DETAILS
WHEN: November 20, 2024 | 5:30pm-8:00pm PST
WHERE: Jury Room
U.S. Courthouse for the Southern District of California
333 West Broadway
San Diego, CA 92101
& virtually over Zoom
COST: Attendance is free!
CLE: $40 fee.
Join us on November 20, in San Diego or via Zoom, as our esteemed panel – moderated by Hon. Larry Burns (Ret.) and featuring UCLA Law Professor and testifying expert Adam Winkler, renowned Second Amendment litigator and author Stephen Halbrook, and Everytown for Gun Safety’s Deputy Director of Second Amendment Litigation, William Taylor – share how they approach addressing the tricky and evolving historical test for the constitutionality of gun reguations set forth in NY State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen (US 2022). This engaging panel will not re-litigate Second Amendment cases, but will instead illuminate how seasoned advocates and experts approach a difficult historical test. The panel will be followed by a reception.
1 hour of California CLE available.
MEET OUR MODERATOR AND PANELISTS
Moderator, Hon. Larry Burns (Ret.)
Judge Burns joined Judicate West following 27 years of distinguished service as a federal judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, including two years as Chief Judge. Known for his extensive litigation experience, he is widely regarded as an outstanding trial lawyer, an effective settlement judge, and a scrupulous and efficient trial judge. As a lawyer, he tried more than 150 cases to jury verdict and argued 40 cases before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He spent the first several years of his judicial career as a civil settlement judge, helping parties settle hundreds of cases. As a trial judge, he presided over more than 300 federal jury trials including high-profile cases involving elected officials, complex business and tort litigation, and multi-district and class action cases. He also supervised receivership actions, including a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme case in which investors eventually recouped over 95% of their investments. Throughout his judicial career, he served as a visiting trial judge in civil and criminal cases nationwide, including New York City, Tampa, Jacksonville, Phoenix, Tucson, Boise, Coeur D’Alene, and Salt Lake City. He also sat by designation with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, authoring eight reported appellate decisions. Before taking the bench, he was engaged in the corporate sector, serving as Corporate Secretary and a member of the Board of Directors of a publicly traded company. His corporate and business expertise includes shareholder securities actions, banking and regulatory enforcement, and employment litigation. Judge Burns views mediation as assisted negotiation. “Preparation, patience, and persistence are the keys,” he notes. “By listening, questioning, and understanding the importance of pacing, a mediator focuses attention on the important aspects of a dispute and helps parties achieve a resolution.”
Adam Winkler, UCLA Law Professor
Adam Winkler is the Cornell Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. He is a specialist in constitutional law, the Supreme Court, and gun policy. His book We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights was a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the ABA Silver Gavel Award, and received the Scribes Book Award. He is also the author of Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America, which did not win any awards but was once the subject of a question in Jeopardy! He is one of the twenty most cited legal scholars in judicial opinions today, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Review of Books, Washington Post, Atlantic, Slate, and the New Republic. Prior to joining the UCLA faculty, he clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for Judge David Thompson and practiced law in Los Angeles. In 2022, he was a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar.
Stephen Halbrook, Second Amendment litigator
Georgetown University, J.D. (1978); Florida State University, Ph.D. Philosophy (1972).
Member of Virginia State Bar, D.C. Bar, U.S. Supreme Court, all federal circuits. Testified in
numerous Congressional hearings. Assistant Professor of Philosophy 1972-81, George Mason University, Howard University, Tuskegee University. Senior Fellow, Independent Institute.
Supreme Court practice: amici curiae brief for majority of members of Congress in
Heller v. D.C. (2008) (invalidating D.C. handgun ban). Argued and won: Castillo v. U.S. (2000)
(right to jury trial); Printz v. U.S. (1997), reversing Mack v. United States (9th Cir. 1995) (Brady Act mandates to States); U.S. v. Thompson/Center Arms (National Firearms Act).
Numerous appeals argued, including Fresno Rifle & Pistol Club v. Van de Kamp (9th Cir.
1992) (Roberti-Roos Act). Several amicus curiae briefs filed in Ninth Circuit cases.
Eleven books authored, including America’s Rifle, The Right to Bear Arms, and Securing Civil Rights.
See further www.stephenhalbrook.com.
William Taylor, Deputy Director, Second Amendment Litigation
Bill supports state attorneys general and city attorneys in Second Amendment cases, helps manage Everytown’s amicus practice, represents municipalities defending their gun laws in court, and speaks publicly at law schools and in other settings about the Second Amendment and the future of gun litigation.
Before joining Everytown, Bill served, for more than five years, as an Assistant Attorney General in the Litigation Bureau at the New York Attorney General’s Office, where he represented the state and its agencies and officers in a wide variety of civil actions, with a particular focus on Second Amendment litigation. Bill was lead counsel for the State of New York in numerous Second Amendment and other gun cases, including New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Cuomo, in which the district court upheld New York’s restrictions on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines against a Second Amendment challenge, a decision later affirmed on appeal. In recognition of his work on gun litigation, Bill received the 2016 Louis J. Lefkowitz Memorial Award for outstanding performance as an Assistant Attorney General.
Bill previously worked for over a decade as a litigator at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP in New York City, where he had a broad general litigation practice, across a variety of civil matters, at both trial and appellate levels. He also served as a law clerk to Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. While at Harvard Law School, Bill was the Editor and Book Review Chair of the Harvard Law Review.
CLE Materials:
1 hour California CLE sponsored by:
