Anti-Defamation League’s Washington counsel Michael Lieberman to lead lunch-time CLE program on First Amendment and violent speech

"The First Amendment v. Violent Bigotry: Navigating the Lines Between Free Speech and Hate Crimes" is the topic of a brown-bag lunch discussion and continuing legal education program presented by Michael Lieberman, Washington counsel and director of the Civil Rights Policy Planning Center of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The program, which is sponsored by the ADL's Midwest regional office, will be held March 1 from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Room 590, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, 565 West Adams St. (between Clinton and Jefferson streets) in Chicago.

Michael Lieberman has worked as the ADL's Washington counsel since 1989. In that position, Lieberman serves as the ADL's point-person on its federal response to bias-motivated crimes. He directs the organization's Civil Rights Policy Planning Center and chairs the coalition of Washington, D.C., religious, civil rights, law enforcement, education and civic organizations that promote improved federal response to hate violence. In addition, Lieberman helps develop and implement ADL policy positions on a wide range of domestic and international issues. Prior to assuming his current position, he was based in Chicago as ADL's Midwest civil rights director.

IIT Chicago-Kent professor Steven Heyman will provide commentary following Lieberman's presentation. A member of the IIT Chicago-Kent faculty since 1989, Professor Heyman is a leading First Amendment scholar who has written extensively about freedom of speech and other constitutional issues. In addition to many law review articles, he is the author of Free Speech and Human Dignity (Yale University Press 2008) and the editor of Hate Speech and the Constitution (Garland/Rutledge 1996).

Reservations are required to attend the program. Luncheon will not be provided. Attorneys who attend are eligible for 1.5 hours of Illinois Minimum Continuing Legal Education credit. To RSVP or for more information, please contact Jeremy Booten at jbooten@adl.org.

IIT Chicago-Kent is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, a private, Ph.D.-granting institution with programs in engineering, psychology, architecture, business, design and law.