Pursuant to its historic purpose of promoting excellence in legal scholarship, The Order of
the Coif sponsors a program that  enables chapters to     bring distinguished members of the legal
profession to their campuses. Each year the Executive Committee will invite one or more
distinguished judges, academics, or practitioners to visit several law schools that have established
Coif chapters. The Distinguished Visitor spends two days at each of the institutions he or she
visits, participating in classroom lectures and seminars, meeting informally with faculty and student
groups, and giving one address open to the entire academic community.  The purpose of the program
is to contribute to the intellectual life of the campus by fostering an exchange of ideas with individuals
whose experiences and ideas may be expected to stimulate discussion about important issues
confronting the legal profession.

    The Distinguished Visitor Program replaced the Lecture Series in 2004.

                                    Coif Distinguished Visitor 2008

   The Executive Committee takes great pleasure in announcing that David B. Wilkins will serve as the
2008 Coif Distinguished Visitors.

                                               David B. Wilkins

David B. Wilkins is the Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law and the Director of both the Program on the
Legal Profession and the Program on Lawyers and the Professional Services Industry at Harvard Law
School. He is also a Visiting Senior Research Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a Faculty
Associate of the Harvard University Center in Ethics and the Professions. Since joining the Harvard
faculty in 1986, Professor Wilkins has written extensively on the legal profession, with an emphasis on
the experiences of black lawyers in corporate law firms. He is the author of The Black Bar: The Legacy
of Brown v. Board of Education and the Future of Race and the American Legal Profession (forthcoming,
Oxford University Press), Problems in Professional Responsibility for a Changing Profession, (Carolina
Press 4th ed. 2002) (along with Andrew Kaufman), and more than 40 articles on legal ethics, law firms,
and the legal profession in books, law reviews, and in the legal and popular press. Currently, Professor
Wilkins is working on a project titled After the JD, a nationwide longitudinal study of lawyers' careers,
and an empirical investigation into how corporations purchase legal services.

Professor Wilkins is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. He has served as a law
clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall of the Supreme Court and Judge Wilfred Feinberg of the United
States Court of Appeals. Prior to joining Harvard's faculty, Professor Wilkins was an associate at the law
firm of Nussbaum Owen & Webster in Washington, D.C.
 
   ELIGIBILITY TO HOST

     Any school with a chapter of The Order of the Coif may host a distinguished visitor  Priority will be given
to those institutions that do not have extensive resources on which to draw for similar programs or that for
other reasons may have difficulty in doing so and which have not recently hosted a distinguished visitor.
 

OBLIGATION OF HOST SCHOOL

     The national office of the Order will provide an honorarium for the Coif Distinguished Visitor and will pay
for his or her transportation to the host school. The host school is responsible for the expense of his or her
meals, lodging, and local transportation. In addition, the host school undertakes to provide publicity for the
Visitor's lecture sufficient to bring it to the attention of all segments of the campus, the local professional
community, including bench, bar, and law students.
 

INVITATIONS

    The national office of the Order issues invitations to the Distinguished Visitor and posts information
about the visitors on this website.
 

APPLICATION PROCEDURES AND CRITERIA

      1.  The Distinguished Visitors for the following academic year will be selected and chapters
notified by June 30.

      2.    Applications to host a Coif Lecture should be submitted by October 1. The national office, in
consultation with the Visitor, will then arrange a series of visits from among the schools that have
expressed an interest.  Applicant schools should not communicate directly with the Distinguished Visitor.
Designated host schools will be notified of their selection no later than November 1.

     3.  Applications for designation as host school for a Coif Distinguished Visitor must be in writing and
contain:

 > Name(s) of proposed host school(s);
 > Proposed dates (see below);
 > Statement of any special reasons this application should be granted (e.g., special
    anniversary of the school, etc.)

APPLICATION TO HOST A
DISTINGUISHED VISITOR

Joint Host:     ______________________________________________________________________
 

Name of Distinguished Visitor Sought:   ________________________________________________
 

Proposed Dates  (Include as many potential dates as possible for maximum flexibility)

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________
 
 

Special Reason this Application Should Be Granted:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Dean's Statement:  I am acquainted with the obligations of a school undertaking the sponsorship
of an Order of the Coif Distinguished Visitor and state that the applicant school is willing and able to
discharge these obligations.
 
 

DEADLINE:  October 1

RETURN TO: Laura N. Gasaway
   National Secretary-Treasurer
   The Order of the Coif
   University of North Carolina
   Law Library, CB # 3385
   Chapel Hill,  NC  27599-3385

OR ATTACH AS EMAIL MESSAGE:  laura_gasaway@unc.edu

And forward Dean's statement, signature and date by regular mail.