ACS National Convention 2015

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The ACS National Convention is the premier legal event of the year, attracting more than 1,000 of the nation’s leading progressive judges, lawyers and policymakers. The convention provides a unique opportunity to learn about pressing legal issues while networking with lawyers, professors, policy advocates, judges and elected officials. This year’s convention included panel discussions on a wide range of topics including limits to states' redistricting powers, law in the digital age, workplace gender equality and race and criminal justice in the Ferguson-era.

At this year’s convention, we hosted a conversation between U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and California Associate Justice Goodwin Liu. Representative Hakeem Jeffries, former state Senator Wendy Davis, and former Attorney General Eric Holder also spoke at the Convention. 

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We look forward to seeing you in Washington next year!

Our 2015 National Convention panels

Plenaries

  • Beyond Ferguson: A Nation’s Struggle with Race and Criminal Justice
  • Is the Supreme Court a Failure (and if so, What Can Be Done About It)?
  • The Courts, the Constitution and the Disappearing American Dream

Breakouts

  • Still Unequal After All These Years: Continuing Barriers to Workplace Gender Equality 
  • After Marriage
  • Going it Alone: Presidential Power and the DAPA Debate
  • Skewed Justice: How Money in Judicial Elections Undermines Criminal Justice
  • The Digital Age on the Global Stage: Can the Law Keep Up?
  • Changing the Rules on Access to Justice
  • Drawing Lines: The Limits to a State’s Redistricting Powers
  • Undue Burdens
  • Sex, Lies and Justice: Campus Sexual Assault, Title IX and Due Process
  • The Dangers of Injecting Secrecy into the Death Penalty
  • Disparate Impact in the Crosshairs
  • When Rights Collide?: Religious Liberty, Equality and the Fall Out from Hobby Lobby

Convention Co-Hosts

Lee Saunders, AFSCME
Mary Kay Henry, SEIU
Steve Fineman, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP
Dawn Smalls, Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP
Debo Adegbile, WilmerHale

Honorary Co-Chairs

The Honorable John Conyers, U.S. House of Representatives
The Honorable Patrick Leahy, U.S. Senate
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Leader
The Honorable Harry Reid, Senate Democratic Leader

The National Convention in the Media

Online & Print

  • Justices’ Words Are Combed for Clues as Major Decisions Loom at Court, Adam Liptak, The New York Times
  • Looking for Clues to Supreme Court’s Final Rulings in Ginsburg’s Good Mood, Robert Barnes, The Washington Post
  • Davis Speaks Out Against Texas Voting Laws, Jennifer Reiley, Houston Chronicle
  • Comments by Ginsburg, Kennedy Lead Prognosticators to Predict Votes on Gay Marriage, Health Law, Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal
  • The Manipulative Way Obamacare Opponents Made Their Lawsuit Look Legitimate, Ian Milhiser, Think Progress
  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg 'Amazed' at Icon Status at 82, Tony Mauro, The Blog of Legal Times
  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Natalie Portman Movie About Her, Irin Carmon, msnbc.com
  • The Supreme Court’s Momentous Abortion Decision, Irin Carmon, msnbc.com
  • Holder Rips 'Disconnected' Supreme Court Ruling on Voting Rights, Mike Sacks, The Blog of Legal Times
  • Supreme Court Celebrity, Christine Corcos, Law & Humanities Blog

Television

  • Hakeem Jeffries Keynote Address, C-SPAN
  • Is the Supreme Court a Failure (and if so, What Can Be Done About It)?, C-SPAN