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The Williams Institute's Judicial
Training
Program provides state and federal judges with substantive
training on legal issues impacting lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgender people. The goal of our training program is
to provide judges with the most up-to-date legal and policy
information they will need when considering sexual
orientation law issues in cases coming before them. The
Williams Institute's judicial training program draws on the
intellectual and material resources of UCLA, one of the
world's leading research universities.
Courts across the country are increasingly considering
sexual orientation law issues – such as workplace
discrimination, same-sex marriage, and parental rights – but
very few state and federal judges have expertise on these
issues. Most judges did not have the opportunity to take a
sexual orientation law course when they were in law school
and, to date, there have been only a handful of judicial
trainings focused on sexual orientation law.
Many sexual orientation law issues present relatively new
and complex constitutional questions or require knowledge of
the most recent empirical research and data. Judges have had
to rely on their own efforts to learn about this rapidly
developing field and the often innovative arguments that
have been used in LGBT rights cases. Without knowledge of
current legal theories and relevant data, judges may lack
the legal knowledge to make decisions regarding LGBT rights.
For example, many judges may not be familiar with arguments
that non-biological parents should have their rights
recognized if they act as "functional parents" for their
children, or cases holding that public schools have a
general duty under negligence theory to protect LGBT
students from harassment and violence. The Williams
Institute's substantive trainings on sexual orientation law
provide judges with the legal theories and relevant data
needed to make decisions regarding these issues.
The Williams Institute has developed a new training program
for judges on LGBT domestic violence issues. The program
will examine the unique obstacles that LGBT victims face
when they turn to the legal system for assistance, identify
strategies to reduce those obstacles, and help judges to
craft protection orders and other legal remedies that
address the particular safety and economic needs of LGBT
victims.
Training Faculty
The Williams Institute’s
judicial training faculty has extensive experience with
teaching sexual orientation law. In addition to teaching law
students, Professors Bradley Sears, William Rubenstein and
Todd Brower have conducted several well-received judicial
trainings and have given hundreds of sexual orientation and
HIV/AIDS law presentations and trainings to lawyers and
members of the community.
Other Williams Institute faculty
that have participated in trainings for either lawyers or
judges include UCLA School of Law Professors Christine
Littleton, Kenneth Karst, Devon Carbado, Cheryl Harris,
Russell Robinson, Gia Lee, and Grace Blumberg, as well as
Dean Erwin Chemerinsky (Irvine), Professors Chai Feldblum
(Georgetown), Suzanne Goldberg (Columbia), Joanna Grfossman
(Hofstra), Janet Halley (Harvard), Darren Hutchinson
(American), Pam Karlan (Stanford), Laura Kessler (Utah),
Andrew Koppelman (Northwestern), Holning Lau (North
Carolina), Joan Shaffner (George Washington), Laura Spitz
(Colorado), Edward Stein (Cardozo), and Kenji Yoshino (NYU).
Cost of Trainings
The Williams Institute
will pay all costs for the content of its judicial training
programs, including travel costs for the speakers. Depending
on the location of the training, co-sponsorship, and whether
or not the training is part of a larger conference, the
Williams Institute may either pay for items beyond this,
such as any special needs and venue costs, or anticipate
that those costs will be covered by the overall conference
or in-state judicial educators.
Types of Training
Offered by the Williams Institute
The Williams Institute
offers a variety of training formats, with the goal of
making our judicial trainings as accessible to as many state
and federal judges as possible. Our training formats
include:
• Live training sessions as part of ongoing trainings
and conferences
Working in partnership with judicial educators for state and
federal judges, the Williams Institute offers panels,
workshops, and speakers that can be included in the agenda
of existing trainings and conferences. We find this format
reaches the widest possible audience and is the most likely
to attract judges who do not already have a particular
interest in the subject matter and who have a variety of
opinions about gay rights issues.
The Williams Institute also provides curriculum development
and training expertise for states and judicial education
organizations who wish to augment their anti-bias and
fairness programming on sexual orientation and transgender
topics.
• Live and remote stand-alone trainings
The Williams Institute also organizes independent trainings
(which are not part of larger conferences that include other
topics) both at UCLA School of Law and throughout the
country. For example, each February the Williams Institute
holds a full-day "Annual Update" on sexual orientation law
at UCLA School of Law. The faculty at our Annual Updates has
included several state supreme court justices, federal
circuit judges, well-known legal scholars and lawyers, and
foreign, state and federal legislators. Over one hundred and
fifty judges, lawyers, and community members attend the
Williams Institute's Annual Update each year.
• Distribution of The Dukeminier Awards journal to
state and federal judges
The Williams Institute publishes The Dukeminier Awards, a
prize journal recognizing the most important pieces of
sexual orientation law scholarship published each year. A
central goal of the journal is to provide easy access to
each year’s best scholarly materials for those outside of
legal academia, including judges, lawyers, and legislators.
The journal is distributed free-of-charge to the chambers of
all federal judges and state supreme court justices.
Individual judges and other courts can also request to be
put on the journal's free distribution list.
• Williams Institute Sexual Orientation Law Moot Court
Competition
The Williams Institute Moot Court Competition is the only
national competition dedicated exclusively to the areas of
sexual orientation and gender identity law. This year’s
competition will provide an opportunity for competitors to
write an appellate brief on a current legal topic and to
argue the case before a panel of judges. The competition is
designed to promote and recognize the finest oral and
written advocacy on a significant problem in sexual
orientation and gender identity law.
• Web-based trainings
The Williams Institute is currently developing judicial
trainings that will be available on our website. These
programs will include written and video trainings.
Certification will be provided to judges who complete the
trainings, and the programs are being designed to meet the
training requirements of a number of states. Our first
web-based trainings will be available in 2010.
Click
here to see a list
of past Judicial Trainings.
CONTACT INFORMATION
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