From Suffrage to Equal Rights: Women and Constitutional Amendments
Supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment surround a statue of Andrew Jackson on the capitol grounds in Raleigh, 1981. Image Credit: Raleigh News and Observer.
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment this summer, please join us for a lunchtime discussion with Julie Suk (1997), Professor of Sociology & Political Science at The Graduate Center, CUNY, who will offer a sneak preview of her book, We the Women: The Unstoppable Mothers of the Equal Rights Amendment (available now for pre-order and forthcoming in August 2020), in conversation with Kathleen Sullivan (1976) partner in Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, and former Dean of Stanford Law School.
Welcome remarks by Gene Hickok, Chairman of the Board of The Montpelier Foundation, and moderated by Jeannie Suk Gersen (Marshall Scholar 1995).
Julie Suk (Marshall Scholar 1997) is a professor of sociology, political science, and liberal Studies at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), where she also serves as the academic dean overseeing the Graduate Center’s interdisciplinary master’s programs. An expert on comparative constitutional law, equality and antidiscrimination law, and procedure, she is the author of dozens of scholarly articles and book chapters, which have appeared in Stanford Law Review, Columbia Law Review, among other venues. Suk will be a Visiting Professor of Law at Yale Law School in Fall 2020, and has previously taught at the law schools at Cardozo, Columbia, Harvard, University of Chicago, and UCLA. She is a frequent commentator in the media on legal issues affecting women, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vox, and CBS News. She has a J.D. from Yale Law School, where she studied on a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans and a D.Phil. in Politics from Oxford University, where she was a Marshall Scholar.
Kathleen Sullivan (Marshall Scholar 1976) is a partner in Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan's New York and Los Angeles offices and is the chair of its national appellate practice. Widely recognized as one of the nation’s top appellate advocates, she has been named repeatedly to The National Law Journal’s list of The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America. In other recognition, she has been repeatedly named a leading individual in Chambers USA, which reports that clients have described her as “tremendously agile and a fabulous advocate,” “a consummate practitioner before any appeal court” and “a brilliant appellate lawyer.” Lawdragon has included her numerous times in its list of 500 Leading Lawyers in America, as has Super Lawyers, which has named Sullivan one of the top 100 lawyers in the New York Metro area. Law360 has three times named Sullivan an Appellate MVP, The American Lawyer Litigation Daily has thrice named her Litigator of the Week, and California Lawyer once named her Appellate Lawyer of the Year. Sullivan was profiled in the December 2013 issue of The American Lawyer in a cover story entitled “The Golden Touch” and in a 2014 Super Lawyers feature entitled, “Kathleen Sullivan and the Appeal of Appellate Law," reprinted as the cover story in Super Lawyer’s 2015 issue on the top women lawyers in the New York area. In 2014, Sullivan was elected to the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and in 2015, the New York Law Journal conferred on her a Lifetime Achievement award in its feature “Lawyers Who Lead By Example.”
The former Dean of Stanford Law School, Sullivan joined the firm in 2005 after a long and storied career as professor of law at Harvard and Stanford Law Schools, where she taught constitutional law to several generations of law students. She represents a wide range of clients, including Samsung, Shell Oil, Entergy, Google, Cisco, Coca-Cola, AIG, and CNA. She has argued eleven times before the United States Supreme Court; numerous cases in the US Courts of Appeals, including the First, Second, Third, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth and Federal Circuits; and various cases in state high courts including the New York Court of Appeals and the California Supreme Court. In addition to her appeals practice, she plays an active role in the firm’s trial practice, including by arguing numerous significant pre-trial, trial and post-trial motions in the federal district courts. Sullivan was also named to The Legal 500 2017 Hall of Fame, which highlights lawyers repeatedly recognized by the publication.
Jeannie Suk Gersen is the John H. Watson, Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where she has taught constitutional law, criminal law and procedure, family law, and the law of art, fashion, and the performing arts. Before joining the faculty in 2006, she served as a law clerk to Justice David Souter on the United States Supreme Court, and to Judge Harry Edwards on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She was educated at Yale (B.A. 1995), at Oxford (D.Phil 1999) where she was a Marshall Scholar, and at Harvard Law School (J.D. 2002), where she was a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow.
Eugene Hickok taught political science and law at Dickinson College and the Dickinson School of Law for many years before entering public service. An award-winning teacher, he has published numerous books and articles on topics related to the Constitution, the presidency, congress and the courts. His commentary has appeared in such publications as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Education Week. He served as Pennsylvania's Secretary of Education under Governor Tom Ridge and the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education under President George W. Bush. His most recent publications are Why States? The Challenge of Federalism and Schoolhouse of Cards. He has served as Chairman of the Board of The Montpelier Foundation since 2020.
Thank you to our Co-Sponsors:The Program in Sociology of The Graduate Center - CUNY; and James Madison's Montpelier