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The Williams Institute is a
national research center on sexual orientation law and
public policy at UCLA School of Law. Its 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.
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
Professors Erwin Chemerinsky (Duke), Chai Feldblum
(Georgetown), Suzanne Goldberg (Columbia), Janet Halley
(Harvard), Darren Hutchinson (American), Pam Karlan (Stanford),Laura
Kessler (Utah), Andrew Koppelman (Northwestern), Joan
Shaffner (George Washington), Laura Spitz (Colorado), Edward
Stein (Cardozo), and Kenji Yoshino (Yale).
Cost of Trainings
The Williams Institute
will pay all costs for the content of its judicial training
programs, including travel costs for the speakers and
speakers’ honorarium. 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 On-going 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.
For example, the Williams Institute conducted legal
education program for the New York Judicial Institute for
all New York family court judges. Those sessions included
panels on same-sex couples and custody and adoption, for the
New Hampshire courts on the recognition of same-sex couples’
out of state marriages, civil unions and partnerships, for
the National Center for Juvenile and Family Court Judges on
LGBTQ youth and the juvenile justice system, and for the
National Judicial College on Building a Bias-Free
Environment in Your Court.
The Williams Institute also presented trainings for judicial
and other court officers in California, Colorado, New
Jersey, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington State, and
Washington, DC. Other trainings included education sessions
at the National Association of Women Judges annual
conference and the National Judicial College. Additionally,
the Institute presented a workshop on conducting sexual
orientation judicial trainings at the Annual Meeting of the
National Association of State Judicial Educators, and has
reviewed curricula on sexual orientation and gender identity
for courts around the country.
• 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 half-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. Our last
Annual Update was on February 23, 2007.
In November 2005, the Williams Institute participated in a
California judicial satellite broadcast covering emerging
legal issues related to the LGBT population. Issues covered
in this training included unique concerns of LGBT consumers,
disclosure of private information, adoption, incarceration,
and jury instructions. This training was simulcast to courts
throughout the State of California. The May 2007 training
for New York judges was presented live in New York City and
simulcast to all judges within the state.
• Distribution of The Dukeminier Awards Journal to State
and Federal Judges
The Williams Institute publishes The Dukeminier Awards, a
prize journal recognizing the three to five 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.
• National Sexual Orientation Law Moot Court Competition
For more information on the
moot court competition, click
here.
• Web-Based Trainings
The Williams Institute is currently developing judicial
trainings that will be available on our website,
www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute 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 2007.
Contact Information
For information about the Williams Institute
Judicial Training Program please contact:
Professor Todd Brower
Email:
tbrower@wsulaw.edu
Judicial Education Program
Voice: (714) 459-1132
The Williams Institute
Fax: (714) 525-2786
UCLA School of Law
Box 951476
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1476
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