and employment law at Thomas Jefferson.
The topic for this year's conference was chosen in part because of last summer's California Supreme Court case, Miller v. the Department of Corrections. In that case, the court said sexual favoritism, when widespread, can create a hostile work environment and equate to sexual harassment.
"It will be interesting to hear what Vicki says about the Miller case," Bisom-Rapp said.
Barbara Lawless, an attorney who represented plaintiff Edna Miller, will be one of the commentators at the conference.
"They do a great job on the conference, and this year, I think, is going to be particularly good," said Stacy Fode, president of the Lawyers Club of San Diego. "Shultz has a good reputation and it should be really interesting to hear what she talks about."
The annual gathering grew out of a conversation between Thomas Jefferson professors Bisom-Rapp, Julie Greenberg and Susan Tiefenbrun in 2001 after the trio noticed how many faculty members were doing legal research on gender studies.
The event gained considerable clout and momentum in 2003 when U.S. Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg provided the guest lecture. She was so impressed by the program that she agreed to return her speaking fee to the school and lent the use of her name to the lecture series.
"It's quite an honor to bestow, especially by a freestanding law school," Bisom-Rapp said. "We're one of only two in the world that have a Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lecture Series." (The Association of the Bar of the City of New York is the other.)
Thomas Jefferson officials keep Ginsburg apprised of the series, informing her of keynote speakers and conference papers the event produces.
"She was absolutely thrilled to hear our women and law project is flourishing and wished us the best," Bisom-Rapp said, recalling a recent letter from Ginsburg. "She was extremely excited to hear it has become one of our signature events at the law school."
The conference is open to the public, especially the legal community, and is meant to "bridge the gap between what the law professors talk about in the ivory towers and what the practitioners confront in the trenches," according to Bisom-Rapp.
Bisom-Rapp said Thomas Jefferson is the only ABA law school west of the Mississippi River to have an annual conference on gender-related issues and the law.
Organizers are expecting nearly 200 attendees next weekend.
"It is something the Lawyers Club is very supportive of," said the group's executive director Joan Friedenberg. "It's been very well received by our membership."
"It's great and I'm glad they do it," Fode added. "It brings a lot of attention to the San Diego legal community, in particular the women's legal community."
Copyright © 2006 San Diego Daily Transcript.
Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
"""(Shultz's) work in sexual harassment law is quite cutting edge. She takes a look at the way sexual harassment law has been implemented in the work place and thinks it has gone way too far. And she considers herself a feminist."
According to Bisom-Rapp, Shultz thinks the law is not necessarily designed to prohibit dating, hugging or the telling of dirty jokes at work.
""
I agree with her.
If she is paid for speaking to or if her expenses are paid by this group she should be impeached.
Gee, t h a n k s .
Now I'll have visions of RBG prancing around in a silk teddy all evening.
They are all on the rubber chicken circuit. I attended a conference sponsored by the Catholic Medical Association and hear Justice Scalia speak two years ago.
Reminds me of the old joke about the nag wearing a housecoat and curlers who got a taste of 70s-era feminism and started to yell at her husband: "YOU WILL NOT MAKE A SEX OBJECT OUT OF ME!"
I'm telling you all, don't rule out the possibility that Ginsberg and Souter got a little brief action going.
I think that perhaps she should focus on fat socialist lawsuits for Marxist lawyers.
Justice Ginsberg please take your focus off ''Sexuality at work'' and focus on something really important like ''RETIRING''!
She needs a burqa perhaps two.
Souter just likes to borrow Ruthie's unmentionables.
The subject being purely academic in the Justice's case.
So please, let's give a warm welcome to Justice Ruth nee Dr. Ruth.
It is hard to take any of those women seriously about sexuality. In fact their policy about human sexuality is anti-sexuality and anti-right/wrong.
Ginsberg advocates sex for 12 year olds but against sex for adults...unless its homosexual sex.
Still waters run deep, baby....
I am thinking Lillith and Frazier right now....
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.