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The Hon. William A. Fletcher to Discuss Human Rights at Trienens Lecture

December 15, 2008

The Hon. William A. Fletcher, U.S. Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit, will discuss “Human Rights in the United States and the World”during his visit to Northwestern University School of Law as this year’s Howard J. Trienens Visiting Judicial Scholar.

The lecture will take place at 4 p.m. Thursday, January 22, in Lincoln Hall at Northwestern Law, 375 E. Chicago Ave. It is free and open to the public.

The Howard J. Trienens Visiting Scholar Program was established at Northwestern Law in 1989 by partners of Sidley Austin LLP to honor Howard Trienens’ service to the firm and Northwestern.

Judge Fletcher was sworn in as U.S. Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit on February 1, 1999. Prior to his position on the court, he served 22 years as a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall), specializing in federal courts and jurisdiction and civil procedure.  At the time of his retirement from Boalt Hall, he was the Richard W. Jennings Jr. Professor of Law. 

Fletcher has authored numerous articles in his areas of specialization, including: “A Historical Interpretation of the 11th Amendment,” Stanford Law Review (1983); “The General Common Law and Section 34 of the Judiciary Act of 1789,” Harvard Law Review (1984); “The Structure of Standing,” Yale Law Journal (1988).  He is the co-author with professors Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr., Colin C. Tait, and Stephen McG. Bundy of Pleading and Procedure: State and Federal (9th ed., Foundation Press, 2005). He clerked for the Hon. William J. Brennan Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1976 to 1977. 

Fletcher received a BA in English history and literature from Harvard College in 1968; a BA in English language and literature from Oxford University in 1970; and a JD from Yale Law School in 1975.  He was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant in 1972. He is a member of the American Law Institute.

Trienens, a partner at Sidley Austin since 1956, has been a member of the Northwestern board of trustees since 1967 and chairman of the board from 1986 to 1995. He received two degrees from Northwestern, a bachelor’s degree in 1945 and a JD in 1949. He was editor in chief of the Illinois Law Review.

Distinguished jurists who have lectured as part of the Trienens Visiting Judicial Scholar Program include U.S. Supreme Court Justices John G. Roberts Jr., William H. Renquist, Antonin Scalia, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O’Connor, and Anthony M. Kennedy.

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