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Distinguished Lectures

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Distinguished Lectures

Each year, important scholars and renowned practitioners deliver distinguished lectures at Vanderbilt Law School sponsored by one of several endowed lecture series. 

The Jonathan I. Charney Distinguished Lecture in International Law

The Jonathan I. Charney Distinguished Lecture in International Law honors Professor Charney, one of the world's preeminent experts on international law, who held the Lee S. & Charles A. Speir Chair at Vanderbilt Law School until his death in 2002. The series funds academic lectures and other presentations on international law by distinguished figures in the field. 

Ending Hostage Diplomacy

2024-25 Jonathan I. Charney Distinguished Lecture in International Law

Ambassador Roger Carstens

Ambassador Roger D. Carstens detailed the reality of hostage diplomacy today and U.S. efforts to mitigate the practice.

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2023-24 Jonathan I. Charney Distinguished Lecture in International Law

Ambassador Gautam Rana

Gautam Rana '97 discussed the EU’s Disinformation Act and the ways governments restrict free expression.

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Previous Lectures

  • 2022-23: Pramila Patten Pramila Patten, United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict and Under-Secretary General of the United Nations

    Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary-General, the United Nations Office of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, "Evolution and Impact of the Mandate on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence."

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  • 2019-20: Paul C. Ney, Jr. '84

    Paul C. Ney, Jr. '84 (MBA'84), General Counsel at the Department of Defense, "The Rule of Law in International Security Affairs: A U.S. Defense Department Perspective"

  • 2018-19: Judge Howard Morrison

    Judge Howard Morrison, International Criminal Court based in The Hague, Netherlands, "International Criminal Justice - The Road Less Traveled"

  • 2016-17: Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein

    Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "Global Challenges to Human Rights"

  • 2014-15: Sir Michael Wood

    Sir Michael Wood, a senior fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Lauterpacht Centre for International Law and a member of the International Law Commission, London, “International Organizations and Customary Law”

  • 2012-13: Fatou B. Bensouda

    Fatou B. Bensouda, Chief Prosecutor, International Criminal Court, The Hague, "Reflections from the International Criminal Court Prosecutor"

The Victor S. Johnson Lecture

Each year, the Victor S. Johnson Lecture features a distinguished speaker who addresses a certain aspect of the law and its relation to public policy. The lecture is endowed by Victor S. (Torry) Johnson III '74.

2025 Jonhson Lecture

Deborah Archer

ACLU President Deborah Archer detailed her work and the importance of free speech to democracy.

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2024 Johnson Lecture

Cameron T. Norris

Cameron Norris ‘11, partner at Consovoy McCarthy, spoke about the impact of law and policy on public institutions.

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The Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture

This annual lecture, scheduled during the week of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, addresses civil rights issues and history.

2026 MLK Memorial Lecture

Kevin Woodson

Professor Kevin Woodson discussed his book The Black Ceiling: How Race Still Matters in the Elite Workplace.

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2025 MLK Memorial Lecture

Andrew Kahrl

Kahrl discussed his book The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America.

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2024 MLK Memorial Lecture

Deuel Ross

Deuel Ross, Director of Litigation at the NAACP, spoke with Francesca Procaccini about voting rights for Americans.

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  • Previous Lecturers

    Past lecturers have included:

    • Professor Jamal Greene, Dwight Professor of Law at Columbia Law School whose scholarship focuses on the structure of legal and constitutional argument
    • Professor Eleanor Brown, a Jamaican national, of George Washington University
    • Professor Paul D. Butler of Georgetown Law Center who researches and teaches in the areas of criminal law, race relations law, and critical theory
    • Dylan Penningroth, a professor of history at Northwestern University who specializes in African American and socio-legal history
    • Kenneth W. Mack, the inaugural Lawrence D. Biele Professor of Law at Harvard Law School
    • D'Army Bailey, retired circuit court judge and one of the founders of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis,
    • Judge Roger Gregory of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
    • William M. Van Cleve Professor of Law Adrienne Davis, Vice Provost of Washington University in St. Louis
    • L. Song Richardson, Dean and Chancellor's Professor of Law at UC Irvine School of Law

The Florrie Wilkes Sanders Lecture

The Florrie Wilkes Sanders Lectureship was established by the family of Sylvia Sanders Kelley (BA'54) to honor her great-grandfather, Judge John Summerfield Wilkes, and her grandmother, Florrie Wilkes Sanders, who graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1925.

Democracy After Dobbs

2025 Florrie Wilkes Sanders Lecture

Katie Shaw

The talk detailed the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling and the many forms of direct democracy used in light of the decision.

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2023 Florrie Wilkes Sanders Lecture

Melissa Murray

Professor Murray discussed the implications of Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion overruling two landmark reproductive rights cases.

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  • Previous Lecturers

    Past lecturers have included:

    • Justice Cornelia (Connie) Clark '79 (BA'71) of the Tennessee Supreme Court
    • Katherine M. Franke, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law at Columbia University
    • Vicki Schultz, Ford Foundation Professor of Law and Social Sciences at Yale Law School
    • Deborah L. Rhode, Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law at Stanford Law School

The Cecil Sims Lecture Series

This lecture series was established in 1972 to "bring to Vanderbilt Law School distinguished men and women with extensive legal experience to associate informally with faculty and students." The lecture series honors Cecil Sims, a 1914 first-honor graduate of Vanderbilt Law School and a founding member of the Nashville-based firm of Bass Berry & Sims. 

Big Tech & Policy

2025 Cecil Sims Lecture

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley

Hawley’s lecture explored the power, risks, and regulation of large corporations through the lenses of antitrust law, private enforcement, and constitutional interpretation.

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  • Previous Lecturers

    Past lecturers have included:

    • Prominent jurists, including U.S. Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, William H. Rehnquist, Anthony M. Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Sandra Day O'Connor, and Stephen Breyer
    • U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.
    • U.S. Attorney Generals Elliott L. Richardson, Griffin Bell, William French Smith, Edwin Meese III, and Janet Reno

The Weaver Distinguished Lecture Series

The Weaver Distinguished Lecture series provides our community with foundational information at the intersection of law and neuroscience. The Weaver Family Program in Law, Brain Sciences, and Behavior sponsors interdisciplinary faculty research and projects that explore law and human behavior across a broad spectrum of life science and social science fields. Each year, the Weaver Distinguished Lecture Series organizes and hosts symposia and speakers featuring leading researchers working in law, brain sciences, and human behavior.

The program was endowed in 2022 by the Weaver Foundation in honor of Dr. Glenn M. Weaver, his wife Mary Ellen Weaver, and the Weaver family.  Glenn M. Weaver, M.D., was a leading clinical and forensic psychiatrist whose medical career spanned more than six decades and explored the ways in which psychiatry can inform law and policy.

From Nonsense to Neuroscience with Dr. Judith Edersheim

2025 Weaver Distinguished Lecture

Francis X. Shen

The talk explored the intersection of neuroscience and the legal system, emphasizing the potential limitations of neuroscience in shaping criminal law.

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2024 Weaver Distinguished Lecture

BJ Casey

Casey’s talk, “Unraveling Adolescent Behavior,” explored the dynamic nature of adolescent brain development and its implications for justice reform.

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2023 Weaver Distinguished Lecture

Anthony Wagner

Wagner discussed his research on the neuroscience of memory encoding and the implications of his findings for convictions based on eyewitness testimony. 

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The George Barrett Social Justice Lecture

The Barrett Lecture, along with the Social Justice Program, was named, endowed, and expanded in honor of George Barrett ’57 in August 2015. “Citizen George,” as he was widely known, was a civil rights pioneer. He represented student protesters in the Nashville sit-in movement, labor unions working to protect workers’ rights, and shareholders and consumers wronged by corporate malfeasance. He was best known for leading a decades-long and ultimately successful legal battle to desegregate Tennessee’s public institutions of higher learning.

The Scopes Trial 100 Years Later

2026 George Barrett Lecture

Donald B. Verrilli Jr.

Based on concurrence in Whitney v. California, Verrilli defined civic courage as the ability to stand up for one’s beliefs, challenge perceived wrongs, and care about the condition of one’s community.

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2025 George Barrett Lecture

Brenda Wineapple

Wineapple discussed how, nearly 100 years after The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes (1925), “The Scopes Trial” is still relevant to current socio-political trends and tensions.

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2024 George Barrett Lecture

Mark Gaston Pearce

Mark Gaston Pearce, former chairperson of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), delivered the 2024 Barrett Lecture, entitled “Social Justice in the Workplace: The Message and the Messenger.”

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Previous Lecturers

  • The Strengths and Limits of Democracy as a Tool to Advance Social Justice with Judge Allison Riggs

    Judge Riggs’ lecture addressed two “truisms” mentioned frequently in voting rights spaces: (1) democracy works best when more people participate; and (2) political issues are better addressed in the state political process rather than in the federal courts.

    It is nearly impossible to practice voting rights law and not encounter these “truisms,” and yet for their frequent incantations, neither is universally agreed upon – far from it. And as different as these “truisms” are, both are fundamentally intertwined.

    Read the event recap to learn more. 

  • Fulfilling the Unfulfilled Promise of Racial and Economic Justice

    Julie Su was appointed by President Biden to serve as the deputy secretary of labor and confirmed by the Senate on July 13, 2021. The deputy secretary serves as the de-facto chief operating officer for the department, overseeing its workforce, managing its budget and executing the priorities of the secretary of labor.

    Su is a nationally recognized expert on workers' rights and civil rights who has dedicated her distinguished legal career to advancing justice on behalf of poor and disenfranchised communities and is a past recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant. Read more about her in the event announcement.

  • Political Activism, Legal Advocacy, and Labor Organizing: A Conversation on Creating Change with Danny Glover, David Cole and Bruce Raynor

    The George Barrett Social Justice Program hosted the annual Barrett Lecture on October 10, 2019, featuring a discussion of three different perspectives/experiences of social justice advocacy – Danny Glover as an actor turned activist, David Cole as a public interest lawyer, and Bruce Raynor as a labor leader. Learn more in the event announcement.

  • Challenging Family Separation in the Courts

    The George Barrett Social Justice Program welcomed Lee Gelernt as the 2018-19 Barrett Lecturer. Mr. Gelernt is the lead attorney for the families in the Ms. L litigation in San Diego challenging the federal government’s practice of forcibly separating parents and children at the border. He spoke about this high-profile ongoing civil rights litigation, which resulted in the district court’s June 2018 issuance of a nationwide injunction prohibiting the federal government from separating migrant and asylum-seeking families at the border and requiring reunification of separated families. 

    Read more about the lecture in event recap.

  • Democracy Under Attack: Race, Rights, and Resistance

    In the 2018 George Barrett Social Justice Lecture at Vanderbilt Law School on April 5, Kristen Clarke challenged Vanderbilt Law students to use their legal skills to address a “national assault” on civil rights that has included voter suppression, mass incarceration, and police brutality.

    Clarke, president and executive director of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, began her talk by recalling a meeting convened in June 1963 by President John F. Kennedy, who invited attorneys from throughout the U.S. to Washington and challenged them to fight for civil rights in their hometowns and states. The late George Barrett ’57, for whom Vanderbilt’s George Barrett Social Justice Program is named, was one of 244 attorneys who attended the meeting. Barrett responded to Kennedy’s charge with a 50-year legacy of civil rights work, including Geier v. Tennessee, a landmark case that desegregated Tennessee’s institutions of higher education.

    Read more about the lecture in the event recap.

George Barrett Distinguished Practitioner in Residence

The George Barrett Distinguished Practitioner in Residence Program was established by the Social Justice Program in 2010. It recognizes outstanding attorneys who have distinguished themselves in the practice of public interest law and whose experience and perspective will enrich our academic environment. It also provides our students with the invaluable opportunity to spend time with these outstanding attorneys through one-on-one and small group mentoring sessions.

Spring Miller

Miller discussed the legal challenges that immigrant communities are facing in Tennessee and described the public interest lawyering strategies TIRRC is using to “hold the line” in what she described as a “time of crisis.”

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Amy Leipziger

The call to “think like a lawyer” is a staple in legal education, but what does it truly mean in practice? Amy Leipziger, the 14th annual Distinguished Practitioner in Residence, explored this question during her recent talk.

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Kent McKeever

McKeever hosted a workshop on “Building a Public Interest Law Career That Lasts,” where he shared his own untraditional legal career journey as well as what he considered some of the most important things to keep in mind about their field.

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  • Previous Practitioners in Residence
    • Kalpana Kotagal, partner at Cohen Milstein (2022-23)
    • Aisha McWeay '09, Executive Director of Still She Rises (2021-22) - We Hold These Truths: The Social Justice Advocate's Ongoing Quest to Preserve Civil Liberties
    • Nina Perales, Vice President of Litigation at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (2019-20) - A Changing Landscape: Latino Political Participation and its Implications for Law and Policy
    • Jameel Jaffer, Executive Director of the Knight First Amendment Institute (2018-19) - Digital Journalism and the New Public Square
    • Ahilan Arulanantham, Director of Advocacy/Legal Director of the ACLU of Southern California (2017-18) - From 9/11 to the Trump Era: Reflections on 15 Years of ACLU Advocacy for Immigrants
    • Anita Earls, founder of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice (2016-17) - Community Lawyering and Racial Justice in the South
    • Derwyn Bunton, Chief District Defender, Orleans Parish, Louisiana (2015-16) - Public Defense in an Era of Mass Incarceration
    • Stephen Sanders '78, Co-founder and Director of the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center (2014-15) - Dark as a Dungeon: Justice for both Miners and the Mountains
    • James Esseks, Director of the LGBT & AIDS Project of the ACLU (2013-14) - The Road to Windsor: Marriage and the Broader Struggle for LGBT Rights
    • Oona Chatterjee, Co-founder of Make the Road New York and now at the Annenberg Institute on School Reform at Brown University (2012-13) - Making the Road: The Young Lawyer as Social Justice Entrepreneur
    • Stephen Bright, President and Senior Counsel of the Southern Center for Human Rights (2011-12)
    • Cecillia Wang, Director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project (2010-11)

Distinguished Lecture on Climate Change Governance

In 2021, the The Energy, Environment & Land Use Program (EELU) received a substantial gift to establish an endowment and support faculty, research, course development, lectureships, and the program's general growth. The Sally Shallenberger Brown EELU Program Fund was endowed in honor of Sally Shallenberger Brown, a pioneering conservationist and ardent environmentalist. With that gift, the EELU Program is continuing to grow and innovate.

The Future of Environmental Law

2025 Distinguished Lecture on Climate Change Governance

John Cruden

Vanderbilt Law’s EELU Program and Environmental Law & Policy Annual Review hosted John Cruden as the 2025 Distinguished Lecturer.

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2024 Distinguished Lecture on Climate Change Governance

Dr. J Marshall Shepherd

Dr. Shepherd addressed how to effectively mitigate the impacts through lasting policy changes and proactive governance. 

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2023 Distinguished Lecture on Climate Change Governance

Roger Martella

Roger Martella ’95, Chief Sustainability Officer at GE, emphasized the importance of private-sector solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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Dean's Lecture Series

The Dean's Lecture Series annually convenes scholars and thought leaders whose work provides innovative perspectives on discrimination. The series aims to ground our understanding of present-day discourse in a deeper, historically informed context to highlight social and political movements, impetus for legal changes, and ongoing areas of contention and struggle. 

Litigating Against Trump’s Gender Order

Michael Eric Dyson

Dr. Dyson’s address, BHM, BLM, DEI, CRT, AI, AND AP: Alphabets Against American Amnesia, spanned American history to explain and explore the current state of race in the U.S.

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Jim Obergefell

Obergefell's talk narrated the love story that would ultimately lead to Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), the landmark Supreme Court case that made same-sex marriage legal nationwide.

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Barry Friedman

Barry Friedman and Vikrant Reddy discussed current issues in policing and reform proposals. Their wide-ranging discussion was moderated by Criminal Justice Program Director Chris Slobogin.

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  • Previous Lecturers

    Past lecturers include:

    • C.P. Hoffman: Gender Affirming Care, Medical Privacy, and Trans Rights
    • Justice Anita Earls: Voting Rights in the South Roundtable Keynote
    • Jacob Mchangama: Free Speech and Equality: Friends or Foes?
    • Professor Shaul Kelner: Elie Wiesel Goes to Moscow: On the (In)visibility of Systemic Antisemitism
    • Judge Rupert A. Byrdsong: From Resilience to Resistance, Vanderbilt Law School’s Black History Month Keynote Address
    • Mary Ziegler: Roe, Popular Constitutionalism, and the Erosion of American Democracy
    • Learotha Williams: Being Present in the Past: African Americans and Public Memory in the Music City
    • Advocacy in Action – Grounds Gained in Grassroots Activism and the Call to Keep Advancing
    • Ji Seon Song: Patient or Prisoner: Hospitals as Carceral Settings
    • Goodwin H. Liu: Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court
    • Daniel J. Sharfstein: Brown, Massive Resistance, and the Lawyer’s View: A Nashville Story
    • Brandon Ronald Byrd: The Unfinished Revolution: Race, Law, and the Struggle for Haitian Sovereignty
    • Kimberly M. Welch: 'According to the Condition of the Mother': The Development of Racial Slavery in Seventeenth-Century Virginia
    • Jonathan Metzl: Dying of Whiteness: Protest, the Pandemic, and the Politics of Racial Resentment
    • Rhonda Y. Williams: The Luxury of Supposing: Black Power and U.S. History
    • Matthew Patrick Shaw: Education Justice