Christopher Duggan to Address Key Supreme Court Precedent at Monticello

The Civil Rights Law Institute returns to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello near Charlottesville, Virginia to address the post–Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) legal landscape.

The Civil Rights Law Institute is an annual symposium exploring civil rights through legal and societal perspectives and is presented by the Virginia Law Foundation, the Old Dominion Bar Association, and the Virginia Bar Association.

Christopher A. Duggan, founding partner at Smith Duggan Cornell & Gollub LLP, an alumnus of the University of Virginia School of Law, and an avid historian, will be one of the featured speakers.

On June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the affirmative action student admissions practices at Harvard College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in a pair of cases brought by (SFFA). 

However, the Supreme Court relied expressly on case law concerning race in employment to reach its decision in SFFA. There is ample reason to believe that the SFFA decision’s holdings and language will have broader implications in a variety of arenas, and those effects may be felt sooner rather than later. Many of these implications will directly impact how attorneys advise their clients as the law in this realm continues to develop.

The 2024 Civil Rights Law Institute will address the post-SFFA legal landscape and explore historical and legal perspectives on affirmative action, the contours of SFFA in both education and business sectors, and a forward-looking evaluation of the post-SFFA era and how attorneys can best serve clients’ needs in this dynamic environment. 

This important Institute will take place on October 11, 2024, at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, a fitting venue for this gathering. 

The faculty includes lawyers, historians, civic leaders, and other experts from diverse and balanced perspectives.