Webinar: Through Her Clerks’ Eyes: The Barrier-Breaking Career of Judge Motley and What it Means Today

In celebration of the Black History month and Women’s History month, please join the Federal Bar Association’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee for a webinar honoring the legacy of trailblazing judge Hon. Constance Baker Motley. Join us as two of Judge Motley’s former law clerks share their personal insights and experiences working with Judge Motley. How she managed her cases and trials and some of the landmark litigations she ruled on, including Ludtke v Kuhn and Blank v Sullivan & Cromwell. Ask questions and learn about the exciting Hon. Constance Baker Motley Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Young Professionals Essay Writing Competition – for more information on the contest. Deadline is May 10, 2024.  For more information, visit the essay page.

Presented by the Diversity and Inclusion Committee

Registration is Closed

About the Presenters and Former Clerks of Hon. Constance Baker Motley

Richard Jasper, Criminal Defense Lawyer

Richard Jasper is a practicing criminal defense lawyer in the New York City metropolitan area.   He is a graduate of Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, and New York Law School.  Following law school, he served as deputy clerk to Chief Judge Constance Baker Motley, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York.  He has participated in over seventy-five federal death eligible cases either as Learned Counsel or Resource Counsel. In addition, Mr. Jasper has tried three federal death penalty cases to a verdict without a death sentence. He has represented defendants in post 911 terrorist and racketeering cases. He has been a member of the faculty at the Santa Clara University School of Law Death Penalty College since 2008 and member of the Faculty at the National College for Capital Voir Dire in Boulder, Colorado since 2014.  He is a member of the Federal Capital Resource Project and serves on the Board of Directors of Advancing Real Change (ARC), an organization that assists mitigation specialists in capital cases.  He also previously served on the Board of Directors of both the New York Criminal Bar Association and the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.  He received the 2019 Honorable Lewis Cohen’s Award for Professional Excellence. In 2023 received the Gideons Promise Champion of the Community Award.

Amber Koonce, Assistant Counsel, Legal Defense Fund

Amber M. Koonce is an Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF). Her civil rights practice covers matters of economic justice, First Amendment protections, affirmative action, desegregation, and criminal justice. Amber has represented Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah Jones in her tenure dispute with UNC, a class of Black parents and students challenging for the desegregation of their school district in Alabama, and incarcerated individuals seeking access to covid mitigation measures in Arkansas, among others. Amber has substantial experience advising mission-driven financial institutions regarding title VI, title VII, and Section 1981 parameters for programs supporting underrepresented minorities. Amber received her J.D. from Yale Law School and her B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Riad P. Williams, Assistant Deputy Chief Court Attorney, Law Department of the Appellate Division Second Department

Riad P. Williams is an Assistant Deputy Chief Court Attorney for the Law Department of the Appellate Division Second Department.  In that role, Riad supervises and instructs approximately 50 to 60 Appellate Court Attorneys in the preparation of confidential reports for the Justices of the Appellate Division.   Before becoming a Law Department supervisor in 2019, Riad was an Appellate Court Attorney, who analyzed complex legal issues and prepared confidential reports for the Justices of the Appellate Division.

Prior to joining the Law Department of the Appellate Division in 2006, Riad was a Certified Financial Planner at Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase.  She was responsible for creating wealth management plans and specialized investment solutions for her clients.  Prior to that, Riad worked as an associate at Morrison & Foerster.  In 1994-1995, Riad had the wonderful opportunity to clerk for the Honorable Constance Baker Motley.

Riad earned an A.B. in Political Philosophy with Honors from Princeton University where she was awarded the “Class of 1869 Prize in Ethics” for her senior thesis.  Riad graduated from New York University Law School with dual degrees: J.D. and an M.A. in Philosophy, and was an associate editor of the Law Review.

Registration

Registration is Closed

Registration for this event will close Tuesday, March 26 at 2:00 PM EDT.

Registration Fees

• Complimentary for FBA Members & Non-Members

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A: Please contact sections@fedbar.org for any other questions.

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If you have any questions regarding this program, please contact Shaniece, Program Coordinator, at sections@fedbar.org