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 2013

   The Executive Committee takes great pleasure in announcing that that Professor Kenji Yoshino  will
serve as the 2012 Coif Distinguished Visitor.

                                                  
                                                Kenji Yoshino

 Kenji Yoshino is the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at NYU School of Law.
 He was educated at Harvard (B.A. 1991), Oxford (M.Sc. 1993 as a Rhodes Scholar), and Yale Law School
(J.D. 1996).  After clerking for Judge Guido Calabresi on the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, he
taught at Yale Law School from 1998 to 2008.  At that institution, he served as Deputy Dean (2005-06) and
became the inaugural Guido Calabresi Professor in 2006.  His fields are constitutional law, anti-
discrimination law, and law and literature.

Professor Yoshino's first book, Covering the Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights was published in 2006.  It
won several awards and was assigned as the "first year" book to be read by all incoming students at four
colleges.  His second book, A Thousand Times More Fair:  What Shakespeare's Plays Teach Us About
Justice, was published in 2011. His third book, on same-sex marriage is under contract with Crown, a
division of Random House.

Yoshino has published in a range of academic journals, including The Columbia Law Review, The Harvard
Law Review, The Stanford Law Review, and The Yale Law Journal.  He has also written for more popular
forums including The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and The Washington Post.  He makes
regular appearances on various radio and television programs, such as NPR's The Takeaway and PBS's
Charlie Rose and a variety of shows on MSNBC.   In 2011 he was elected to the Harvard Board of  
Overseers.

     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 during the summer.

      2.    Applications to host a Coif Lecture should be submitted by October 15. 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 in November.

     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 15

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.