Memphis Mid-South Chapter: FBA Annual Seminar

The Memphis Mid-South Chapter of the Federal Bar Association invites you to join us (virtually) on Friday, October 22, 8:45 AM – 4:15 PM for our Annual Seminar. The seminar will feature presentations on the current and upcoming Supreme Court term, historic Supreme Court cases, electronic evidence and eDiscovery, and a WDTN judges panel.

8:45 AM – 9:00 AM: Welcome and Announcements on CLE Credit

9:00 AM – 10:15 AM: Supreme Court Update

• Jason Steed, Kilpatrick Townsend

With a new Justice on the bench, the nation’s highest court tackled everything from whether a
state can forbid voters from relying on another person to collect and drop off ballots (it can) to
whether a school can kick a student off cheer squad because she dropped an f-bomb on
social media (it can’t). Jason Steed breaks it all down in this lively session and previews the
big issues the U.S. Supreme Court will tackle in the October 2021 term.

10:30 AM – 11:45 AM: Citizens to Preserve Overton Park at 50 and the Byhalia Pipeline

• Charlie Newman, Scott Crosby
• Sarah Stuart – Burch, Porter, and Johnson
• Josh Whitehead – Zoning Administrator, Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development, Adjunct Professor, U of M School of Law

In 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Citizens to Preserve Overton Park and helped
prevent an interstate highway from being constructed through the middle of the midtown
Memphis gem. Fifty years later, the Mid-South was embroiled in a similar battle, with citizens
working to prevent the Byhalia Pipeline from being constructed and bisecting nearly all-Black
communities in southwest Memphis. This panel will discuss what happens when land
development collides with social and environmental justice.

12:15 PM – 1:15 PM: Brown v. Board of Education and Why It Matters to Your Practice Today

• Michael Rafferty – Harris Shelton

In its opinion in Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court chose to omit a discussion
of the facts of the case and focus instead on the effects of racial segregation in public
schools. In so doing, the Court missed an opportunity to thoroughly describe the poor
conditions of the “colored” schools and paint the full picture of how omnipresent segregation
was not only in public schools, but also in society in general. In this session, we will revisit the
underlying facts of the consolidated cases and contemporaneous accounts of other aspects of
daily life in the state-mandated segregated South at that time and examine how today’s
practitioners can help put the finishing touches on the end of the Jim Crow era by considering
whether the segregationist mentality might still exist and be hidden in current laws. The
session will also examine how the composition of the Court and lead counsel contributed to
the outcome of the case.

1:30 PM – 3:00 PM: Artificial Intelligence as Evidence

• The Honorable Paul W. Grimm, U.S. District Judge for the District of Maryland
• Maura R. Grossman, Research Professor in the School of Computer Science at the University
  of Waterloo, Adjunct Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, affiliate faculty member of the
  Vector Institute, Ontario, Canada, principal at Maura Grossman Law

In the ever-changing landscape of eDiscovery and modern forms of evidence, understanding
cutting-edge topics relating to Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become essential for
litigators. Topics to be covered in this session include the fundamentals of AI, including an
understanding of how it works, how it is being used in the legal industry and elsewhere, and
some of the issues AI implicates. In addition, the session will also address what admissibility
issues are posed in introducing AI evidence and how to address those issues, as well as a
description and analysis of the pertinent rules of evidence and how they apply to AI.

3:15 PM – 4:15 PM: Judges Panel

• Chief District Judge S. Thomas Anderson
• District Judge Thomas L. Parker
• District Judge Mark S. Norris

Chief Magistrate Judge Tu M. Pham will discuss a wide range of topics related to federal practice and professionalism. Magistrate Judge Annie T. Christoff will moderate the panel.

Registration

• Private Practice Attorneys: FBA Members $20 / Non-FBA Members $100
• Govt Attorneys: FBA Members $10 / Non-FBA Members $50
• CJA Panel Members, Judicial Law Clerks, Law Students: Free

Email Communication Policy

By registering for this event, you agree to receive email communications from the Federal Bar Association and affiliated sponsors of the program concerning event details, Continuing Legal Education certification, programming changes, upcoming events, surveys, and post-event communications.

If you have any questions regarding this program, please contact Deb Ireland