Upcoming Events

In this post-election analysis, Emory University professor Andra Gillespie and UVA Law professor Bertrall Ross will discuss the complex interplay of race, gender, and age demographics as they affected the outcome. Discussants will also consider obstacles to a level playing field with respect to voting rights. UVA professor Kevin K. Gaines will moderate. This event is part of UVA's 2025 Community Martin Luther King Celebration.

Join Student Affairs for a re-orientation session followed by dinner with class sections (RSVP for dinner by Jan. 7). During this kickoff of the spring semester, staff will reflect on the fall and discuss upcoming events and planning for spring. It is also a chance to reconnect with classmates after winter break.

The Office of Private Practice for a Private Sector Careers Spring Kickoff will introduce the 2L job search, overview spring career events and provide tips for working smarter, not harder, towards your goals. The session will end with an optional discussion of winter OGI and employer interactions. This session includes content not duplicated in email or online and will not be recorded.

Join an informative session on preparing term sheets for ECVC’s Transactional Law Competition on Feb. 14. The session will cover essential components, best practices and common pitfalls to avoid. This is designed to give participants practical guidance on structuring and drafting. Whether you're a first-time participant or returning competitor, this session will provide insights to help students succeed in the competition. This event will not be recorded.

Open to faculty

The Virginia Law & Business Review’s 2025 symposium will feature panels and a keynote address exploring artificial intelligence’s influence on legal scholarship, regulation and corporate practice. The keynote speaker is Jane Horvath ’91, a partner at Gibson Dunn, formerly Apple’s chief privacy officer, Google’s global privacy counsel, and the DOJ’s first privacy counsel and civil liberties officer. Breakfast and lunch will be provided to registered guests.

This year’s 2L class has been particularly committed to public service, with a significant increase over previous years in the number of students doing public service their 2L summer. The Law School is on track to increase that number of students by anywhere from a third to half as compared to the year before. But with private firm recruitment for 2L summer jobs moving earlier and earlier, it can be helpful to hear from students who have followed this path successfully. Come to this panel discussion to learn more, with several students from different public service paths explain how they navigated their summer job searches outside BigLaw. Lunch provided with RSVP through Symplicity by Jan. 24.

Join an experienced panel of attorneys from Willkie Farr & Gallagher as they discuss the timeline of a deal and all the inner workings accompanying it. This event offers an introduction to transactional law and how all the different practice groups interact. A reception will follow for attendees. 

Open to faculty

The Asian Pacific American Law Students Association will host a professional development panel with attorneys from private practice law firms to learn more about their careers.

Open to faculty

A panel of commentators will discuss the book “Dignity and Judicial Authority,” by Professor Rachel Bayefsky.

In the book, Bayefsky offers a theory of dignity that emphasizes respect for status, nondomination and control over self-presentation to others. The book explains how U.S. courts can recognize the loss of dignity as a legally actionable harm and provide remedies for this harm. In applying these ideas, the book explores a host of corresponding legal topics, including constitutional standing doctrine, the “dignitary torts” and court-mandated apologies.

Bayefsky writes about constitutional law, federal courts, civil procedure and legal theory. Her work addresses both the practical workings of legal institutions and underlying philosophical ideas such as dignity and equality. One of her areas of focus is the way legal institutions approach forms of harm less tangible than physical or economic damage, especially the harms of stigma and disrespect. Bayefsky clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Courts and Commerce will sell copies of the book at the event.

Open to faculty

Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, will deliver the keynote address at the ninth annual Shaping Justice conference. Aimed at inspiring students and lawyers to promote justice through public service, the conference will also feature an awards ceremony to honor alumni working in public interest roles. John Whitfield ’81, executive director and general counsel of Blue Ridge Legal Services, will receive the Shaping Justice Award for Extraordinary Achievement. Christine Dinan ’12, senior trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Employment Litigation Section, and Sarah Buckley ’14, senior counsel for appellate matters at the DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, will receive the Shaping Justice Rising Star Award. This event is open to the Law School community only with advanced registration.

Open to faculty

Open to faculty

Open to faculty

Stanford Law School professor Pamela S. Karlan will deliver the McCorkle Lecture. A former UVA Law professor, Karlan is co-director of Stanford’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic and one of the nation’s leading experts on voting and the political process. She has served as a commissioner on the California Fair Political Practices Commission, an assistant counsel and cooperating attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. 

Open to faculty

Open to faculty

Open to faculty

Open to faculty

Open to faculty

Open to faculty

Open to faculty

Open to faculty