Scalia-Ginsburg Collegiality Speaker Series

In the spring of 2022, the Institute of Bill of Rights Law launched the Scalia-Ginsburg Collegiality Speaker Series. The series brings together pairs of advocates, judges, and legal scholars who share a warm friendship even if they do not always see the law in the same way. Inspired by the well-known friendship between the late Justices Antonin Scalia Ruth Bader-Ginsburg, the hope of the series is to explore tools for collegiality in a legal world that is becoming deeply divided on partisan lines and encourage friendship rather than division.

In Fall 2024, IBRL welcomed Patricia Millett, U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Jeff Sutton, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. In Spring 2025 IBRL hosted former Solicitor Generals, Paul Clement, who was the Solicitor General under former President George W. Bush, and Donald Verrilli, who was the Solicitor General under former President Barack Obama. IBRL continued this series in Spring 2026, with former state attorney generals Gurbir Grewal, the 61st New Jersey attorney general, and Jason Miyares, the 48th Virginia attorney general.

Director of the Institute of Bill of Rights Law, Allison Orr Larsen, observed that she has "always believed the most influential lawyers are the ones that treat others—including those on the other side of an argument—with respect and civility.”  The series, Larsen hopes, "will inspire our students and equip them with ways to strike that balance."