University of Pittsburgh School of Law
JURIST (jurist.law.pitt.edu) has changed how legal news is reported and is understood. JURIST provides real-time legal news, analysis, and commentary from some of the world's most distinguished policymakers, practitioners, and legal analysts.

These expert contributors have included law professors from virtually every major U.S. law school plus international jurists and policymakers such as the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and the UK Home Secretary.

Internationally known as the place to turn for legal news as it happens, JURIST attracts over 100,000 readers per week from over 170 countries.

Based at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, JURIST is powered by 40 Pitt Law students and managed by JURIST's founder, publisher, and editor-in-chief Bernard Hibbitts and Executive Director Jeannie Shawl.

Panels

The schedule for the conference is outlined below. All sessions will be held in the Teplitz Moot Courtroom at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. The conference will feature two morning panels, a luncheon keynote by Ethan Katsh, and two afternoon panels followed by the featured keynote speaker, Charles Bierbauer. A complete list of conference speakers and their bios can be found by clicking “Speakers” in the main menu above or by clicking on the individual speakers' names listed below.
Conference Schedule
8:45 – 9 a.m. Conference Welcome
  • Mary Crossley
    Dean and Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh School of Law
  • Bernard Hibbitts
    Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, JURIST; Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh School of Law
  • Terry Davis
    Secretary General, Council of Europe (via video)
Morning Session - Documenting Law
9:00 – 10:15 a.m.  Panel 1: Law and War
Certainly since September 11, 2001, JURIST’s coverage of national and international legal news has been dominated by war, images of war, threats of war and the consequences of war – e.g., the “war on terror,” the war in Iraq and war crime trials in places as far afield as Guantanamo, The Hague, Iraq, Cambodia and Sierra Leone. The members of this first morning panel have spent decades struggling for justice against impunity, for rights in the face of overreaching power, and for upholding the rule of law even in the face of the most extreme violence.
  • Jonathan Freiman
    Lawyer for Jose Padilla
    Counsel, Wiggin & Dana
    Visiting Lecturer, Yale Law School
  • Geoffrey Corn
    Former Special Assistant for Law of War Matters to the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General
    Assistant Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law
  • David M. Crane
    Former Chief Prosecutor for the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone
    Professor of Practice, Syracuse University College of Law
10:15 – 10:30 a.m.   Break
10:30 – 11:45 a.m.   Panel 2: Rights and Social Justice
The Hurricane Katrina disaster that dominated so much of JURIST’s domestic coverage in 2005 and 2006 reminded many Americans that in key respects and despite recent advancements in civil rights, discrimination, racism and abuse of power are still endemic in our society. Far from being complacent, law needs to be continually vigilant and vigorous in ensuring that we treat each other with fairness and respect. The members of our second panel have dedicated themselves to challenging us to live up to the heights of our civic rhetoric and to take real action to ensure that freedom is a meaningful reality for everyone.
  • Marjorie Cohn
    President, National Lawyers Guild
    Professor of Law, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
  • Sherrilyn Ifill
    Associate Professor of Law, University of Maryland School of Law
  • Jim Chen
    Dean, Brandeis School of Law, University of Louisville
12:00 – 2 p.m.   Lunch

Luncheon Keynote Speaker
Ethan Katsh
Director of the Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution
Professor, University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Legal Studies
Afternoon Session - Empowering People
2:00 – 3:15 p.m.   Panel 3: Law and Media in the Age of the Internet

As a creature of the World Wide Web, JURIST over the last 10 years has been shaped both by the technological realities of the Internet and by continually changing notions of what technology makes possible in terms of gathering, reporting, sharing and discussing news and information. The members of this panel have grappled with these issues in various contexts as press officers, correspondents, publishers and Web pioneers. Here they share their perspectives on what the Internet has meant for how the law is reported and presented.

  • Tony Mauro
    Supreme Court correspondent, American Lawyer Media/Legal Times/Law.com
  • Edward A. Adams
    Editor and Publisher, ABA Journal
  • Tim Stanley
    CEO, Justia
    Co-founder and former CEO, FindLaw
3:15 – 3:30 p.m.   Break
3:30 – 4:45 p.m.   Panel 4: Legal Education, Technology and Public Service

The technology that makes JURIST possible every day is already changing legal education by making it possible for educators to reach new publics in new ways, while allowing law schools to work with traditional constituencies using non-traditional means. The members of this panel have all been involved in leveraging technology to turn legal education back out toward the wider world, making concrete their dedication to law and service and helping to bridge the long-standing gap between the ivory tower and the community at large.

  • Nancy Rapoport
    Professor of Law, University of Houston Law Center
  • Conrad Johnson
    Clinical Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
    Co-founder, Lawyering in the Digital Age Clinic
  • John Palfrey
    Executive Director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School
4:45 – 5 p.m.   Break
5:00 – 6 p.m.   Featured Keynote Speaker

Charles Bierbauer
Former CNN Supreme Court and legal affairs correspondent, now Dean of the University of South Carolina College of Mass Communications and Information Studies

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