Hofstra Law Presents 2008-2009 Siben Lecture

Hofstra Law School, Hempstead, N.Y. —

Hofstra Law School’s 2008-2009 Sidney and Walter Siben Distinguished Professorship Lecture will be delivered by Emily Buss, the Mark and Barbara Fried Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School.  Her lecture is titled “What the Law Should (and Should Not) Learn from Child Development Research.”

The lecture will be held on Monday, April 13, 2009 at 11:10 a.m. in the Sidney and Walter Siben Moot Courtroom (Room 308) at Hofstra Law School.  John DeWitt Gregory, the Sidney and Walter Siben Distinguished Professor of Family Law, will provide the introduction to the event, which is free and open to the public.  To view the live webcast, visit Hofstra Law’s webchannel  law.hofstra.edu/webcast.

Professor Buss focuses on the rights of children and parents and the division of legal authority over children’s development among parent, child and state.  As the Kanter Director of Chicago Policy Initiatives, Buss headed a multi-year project aimed at improving the legal system’s treatment of children aging out of foster care.  In addition to courses focused on the relationship between parent, child and the state, Buss teaches Civil Procedure and Evidence.  

Buss received her B.A. from Yale University in 1982 and her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1986.  After graduating from law school, she clerked for Judge Louis H. Pollak of the U.S. Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court.

From 1989 to 1990, Buss worked as a staff attorney in the Child Advocacy Unit of the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau.  In 1990, Buss joined the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia and from 1993 to 1996 she served as the Center's deputy director.  She joined the University of Chicago Law School faculty in 1996.