DISTINGUISHED VISITOR PROGRAM
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);Since the visits must be arranged for a time compatible with the Visitors other obligations, it is
> Proposed dates (see below);
> Statement of any special reasons this application should be granted (e.g., special
anniversary of the school, etc.)
Host School: _____________________________________________________________________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.
Dean____________________________________________________
School
___________________________________________________
Date _____________________________________________________
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.