Berkeley Law will host a five-hour webinar on police reform on Friday, Jan. 29, convening sixteen lawyers, judges, policy experts and professors to discuss possible changes to police-related labor laws. The free event, “Reforming Policing Through Changing Labor Relations,” will run from 10:45 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Berkeley Law has lined up some of the top minds in the fields of police reform and labor relations for a groundbreaking event. Three panels and a keynote speaker will explore the impact of current labor relations structures on policing and how changes to labor relations and other personnel laws could help transform policing.
Following an introduction by Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and retired California Supreme Court Associate Justice Joseph Grodin, the first panel will discuss the labor relations elements of current calls for public safety reform. This panel, moderated by Berkeley Law’s Catherine Fisk, features Christy Lopez, a professor at Georgetown Law; Nancy Skinner, California State Senator for District 9; and Ronald Davis, former Director of the United States Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.
The Hon. Thelton Henderson, former U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of California, will start the afternoon’s sessions with a keynote address discussing the role of labor relations in promoting or undermining constitutional policing. The Hon. John True, retired judge of the Alameda County Superior Court, will then introduce specific proposals. The proposals were developed by group that included Judges Grodin, Henderson and True as well as Barry Winograd, Ron Yank and Prof. Catherine Fisk.
The first afternoon panel considers increasing transparency in negotiation and discipline. Moderator Ronald Yank, the former Director of the California Department of Personnel Administration, will join Will Atchison, counsel for law enforcement officers’ unions in Portland, Oregon; Jon Holtzman, founding partner at Renne Public Law Group; and Anand Subramanian, managing director at PolicyLink.
The third and final panel will discuss accountability, focusing on proposals to ensure union contracts do not prevent changes in policy that seek to improve constitutional and civil rights. Moderator Barry Winograd, a Berkeley Law lecturer and past president of the National Academy of Arbitrators, will facilitate discussion among panelists Paul Henderson, Director of the San Francisco Department of Police Accountability; Harry Stern, Principal at Rains, Lucia, Stern, St. Phalle & Silver; and Jeanne Charles, an arbitrator.
Visit the Center for Law and Work’s website for a detailed agenda and the speaker biography sheet.
The event will take place over YouTube Live and is linked on the Center for Law and Work’s event page. Registration is not required. Please visit the Center for Law and Work’s website or contact Pamela Erickson for more information.