This year’s Criminal Law & Policy Speaker Series connects students with top legal minds — from scholars to practitioners — tackling real-world challenges in criminal justice. It’s a chance to hear, question, and engage with those shaping the field. The series is organized by Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs Lauryn Gouldin with support from the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professorship Program, with many events hosted in partnership with the Criminal Law Society.
| Presentation | Speaker and Date |
| The Role of a Prosecutor | The Honorable Margaret Garnett, U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York August 20, 2025 |
| Representing Police Officers in Section 1983 Litigation | Syracuse University College of Law Professor Katherine Macfarlane September 3, 2025 |
| Representing Adolescents | Alan Rosenthal L’74, Veteran criminal defense and civil rights attorney September 22, 2025 |
| A Firsthand Account of the Challenges of Reentry: “Welcome Home from Prison, This Won’t Be Easy” | The Honorable Mitchell Katz, U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of New York, in Conversation with Dewayne Comer September 29, 2025 |
| Reforming Sixth Amendment Rights | Lisa Bailey Vavonese, Director, Research-Practice Strategies, and Matt Watkins, Senior Media & Policy Advisor, Center for Justice Innovation October 6, 2025 |
| The Value of Holistic Criminal Defense | Piyali Basak, Managing Director at Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem October 15, 2025 |
| Supreme Court Preview – Criminal Cases | Lisa Peebles L’92, Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of New York October 17, 2025 |
| Networked Information Technology in Criminal Law | Professor Jessica Eaglin, Cornell University School of Law November 5, 2025 |
| Prior conviction impeachment: what is it, why is it harmful, and might it be abolished? | Professor Anna Roberts, Dean’s Research Scholar, Brooklyn Law School November 10, 2025 |
| Criminal Law Society’s Forensic Series, in partnership with Onondaga County Forensic Laboratories and Syracuse University’s Forensic and National Security Sciences Institute, features sessions on Biology & DNA; Firearms & Latent Prints; and Drug Chemistry, Arson, & Digital Evidence | January 29 ( Biology & DNA), February 12 (Firearms & Latent Prints), and February 26 (Drug Chemistry, Arson, & Digital Evidence) |
| Civil Rights Lawyering and Propaganda in a Time of Rising Authoritarianism | Alec Karakatsanis, Founder and Executive Director, Civil Rights Corps and Author of Usual Cruelty and Copaganda February 18, 2026 |
| Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable | Professor Joanna Schwartz, UCLA School of Law April 16, 2026 |