The Levin Center at Wayne Law and the Wayne Law Review
warmly invite you to:
Oversight, Infrastructure, and Federalism: Ensuring Transparency, Accountability, and Effectiveness of U.S. Infrastructure Investments

March 25, 2022 / 10.00 a.m. – 3.30 p.m. EST
2022 Oversight Symposium

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 is poised to send billions of taxpayer dollars from the nation’s capital through the states to local communities to improve our roads, bridges, dams, broadband networks, electric vehicle charging stations, mass transit systems, and more. To ensure the success of these historic infrastructure investments, action must be taken to prevent waste, fraud and abuse, and ensure the law lives up to its promise.

On March 25, 2022, the Levin Center and Wayne State University Law Review will present a one-day online symposium focused on meeting our infrastructure investment challenges and opportunities. Join us in hearing from a diverse group of experts, including academics, oversight practitioners, and affected communities, on steps that can be taken to safeguard our infrastructure investments.

Opening remarks will be at 10:00 a.m. by Keynote Speaker U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI).

Beth Osborne, Director – Transport for America will moderate a panel discussion on Establishing Mechanisms for Oversight of Infrastructure at 10:15 a.m. Panelists will be:

Shruti Shah, President & CEO, Coalition for Integrity
Lawrence Goldenhersh, President – Center for Sustainable Energy
Alexander Beckmann, Senior Policy Advisor on Transportation and Infrastructure Issues – Congressman Jesús “Chuy” García (D-IL)

Portia Bamiduro, Technical Adviser to Senior Vice President – Global Corporate Affairs, Amazon will moderate a panel discussion on Exercising Oversight of Infrastructure Performance at 2:00 p.m. Panelists will be:

More information about the Levin Center at Wayne Law and panelists biographies are available here: https://www.levin-center.org/levin-center-at-work/2022-wayne-law-review-oversight-symposium/

The Wayne Law Review is holding its 2021 Spring Symposium Series focusing on legal issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

First Panel – Thursday, April 8 at 12 PM
This panel will focus on possible changes to public policy as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This panel discussion will be moderated by Tyson Benson, attorney at Vivacqua Crane.
“Presidential Records Act Update” will be presented by Kimberly Breedon, professor, Barry University, Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law.
“Lessons on Liability from Zika, Ebola, an H1N1” will be presented by Chad Marzen, professor, Florida State College of Business.
“Making Opioid Pandemic Policies Permanent” will be presented by Laura Stanley, senior policy analyst, GWU Regulatory Studies Center.
Here is the link for registration: https://events.wayne.edu/2021/04/08/wayne-law-review-spring-symposium-policy-panel-89038/

Second Panel – Friday, April 16 at 12 PM
This panel focuses on the interaction between federalism, state emergency management laws, and the COVID-19 Pandemic. This panel discussion will be moderated by Tom Leonard, former Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives and partner at Plunket Cooney leading the Government Relations, Public Policy, and Regulatory Practice Group.

Panelists include:
Ilan Wurman, associate professor, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. Wurman teaches administrative law and constitutional law. He writes on administrative law, separation of powers and constitutionalism.
Patrick Wright, vice president of legal affairs, The Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Aside from directly representing clients, Wright has filed numerous amicus briefs, including many to the United States Supreme Court. Recently, the Mackinac Center was involved with the Grand Health v. Whitmer litigation.
Bill Myers, associate professor, University of Tampa, and/or Davia Downey, associate professor, Grand Valley State University. Myers and Downey have been working on some comparative studies between the U.S. and Australian responses to COVID-19 and the influence federalism has had on those policies
Here is the link for registration: https://events.wayne.edu/2021/04/16/wayne-law-review-spring-symposium-covid-19-and-federalism-panel-89039/

This year’s Wayne Law Review symposium will bring together judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, academic experts and a former criminal  on Friday, October 24^th, to discuss the topic, “Sentencing White Collar Defendants: How Much Is Enough?”

The free Symposium will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Wayne State University Law School, Partrich Auditorium, 471 West Palmer St. The event is open to the public. Parking will be available for $7 (credit and debit cards only) in Structure No. 1 across West Palmer Street from the law school.

The symposium will look in depth at the issue of how much punishment is enough for white collar criminals. Sentences meted out to convicted defendants are increasing in length, rivalling those given for crimes of violence or large-scale drug dealing. Bernie Madoff received a 150-year sentence for operating a Ponzi scheme that cost investors billions, while R. Alan Stanford was sentenced to 110 years for defrauding investors out of their life savings totaling more than $7 billion. Raj Rajartnam, convicted of trading on inside information, received an 11-year sentence, while Matthew Kluger, a lawyer who revealed confidential information about client deals for years, was sentenced to 12 years.

Recent public corruption cases have seen sentences from 13 years for former Congressman William Jefferson to 28 years for former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

Do long prison terms for these defendants and their ilk serve the typical goals of criminal punishment: rehabilitation, retribution and deterrence? How should a court weight the appropriate sentence for a defendant who poses little continuing threat to society, yet committed a crime that can have far-reaching consequences? The experts at the symposium will consider these questions and more from all perspectives.

Opening remarks will be at 9 a.m. by Wayne Law Dean Jocelyn Benson; Paul Stewart, editor-in-chief of Wayne Law Review; and Judge Avern Cohn, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Ellen S. Podgor, the Gary R. Trombley Family White-Collar Crime Research Professor and professor of law at Stetson University College of Law, will moderate a judicial panel discussion at 9:30 a.m. Panelists will be:

• Judge Jed S. Rakoff, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Judge Ricardo H. Hinojosa, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, who is the former chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission
• Judge Nancy G. Edmunds (Wayne Law class of 1976), U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan

Peter J. Henning, professor of law at Wayne Law and a former federal prosecutor, will moderate an academics panel discussion at 11 a.m. Panelists will be:

• Sara Sun Beale, Charles L.B. Lowndes Professor of Law at Duke University School of Law
• Miriam Baer, associate professor of law at Brooklyn Law School
• Mark Osler, professor of law at St. Thomas University Law School
• Lucian E. Dervan, associate professor of law and director of faculty development at Southern Illinois School of Law

David F. DuMouchel (Wayne Law class of 1975), partner with Butzel Long in Detroit, will moderate a practitioner panel discussion at 1:45 p.m. Panelists will be:

• Barbara L. McQuade, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan
• David Debold, partner with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C.
• David Schertler, partner with Schertler & Onorato in Washington, D.C.
• Walter Pavlo, co-author of Stolen Without a Gun and a Forbes contributor

Closing remarks will be given by Symposium Editor Brittney Kohn at 3:45 p.m.

The day will include a continental breakfast, lunch and an evening cocktail and networking reception.  Lunch will be provided to those who RSVP. Register at law.wayne.edu/lawreview2014 by Wednesday, Oct. 15.

The event is made possible through the support of the Cohn Family Endowed Fund.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email Brittney Kohn, Symposium Editor, at symposium_editor@wayne.edu.

We look forward to seeing you on October 24^th!

The Wayne Law Review Symposium, A Wave of Change: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Michigan’s Constitution and the Evolution of State Constitutionalism, will be available to watch online live for those who are not able to attend. On Friday the 11th, the Symposium will be streaming live at: http://www.wayne.edu/live/.

The Wayne Law Review Symposium is made possible through the support of the Cohn Family Endowed Fund.

Wayne Law Review Symposium to focus on state constitutions Oct. 11; former Michigan attorney general Frank Kelley to provide keynote address. Read the full article here: http://goo.gl/sZGbeo

The Symposium is made possible through the support of the Cohn Family Endowed Fund.

Wayne Law Review’s Symposium, A Wave Of Change: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Michigan’s Constitution and the Evolution of State Constitutionalism, will take place on October 11th, from 8:00am to 5:00pm at Wayne Law. See the press release here:

http://media.wayne.edu/2013/09/17/wayne-law-review-symposium-to-focus-on

The Symposium is made possible through the support of the Cohn Family Endowed Fund.