Civil Law Symposium

Judges, law clerks, court staff, and students may attend at no charge. To do so, please register as a guest.

This event will be in-person only.

Practicum: Seeking or Defending a Preliminary Injunction (2:00 pm – 3:15 pm)

• Laurel Beeler (U.S. Magistrate Judge)
• Barbara Barath (Partner, Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass)
• Benedict Hur (Partner, Cooley)

This practicum on effective practices for obtaining a preliminary injunction will include a panel discussion with practical tips and a mock hearing on a preliminary injunction sought in the Northern District of California against a social-media network called “We Talk”.

A Brave New World: The Shift of Power from Agencies to the Federal Courts – One Year and One Administration Later (3:30 pm – 4:45 pm)

• Pam Karlan, Moderator (Professor, Stanford Law School)
• Mariano-Florentino Cuellar (President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)
• Kathleen Hartnett (Partner, Cooley LLP, and former deputy assistant attorney general at U.S. DOJ )
• Jeremy Fogel (U.S. District Judge, ret.; Executive Director, Berkeley Judicial Institute)
• Sean Donahue (Partner, Donahue, Goldberg & Herzog)

At last year’s Civil Symposium, a panel of experts engaged in a lively discussion, from different perspectives, about how the June 2024 Supreme Court decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (ending Chevron deference) and other landmark decisions regarding agency action might affect the role of federal district courts in litigation where agency interpretations of statutes are at issue. Since then, changes in government policy, new executive actions, and cases grappling with Loper Bright and deference to agency action under Skidmore and Auer provide an opportunity for our panelists to revisit the landscape of federal litigation, one year later.

The Supreme Court’s October 2024 and 2025 Terms (5:00 pm – 6:00 pm)

• Erwin Chemerinsky (Dean, UC Berkeley Law)

Dean Chemerinsky delivers his review of consequential civil cases decided by the United States Supreme Court in the October 2024 term and heard in the October 2025 term.

Reception (6:00 pm – 7:00 pm)

CLE Written Materials: Available the week before the event.