Georgia Law to host judicial ethics conference

Writer: Stephanie E. Ackerstein, (706) 542-5172, lawprstu@uga.edu Contact: Heidi Murphy, (706) 583-5487, hmurphy@uga.edu Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia School of Law is hosting the 14th Annual Legal Ethics and Professionalism Symposium titled “Who Are They to Judge? - Ethical and Professionalism Issues Facing the Bench.” The day-long event will be held Friday, Feb. 21, beginning at 9 a.m. in the Hatton Lovejoy Courtroom in Hirsch Hall located on North Campus. The symposium will focus on the increasing ethical challenges faced by members of the judiciary due to the changing dynamics of both their jobs and the legal profession as a whole. Three panels composed of judges, attorneys and professors will examine: (1) judicial elections and their effect on decision-making; (2) collegiality and civility between the bench and the bar; and (3) the mechanics of the judicial disciplinary process. The event will also feature keynote addresses by David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Marsha Ternus, former chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court. Sentelle was appointed to the D.C. Circuit in 1987 and served as chief judge from 2008 to 2011. He assumed senior status in February 2013. Before his appointment to the D.C. Circuit, Sentelle served as a U.S. District Court judge for the Western District of North Carolina. His address is titled “Collegiality and Decorum on the Bench.” After 16 years in private practice, Ternus was appointed to the Iowa Supreme Court in 1993. In 2006, she became the first woman to serve as chief justice of that court. She returned to private practice in 2010. She also currently serves as the director of the Harkin Institute of Public Policy and Citizen Engagement at Drake University. Her presentation will cover the ethics of judicial selection, campaigning and decision-making. For more information or to register for the event, please visit www.law.uga.edu/alumni or contact Lisa C. Mathis at (706) 542-5075 or lcmathis@uga.edu. For attorneys, continuing legal education credits are available. UGA School of Law Consistently regarded as one of the nation’s top public law schools, the School of Law at the University of Georgia was established in 1859. With an accomplished faculty, which includes authors of some of the country’s leading legal scholarship, Georgia Law offers two degrees—the Juris Doctor and Master of Laws in U.S. Law—and is home to the renowned Dean Rusk Center for International Law and Policy. The school counts six U.S. Supreme Court judicial clerks in the last nine years among its distinguished alumni body of more than 9,700. For more information, please see www.law.uga.edu. #