The Mitchell Lecture Series
The Mitchell Lecture Series was endowed in 1950 by a gift from Lavinia A. Mitchell, in memory of her husband, James McCormick Mitchell. An 1897 graduate of the Buffalo Law School, Mitchell later served as chairman of the Council of the University of Buffalo, which was then a private university. Justice Robert H. Jackson delivered the first Mitchell Lecture in 1951, titled "Wartime Security and Liberty Under Law." The lecture was published that year in the first issue of the Buffalo Law Review.
Mitchell Lecture programs have brought many distinguished speakers to the University at Buffalo Law School. These have included Irene Khan, C. Edwin Baker, Derrick Bell, Barry Cushman, Carol Gilligan, Elizabeth Holtzman, Stewart Macaulay, Catharine McKinnon, Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Richard Posner, and Clyde Summers.
Past Lectures
October 25, 2007 - "The Rule of Law and the Politics of Fear: Human Rights in the Twenty-First Century," Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International
March 21, 2007 - "Quo Vadis Habeas Corpus," The Honorable James Robertson, U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia
April 18, 2005 - "Are Corporations and Other Artificial Persons Taking Over the Legal System?," Marc Galanter, Professor of Law and South Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison
March 8, 2004 - "Who gets in? The Quest for Diversity after Grutter," Panelists:
April 4, 2003 - "What Good Is the Media? Shaping the Press for Democracy," C. Edwin Baker, Nicholas F. Gallicchio Professor of Law, Univ. of Pennsylvania Law School
April 5, 2002 - "Mr. Dooley and Mr. Gallup: Public Opinion and Constitutional Change in the 1930s," Barry Cushman, Elizabeth D. & Richard A. Merrill Research Professor of Law and Professor of History, University of Virginia