Elon Law’s Distinguished Leadership Lecture Series presented by The Joseph M. Bryan Foundation will feature two-term Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, New York Times Supreme Court correspondent Adam Liptak and ESPN broadcaster and attorney Jay Bilas.
All lectures start at 7 p.m. and take place at Elon Law, 201 N. Greene St. in Greensboro, North Carolina. Tickets at no cost may be reserved at law.elon.edu/DLLS.
Jennifer Granholm, the first female attorney general and two-term governor of Michigan, will present “Lead Women Lead!” Granholm currently serves as the co-chair of Priorities USA Action and is the Director of The American Jobs Project at UC Berkeley, where she also teaches courses in law and public policy.
Granholm was first elected governor of Michigan in 2002. In 2006, she was re-elected with the largest number of votes ever cast for governor in Michigan. While serving as governor, Michigan was twice recognized by The Pew Center on the States as one of the best-managed states in the nation.
Prior to becoming governor, Granholm served as a judicial clerk for Michigan’s 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. She became a federal prosecutor in Detroit in 1990, and in 1994, she was appointed Wayne County Corporation Counsel. Granholm was elected Michigan’s first female attorney general in 1998.
After leaving office, Granholm hosted Current TV’s national political analysis show “The War Room with Jennifer Granholm” and co-authored the Washington Post political bestseller, “A Governor’s Story: The Fight for Jobs and America’s Economic Future.” Today, Granholm advocates for a national commitment to advanced manufacturing, worker training and clean energy. Granholm is an honors graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard Law School.
Adam Liptak, Supreme Court Correspondent for The New York Times, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting in 2009 for “American Exception,” a series of articles examining ways in which the American legal system differs from those of other developed nations. He received the 2010 Scripps Howard Award for Washington reporting for a five-part series on the Roberts Court.
A graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, Liptak practiced law at a large New York City law firm and in the legal department of The New York Times Company before joining the paper’s news staff in 2002. His journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, and he has published articles in several law reviews. He is the author of the book “To Have and Uphold: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage.”
Liptak is a visiting lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School and has taught courses on media law and the Supreme Court at Columbia University, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Southern California and Yale. His column on legal affairs, “Sidebar,” appears every other Tuesday in The New York Times.
Jay Bilas, ESPN broadcaster, attorney and author, joined ESPN as a college basketball analyst in 1995 and today serves as a game and studio analyst and courtside color commentator, working more than 40 games a season and co-hosting ESPN’s popular road show, College GameDay. He also is a regular contributor to SportsCenter, ESPN.com and ESPNews.
Bilas graduated from Duke University with a degree in political science in 1986 and from Duke Law School in 1992. He has been a litigation attorney with the Charlotte, N.C., firm of Moore & Van Allen, PLLC since 1992. Bilas serves on the National Board of the Coaches vs. Cancer Organization and the Board of Advisors of the John R. Wooden Award, the Chip Hilton Award, the Duke Brain Tumor Center and Duke Children’s Hospital.
Bilas is a multiple-time Emmy nominee for Best Studio Analyst and was twice named Best Game Analyst by Sports Illustrated. He received “Best Column of the Year” from the US Basketball Writers Association and the “Distinguished Young Alumni Award” from Duke Law School. He played men’s basketball at Duke from 1982-86, ranking among Duke’s all-time career field-goal percentage leaders (56 percent).
A 1986 NBA draft pick of the Dallas Mavericks, Bilas played professionally in Italy (1987-88) ranking among the leagues’ top scorers, and Spain (1989) before returning to Duke as an assistant coach on Mike Krzyzewski’s staff from 1990-92. The Blue Devils made three NCAA Championship Game appearances during his tenure as a coach, winning the championship in ‘91 and ‘92. In 2013, Bilas released his book “Toughness: Developing True Strength On and Off the Court.”
———————————————————————————
“Elon Law is excited to welcome leaders of national and international repute to Greensboro so our friends and neighbors can learn with us about significant issues affecting law and society,” said Luke Bierman, dean and professor of law. “Our lecture series, initiated through the generosity of The Joseph M. Bryan Foundation, aligns fully with our role in this community as a hub of learning, lawyering and leadership. As we fulfill our ambition to be a leader in transforming legal education with a program of instruction that is better, faster and less expensive, Elon Law remains true to Greensboro’s long tradition of creativity, entrepreneurship and social progress. We hope there is a packed house to hear what Governor Granholm and our other lecture series speakers have to say.”
The Distinguished Leadership Lecture Series presented by The Joseph M. Bryan Foundation is an integral part of Elon Law’s commitment to learning, lawyering and leadership. Elon Law welcomes inquiries regarding the Distinguished Leadership Lecture Series by email at lawevents@elon.edu or by phone at 336-279-9304.
Elon Law is leading innovation in legal education by integrating exceptional classroom instruction with highly experiential learning throughout the curriculum, including distinctive full-time, course-connected residencies-in-practice, nationally recognized leadership preparation and attorney mentors for all students. Elon offers exceptional value through a two-and-a-half year program with significantly lower tuition. Learn more about Elon Law on the web, Facebook and Twitter.