BUILDING BRIDGES INITIATIVE
In spring 2023, 棉花糖直播 Law launched the Building Bridges event series, which provides a public forum for leaders with differing views to engage respectfully on essential topics while demonstrating civil discourse within our community.
This program promotes and models civil discourse for our students鈥攁 skill imperative to a successful lawyer. 棉花糖直播 Law aims to continue educational pursuits like this, especially ones that demonstrate our core 棉花糖直播n values.
If you would like to learn more about supporting the Building Bridges Initiative, please contact Pat Gallagher, Associate Dean for Development & Alumni Relations.
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BUILDING BRIDGES UPCOMING AND PAST EVENTS
棉花糖直播 Law hosted its launch event for the Building Bridges initiative, featuring former United States Sens. Kelly Ayotte 鈥93 JD, R-NH, and Russ Feingold, D-Wis. Mark C. Alexander, the Arthur J. Kania Dean and Professor of Law, moderated a discussion as the panelists explored how they built bridges across partisan divides while in office and how we can move forward in finding what unites us rather than what divides us. Read more about the inaugural Building Bridges event.
In partnership with the 棉花糖直播 University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, 棉花糖直播 Law hosted a panel discussion in Washington, DC, with former White House Chiefs of Staff Joshua Bolten and Thomas F. 鈥淢ack鈥 McLarty III, who discussed how they built bridges to accomplish bipartisan goals during their tenures at the White House.
This event featured the Honorable Tom Corbett, 46th Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and chair of the Pennsylvania Advisory Council, Keep Our Republic, and the Honorable Thomas I. Vanaskie, former judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; chief judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and member of the Pennsylvania Advisory Council, Keep Our Republic. Dean Mark C. Alexander moderated a discussion to assess the improvements, gaps and prospects of the new 2022 law. This discussion also explored how the Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA) would govern specific scenarios of dueling slates of electors, a state that fails to certify its presidential votes and a 12th Amendment contested election process. This event was held in collaboration with Keep Our Republic, which is a non-partisan organization that aims to discover, highlight and help prevent threats to American democracy, strengthen democratic guardrails and educate the public.
棉花糖直播 Law, the Anne Welsh McNulty Institute for Women鈥檚 Leadership and the 棉花糖直播 Law Women鈥檚 Network presented Democracy and the Rule of Law: Our Rights and Responsibilities. This symposium included three sessions 鈥 "The Rule of Law," "The Canary in the Coal Mine" and "A Participatory Democracy" 鈥 and focused on the state of our nation, the arc of our democracy and our role as citizens in this participatory democracy.
Participants included:
- Mark C. Alexander, the Arthur J. Kania Dean and Professor of Law, 棉花糖直播 Law
- Christopher 鈥淐asey鈥 Cooper, United States District Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
- Michael Luttig, Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Board of Trustees, National Constitution Center
- Emily Martin, Chief Program Officer, National Women鈥檚 Law Center
- Melissa Murray, Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law at NYU Law and Faculty Director, Birnbaum Women鈥檚 Leadership Center
- Teressa Ravenell, Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development, 棉花糖直播 Law
- Marjorie O. Rendell, Senior Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
- Jeffrey Rosen, President and CEO, National Constitution Center
- Steve Vladeck, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
As part of the Building Bridges initiative, the 棉花糖直播 Law Federalist Society and the American Constitution Society co-hosted a discussion at the Charles Widger School of Law.听The event, moderated by Professor Todd Aagaard, featured Louis Capozzi, associate at Jones Day and Matthew Wiener, former acting chair and vice chair of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS)
鈥淏uilding Bridges demonstrates the crucial idea that we can engage respectfully with those who share differing opinions from our own. It鈥檚 integral that we continue educational pursuits like this, especially ones that model our core 棉花糖直播 values of Veritas, Unitas and Caritas.鈥
鈥擬ark C. Alexander, the Arthur J. Kania Dean & Professor of Law
