Legal thinker and national commentator Erwin Chemerinsky will keynote a conference for Oregon judges and appellate attorneys on the courts’ role in disentangling church and state on Friday, March 24 from 8:30 a.m. until noon at Portland’s World Trade Center, 121 SW Salmon.

Chemerinsky, named one of the top 20 legal thinkers by Legal Affairs magazine in 2005, also is a well-known commentator on the constitution, civil rights, and current policy issues. He is an appellate lawyer and the Alston and Bird Professor of Law and professor of political science at Duke University.

The conference is sponsored by the University of Oregon’s School of Law and the Kenneth J. O’Connell Program. Chief Justice O’Connell served on the Oregon Supreme Court for 19 years and was a university law professor from the 1930s through the 1950s.

Other speakers at the event include Senior Judge John Noonan, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, San Francisco; Judge David Schuman, Oregon Court of Appeals, Salem; Kelly Clark, O'Donnell & Clark LLP, Portland; Charles F. Hinkle, Stoel, Rives LLP, Portland; Tom Lininger, University of Oregon School of Law; and, Clark Lombardi, University of Washington School of Law, Seattle.

Admission is free, but seating is limited. Three continuing legal education credits are available. For information on other panelists to register, visit http://www.law.uoregon.edu/news/article.php?show=179, call (541) 346-3835 or email dwarren@law.uoregon.edu.