American Bar Foundation Brings Together Leaders in the Latino Community for Midwest Roundtable
May 31, 2016, Press releases
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The American Bar Foundation (ABF) will host a series of regional roundtables across the country for a new major research project,“The Future of Latinos in the United States: Law, Opportunity, and Mobility.” The first of these roundtables will be held on June 6-7, 2016, in Chicago, at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.
The roundtable is supported by The Chicago Community Trust, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, and Northwestern’s Office of the Provost. The roundtable will bring together leading members of the Latino community from Chicago and the Midwest, including law and non-law scholars, legal advocates, community activists, politicians, media representatives, foundation representatives, and emerging leaders, to imagine the different futures for Latinos that are possible by 2050. The discussion will be dedicated to exploring vitally important issues that will shape the prospects for Latinos in the region in coming years. Questions of immigration, education, economic opportunity, and civic and political engagement will all be central to the conversations taking place over the two days.
This initiative is led by a group of nationally recognized scholars under the direction of Rachel F. Moran, the inaugural William H. Neukom Fellows Research Chair in Diversity and Law at the ABF, and dean emerita and Michael J. Connell Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA Law School; and Robert Nelson, director emeritus and the MacCrate Research Chair in the Legal Profession at the ABF; and professor of sociology and law at Northwestern University. This nation-wide effort is devoted to understanding the current condition of Latinos in the United States, the structural barriers that impede full equality and integration for this emerging population, and the sites of intervention that promise to be most effective in promoting opportunity and mobility through law and policy.
“Addressing the needs of the growing number of Latinos in our country, projected to make up 30 percent of the nation’s population by the year 2050, is urgent and important work that advances equal justice even as inequality rises in the United States,” Moran said. “The role of law in serving the greater good will be shaped in significant degree by how we rise to critical challenges like this one.”
Along with the Midwest roundtable in Chicago, the ABF will host regional roundtables in the west (Stanford University), south (Texas), southeast (Miami), and northeast (Yale University). These roundtables will culminate in a national summit on these issues.
Keynote addresses will be made by Sylvia Puente, executive director of the Latino Policy Forum, Lilia Fernández, professor at The Ohio State University, and Ricardo Meza, attorney at Greensfelder and former Midwest regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). To date, confirmed participants include Juan Salgado (CEO and President of Instituto del Progreso Latino), Vicente Serrano (Sin Censura con Vicente Serrano), Dr. Wanda Figueroa-Peralta (ASPIRA of Illinois), Christine Neumann-Ortiz (Voces de la Frontera), Jesús del Toro (ImpreMedia), and Nancy Andrade (ABA Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities). Cook County Commissioner and former mayoral candidate Jesus “Chuy” Garcia will lead a final discussion on the second day of the event.
For more information on the “Future of Latinos” research project, please visit the Facebook and Twitter page, or contact the project manager, Pilar Margarita Hernández Escontrías, at pescontrias@abfn.org.
Notes to the Editor: Members of the media are welcome to attend the opening and closing plenary sessions.
Date: June 6, 9:00am-10:15am: Opening Plenary: Overview of Project and Keynote
Presentations: History, Demography, and Law and Policy
Date: June 7, 12:15pm-1:30pm: Closing Plenary
Location: 350 East Superior St., Chicago, IL; McCormick Room 195
Please find a PDF of this press release here.
Posted by: Cheyenne Blount
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