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Litigation Under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983, 01/13/2023, On Demand More info »
Livestream

Livestream - Litigation Under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983


CLE Hours: 6 including 6 General, 1 Ethics, 0 Professionalism, 3 Trial Practice

Categories:
Ethics |  Trial Practice
Course Levels:
Normal CLE Studies

Dates


Description

 

Presiding:

 

Nora M. Benavidez, Program Co-Chair; Free Press, Atlanta, GA

 

Natsu T. Saito, Program Co-Chair; Georgia State University College of Law, Atlanta, GA

 

Gerald R. “Gerry” Weber, Jr., Program Co-Chair; Law Office of Gerald Weber, Atlanta, GA

 

 

8:00

IN-PERSON REGISTRATION

 

 

8:25

INTRODUCTION

 

Deloise Mathews, Senior Program Coordinator, ICLE, State Bar of Georgia, Atlanta, GA

 

 

8:30

WELCOME AND PROGRAM OVERVIEW

 

Nora M. Benavidez

 

Natsu T. Saito

 

Gerald R. “Gerry” Weber, Jr.

 

 

8:40

Malicious Prosecution Developments in the Supreme Court and Eleventh Circuit 

 

Zack W. Greenamyre, Mitchell & Shapiro LLP, Atlanta, GA

 

Jeffrey R. “Jeff” Filipovits, Filipovits Law Firm, Atlanta, GA

 

 

9:45

Defending Constitutional Rights From the Gold Dome to the Courtroom 

 

Moderator: Nora M. Benavidez

 

Panelists:

 

James Woodall, Public Policy Associate, Southern Center for Human Rights, Atlanta, GA

 

Fallon F. McClure, ACLU of Georgia, Atlanta, GA

 

 

10:45

BREAK

 

 

11:00

Representing Incarcerated Persons 

 

Ebony J. Brown, Southern Center for Human Rights, Atlanta, GA

 

Vanessa J. Carroll, Southern Center for Human Rights, Atlanta, GA

 

 

12:00

The Citizen’s Right to Film Police Misconduct

 

Gerald R. “Gerry” Weber, Jr., Weber Law Offices, Atlanta, GA

 

 

12:30

BREAK

 

 

1:00

Lunch Panel: Georgia’s Constitutional Right to Privacy

 

Tanya M. Washington, Professor of Law, Georgia State University College of Law, Atlanta, GA

 

 

1:30

Ethical issues in representing clients with mental illness

 

Moderator: Natsu T. Saito

 

Panelist:

 

S. Leighton Moore, III, The Moore Law Firm PC, Decatur, GA

 

 

2:30

Bartlett v. Nieves Probable-Cause Exception

 

Clare R. Norins, First Amendment Clinic, University of Georgia School of Law, Athens, GA

 

 

3:00

BREAK

 

 

3:15

Damages & Remedies

 

Michael B. Terry, Bondurant Mixson & Elmore LLP, Atlanta, GA

 

 

3:45

Closing

 

 

4:00

ADJOURN

Handouts

Speaker

Ms. Nora Mae Benavidez's Profile

Ms. Nora Mae Benavidez Related Seminars and Products

Free Press


Nora Benavidez is a civil and human rights attorney. She works at the intersection of law, tech, and democracy as an ‘urgency incubator’ to elevate interdisciplinary solutions to complex threats facing our society.

In all her work, Benavidez fights to eliminate barriers -- legal, technological, or political -- that may diminish the ability for communities to engage in democracy and with each other. Benavidez consults with policymakers and other entities to minimize online manipulation, maligned operations, and other digital harms which affect civic engagement.

Benavidez serves as Senior Counsel and Director, Digital Justice & Civil Rights at Free Press. She leads the organization’s efforts to protect against digital threats to democracy and to push for media and platform accountability. She develops winning policy and regulatory reform solutions that blunt disinformation, hate, and other maligned online practices while protecting digital civil rights, privacy, and equitable speech. She collaborates with and build support from Congress, the White House, and government agencies to advance digital justice while working with and pressuring technology companies to adopt corporate interventions that mitigate harms caused by their services. She has appeared before the House Oversight Committee and the Federal Trade Commission.

Benavidez serves as Faculty Associate at Arizona State University’s Cronkite Institute where she teaches a course on freedom of expression in the digital age. In 2021, she won the Society of Professional Journalists-Los Angeles Chapter Freedom of Information award for her work defending truth and free expression.

Her writing has been featured in The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Tech Policy Press, and other publications. She has been a regular guest on NPR’s The Takeaway and interviewed by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC, Newsweek, NPR’s Here & Now, Teen Vogue, The Los Angeles Times, AJ+, Vox, Columbia Journalism Review, and more.

Previously, Benavidez served as the director of U.S. Free Expression Programs at PEN America, where she guided the organization’s national advocacy agenda on First Amendment and free expression issues. She managed PEN America’s domestic fight for freedom of speech, the right to protest, robust local news, and its disinformation defense program.

She has also worked in private practice and at the ACLU of Georgia, litigating significant cases representing victims of voting rights violation


Mr. Gerald Richard Weber Jr.'s Profile

Mr. Gerald Richard Weber Jr. Related Seminars and Products

Law Office of Gerald Weber


Gerry Weber is principal in The Weber Law Offices and focuses on constitutional, civil rights, libel and media law and general litigation. http://www.constitutional-litigation.com Gerry Weber served for seventeen years as Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. He also currently serves as a Senior Staff Counsel at the Southern Center for Human Rights, and is an Adjunct Professor at Emory University School of Law and Georgia State College of Law in constitutional litigation, media law and the first amendment. Gerry clerked for the Honorable Carolyn Dineen King, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He was named one of the “21 Young Lawyers Leading Us Into the 21 Century” by the American Bar Association and “Top 40 st Achievers under 40" by Georgia Trend Magazine. Gerry Weber has litigated against federal, state and local governments and agencies and some of the largest corporations in the United States. He has successfully struck down numerous laws ranging from state restrictions on the internet to state laws barring fornication and sodomy. He also has chalked up one of the largest monetary awards in the history of the State of Georgia – a $440 million dollar judgment in an international human rights case against a Serbian government torturer.


Mr. George Brian Spears's Profile

Mr. George Brian Spears Related Seminars and Products

Spears & Filipovits LLC


 Brian Spears has practiced civil rights litigation in Georgia for forty five years.  He is a specialist in litigation involving governmental liability, primarily in the area of police practices.  He is a partner in the firm of Spears & Filipovitz.  


Mr. Bryan Ludington Sells's Profile

Mr. Bryan Ludington Sells Related Seminars and Products

The Law Office of Bryan L. Sells LLC


Bryan L. Sells is an Atlanta-based civil rights lawyer specializing in voting rights, election law,
and redistricting. He is also an adjunct professor of law at Georgia State University College of Law, where he teaches the Law of Democracy. . 

 

Notable recent cases include: Wright v. Sumter County, a successful challenge under Section 2
of the Voting Rights Act to the method of electing that Georgia county’s board of education.

 

Before launching his own practice in 2016, Bryan served as Special Litigation Counsel in the
Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice from 2010 to
2015. As part of the Voting Section’s management team, Bryan led dozens of investigations into
potential violations of federal voting statutes. 

 

Before joining the Department of Justice, Bryan was a staff attorney in the National Voting
Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, then based in Atlanta, for 10 years. At the
ACLU, Bryan represented a diverse array of clients in voting-rights and ballot-access matters. 

 

Bryan began his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Myron H. Thompson of the
United States District Court in Montgomery, Alabama. Bryan graduated magna cum laude from
Harvard College and earned his law degree from Columbia Law School, where he served as a
research assistant for the late Professor Jack Greenberg.


Ms. Natsu Taylor Saito's Profile

Ms. Natsu Taylor Saito Related Seminars and Products

Georgia State University College of Law


Natsu Taylor Saito is a Regents’ Professor Emerita at Georgia State University’s College of Law in Atlanta, Georgia, where she taught courses including professional responsibility; international law; international human rights; criminal procedure; immigration; race, ethnicity and the law; and seminars on Indigenous rights from 1994 to 2002. She is the author of several dozen law review articles as well as three books, Settler Colonialism, Race, and the Law: Why Structural Racism Persists (NYU Press, 2020), Meeting the Enemy: American Exceptionalism and International Law (NYU Press, 2010), and From Chinese Exclusion to Guantánamo Bay: Plenary Power and the Prerogative State (U. of Colo. Press, 2006).


Mr. Zack Wakefield Greenamyre's Profile

Mr. Zack Wakefield Greenamyre Related Seminars and Products

Mitchell Shapiro Greenamyre & Funt LLP


Zack Greenamyre leads Mitchell & Shapiro LLP's civil rights practice aimed at obtaining justice for those who have had their constitutional rights violated by government misconduct, in addition to his work obtaining justice for victims of catastrophic injuries and resolving business disputes.

 

Mr. Greenamyre is a graduate of Harvard Law School where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. 


Mr. Jeffrey Robert Filipovits's Profile

Mr. Jeffrey Robert Filipovits Related Seminars and Products

Spears & Filipovits LLC


Jeff Filipovits has emerged as a distinguished lawyer specializing in police and government misconduct cases. With a stellar track record, Jeff has handled ten appellate oral arguments and four federal jury trials. Recognized for his strategic approach and attention to detail, and unwavering commitment to securing justice. Jeff's commitment to justice is not confined to the courtroom; he has actively contributed to legal education by sharing his insights and experiences at numerous seminars and classes. In 2020, Jeff formed Spears & Filipovits with his parter, longtime civil rights attorney Brian Spears. The firm specializes in federal civil rights litigation and often partners with other attorneys who recognize the specific expertise needed to litigate civil rights cases. Jeff is a 2009 graduate of GSU College of Law.




Ms. Clare Rivka Norins's Profile

Ms. Clare Rivka Norins Related Seminars and Products

University of Georgia School of Law


Clare R. Norins is an assistant clinical professor and director of the University of Georgia  School of Law's First Amendment Clinic, which represents clients in federal and state court on a range of free expression and media law issues. Norins is the co-recipient of the national Clinic Legal Education Associatsion's 2021 award for Excellence in a Public Interest case. Her scholarship has been published in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law and the George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal. She is a board member of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation.

 

Previously in private practice at Beldock, Levine & Hoffman, LLP, Norins focused on issues of police misconduct and employment discrimination. She also served as an assistant attorney general for the State of New York, receiving the Louis J. Lefkowitz Award for outstanding performance. Immediately before joining the law school, Norins was the assistant director of the University of Georgia's Equal Opportunity Office.

 

Norins graduated law school from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and clerked for the Honorable Michael H. Dolinger in the Southern District of New York.


Mr. Michael Brian Terry's Profile

Mr. Michael Brian Terry Related Seminars and Products

Bondurant Mixson & Elmore LLP


Mike Terry handles complex trial and appellate matters.  He was on the plaintiffs’ trial teams for the two largest verdicts in Georgia history.  He has been on the winning side on appeal for the largest verdict in Georgia ever reversed, and the largest verdict in Georgia ever affirmed on appeal.

Mike was recognized as the Lawyer of the Year for Georgia (2021) by American Lawyer Media and by the Fulton County Daily Report. Mike has been ranked by Chambers USA for General Commercial Litigation since 2008.

Mike has been recognized as a Georgia “Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers five times, in three subject matter areas (Appellate Litigation, Antitrust Litigation, and Banking Litigation). Mike was a Top 10 Georgia “Super Lawyer” in 2022, and has been in the Top 100 Georgia Super Lawyers for the last 15 years.


Ms. Fallon Franchye McClure's Profile

Ms. Fallon Franchye McClure Related Seminars and Products


Fallon McClure is the Deputy Director for Policy & Advocacy. She leads the ACLU of Georgia’s policy and advocacy work in the First Amendment, privacy and criminal justice spaces. Prior to the ACLU of Georgia, Fallon was a Criminal Justice Strategist for the Working Families Party where she advised coalitions and oversaw electoral work for legal elected offices across the nation. Also, while at the Working Families Party, Fallon was the Organizing & Elections Director for the Southeast region where during the 2020 senate runoff she coordinated the field program with over 200 canvassers across the state who knocked on over 230,000 doors. She also guided the community engagement and legislative work in Georgia. In addition to the ACLU of Georgia, Fallon is board member for Reform Georgia, whose mission is to build a better justice system and end mass incarceration. Previously, Fallon has been a prosecutor and criminal defense attorney. 

 Prior to becoming a licensed attorney, Fallon was the Policy Advocate at the ACLU of Georgia where she focused her organizing and community work around voting rights and criminal justice reform, specifically the Smart Justice Campaign whose goals included ending racial disparities in incarceration. Fallon is a Georgia native, and she received a Bachelor’s of Arts in History from Georgia State University and a Juris Doctorate from Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School. 


James Woodall's Profile

James Woodall Related Seminars and Products

Southern Center for Human Rights


James Woodall currently serves as Public Policy Associate of the Southern Center for Human Rights, Founder/CEO of The Major Wish Group LLC, and former State President of Georgia NAACP. James is also an Associate Minister at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Marietta, Georgia. James also served as an Intelligence Analyst in the U.S. Army for 8 years. He ran for State Representative in 2016 and served on the State Committee of the Democratic Party of Georgia. He previously served as the deputy campaign manager for Francys Johnson’s (D) 2018 bid for Congress and as the legislative aide to State Representative Miriam Paris (D) for three years in the Georgia General Assembly.

He has been named to Georgia Southern’s “40 under 40,” and “Alumnus of the Year” in 2020 and was named a 2021 #Atlanta500 Leader by Atlanta Magazine.  James is a Fellow of the second class of the Civil Society Fellowship, a Partnership of ADL and The Aspen Institute, and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.


Tanya M. Washington's Profile

Tanya M. Washington Related Seminars and Products

Georgia State College of Law


Tanya Washington, a native of the city that bears her last name, is a professor of law at Georgia State University College of Law. After earning her J.D. from The University of Maryland School of Law she clerked for then Associate Judge Robert M. Bell on the Maryland Court of Appeals.

After practicing for several years as toxic tort defense litigator at Piper & Marbury, she completed the Albert M. Sacks Fellowship, the A. Leon Higginbotham Fellowship and earned her LL.M. from Harvard Law School. She has been teaching Civil Procedure I and II, Family Law, Education Law and Race and Law at Georgia State for the past twelve years. Her research and scholarship focuses on issues related to educational equity,  domestic relations, race and children’s constitutional rights.

Washington’s articles have been published in law journals across the nation, including: the Harvard Journal for Race and Ethnic Justice, the Indiana Law Review, the Iowa Journal of Gender, Race and Justice, the Utah Law Review, the Whittier Journal of Child and Family Advocacy, the Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal and the George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal. A self-professed activist and scholar, Washington has worked collaboratively to ensure that legal scholarship has a practical and positive impact for vulnerable individuals and communities. Her co-authored amicus briefs filed with the Supreme Court in U.S. v. Windsor and Obergefell v. Hodges highlight the harmful impact of exclusionary marriage laws on children in same-sex families and they challenge states’ characterization of these laws as child welfare measures. The Obergefell brief was cited by Justice Anthony Kennedy in the Supreme Court’s majority opinion in that landmark decision.

A belief that the true value of the law lies in its capacity to improve the human condition animates her work, which has been presented at numerous conferences, programs and law schools including Harvard Law School, the University of Maryland Law School, Emory University School of Law, the University of Iowa College of Law, the Family Law Section of the American Bar Association, and the National Bar Association 2014 Presidential Showcase. In addition to her tenured position at Georgia State College of Law, Washington is a former adjunct faculty member at Howard University Law School where she served for more than ten years.

She has taught comparative law classes for study abroad programs in Brazil, Europe and China. Washington has also led pipeline programs designed to increase enrollment of students of color in U.S. law schools. These programs include: The Charles Hamilton Houston Preparatory Institute, The Justice Benham Law Camp, G-PLUS, and the Council on Legal Education Opportunity’s Six-Week Summer Institute. Her efforts to expand and deepen the pipeline of students entering law school earned her recognition in 2013 as one of 50 minority law professors under 50 making an impact in legal education.


Kelly Coffman Related Seminars and Products


Dr. Kelly Coffman, MD is a Forensic Psychiatry Specialist in Atlanta, GA and has over 13 years of experience in the medical field. She graduated from TULANE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA in 2010.

 


Mr. Sidney Leighton Moore III's Profile

Mr. Sidney Leighton Moore III Related Seminars and Products

The Moore Law Firm PC


Leighton Moore has practiced law in Atlanta for more than twenty years. He is a graduate of Georgia State University (B.A., Philosophy, 1992), Emory University (M.A., Philosophy, 1997) and Harvard Law School (J.D., 2000). In law school, Leighton served as a research assistant to Professor Frank Michelman and as a teaching assistant in the Department of Government. Upon graduation, he clerked for the late Hon. Richard Sheppard Arnold of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Leighton now has his own practice representing civil plaintiffs in cases involving serious bodily injury or violations of constitutional rights. He has represented individuals with mental illness and developmental disabilities in state criminal proceedings and federal civil-rights cases. His most recent work in this area is focused on civil remedies for police violence against persons with mental illness.


Important Information

Please be advised that your credit will not be reported to the State Bar of Georgia CLE Regulation Department until after you have completed the steps necessary to earn credit for that program. 

Self reporting is required for all other jurisdictions.

The information presented is solely for educational purposes. The opinions expressed by the faculty in their materials and presentations are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the State Bar of Georgia, its officers, directors and/or employees. The faculty is not engaged in rendering legal or other professional advice and these presentations and publications are not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. All publications and presentations were created to serve the continuing legal education needs of practicing attorneys.

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