Emory Law School Website

Thank you for visiting the webpage for EPIC's 4th Annual Public Interest Law Conference 

Please check back for information for the next future Public Interest Law Conference.

We are pleased to feature as our Keynote Speaker the Honorable Congressman David Scott of the 13th District of Georgia.  Representative Scott is also the author of the John R. Justice Prosecutors and Defenders Act of 2007 (H.R. 916), which promotes a loan repayment program for law school graduates who commit to serve for at least three years as criminal prosecutors or public defenders.  The Bill was passed by the House on May 15, 2007 by a 341-73 vote, and is awaiting a vote by the Senate.  Rep. Scott will address his Bill as part of his Keynote Address. 

View the accompanying link for more information on Representative Scott (GA) and his Bill. 

The morning Conference panel sessions include leading experts from around the nation.   Conference participants can attend two panel sessions, as two sessions will occur concurrently.  We have confirmed the following panelists (click on their names to link to their bios, if a bio is available):

Mental Health, Privacy and Out-Patient Commitment Post-Virginia Tech

• Joanne Silberner, National Public Radio, Health Policy Correspondent
• Christopher Slobogin, Stephen C. O'Connell Professor, University of Florida: Levin College of Law
• Tammy Seltzer, Esq., Director of State Policy, National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare
• Dr. Peter Ash, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Center for the Study of Law and Religion

Right to Die: the Legal and Ethical Issues of Euthanasia

• Ani Satz, Associate Professor, Emory University School of Law and Rollins School of Public Health
• Dr. Larry Egbert, Medical Director, Final Exit Network; Visiting Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
• Karen Trotochaud, Assistant Director, Health Care Ethics Consortium, Wieland Center for Ethics
• J. Randy Beck, Associate Professor of Law, The University of Georgia School of Law

Law and the Media

• Peter Canfield, Dow Lohnes, Counsel to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution and WSB-TV in Atlanta
• Sonja R. West, Assistant Professor of Law, The University of Georgia School of Law
• Sheila L. Tefft, Journalism Program Director, Emory College
  

Nation Building and Developing Constitutions

• Michael Newton, Acting Associate Clinical Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University School of Law
• W. Cole Durham, Gates University Professor of Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University
• Robert Schapiro, Associate Dean of Faculty, Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law

After Representative David Scott's Keynote address, conference attendees are invited to participate in one of two afternoon workshops:

• “How to Fund a Public Interest Career,” lead by Jeff Hanson, Director, Borrower Education Services of Access Group, Inc.
• "Innocence Matters: Freeing Troy Davis from Georgia's Death Row," lead by Deirdre O'Connor, Director of Emory Law's Indigent Criminal Defense Clinic, and Gregory Joseph, State Policy Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

This year, an afternoon reception will follow the workshops.  Click here for a schedule for this year's conference.

Click here for podcast recordings of the panel sessions for:

Mental Health, Privacy and Out-Patient Commitment Post-Virginia Tech,

Law & the Media, and

Nation Building and Developing Constitutions.

Click here for a podcast recording of the Keynote Address by Congressman David Scott of Georgia's 13th District.

Click here for pictures from the Conference: the panel session and the keynote address.

Click here for a link to the Emory Wheel article on the 2007 Conference.