The Robert W. Kastenmeier Lecture | University of Wisconsin Law School

2022 Kastenmeier Lecture

4 p.m., Friday, September 23, 2022

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Featured Speaker

Speaker Information

Lawrence “Larry” Krasner was sworn in for a second term as Philadelphia’s 26th District Attorney on Jan. 2, 2022. Throughout his 34-year career, Krasner has demonstrated commitment to serving others, offering his services for free to defend protesters involved with movements including Black Lives Matter, DACA Dreamers, Grannies for Peace, and many others. Early in his career, Krasner served as a federal public defender before entering private practice as a civil rights and criminal defense attorney. Before being elected Philadelphia’s District Attorney, Krasner served as of-counsel at the law firm of Greenblatt, Pierce, Funt, and Flores. Krasner was born in 1961 in St. Louis, Missouri, to a World War II veteran and author father and evangelist mother. He attended public school in the St. Louis and Philadelphia areas and earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago in 1983 and his law degree from Stanford Law School in 1987.  He’s lived in Philadelphia for more than three decades with his wife of over 30 years, retired Court of Common Pleas Judge Lisa M. Rau. After many years on Philadelphia’s highest trial bench, Judge Rau retired to found her own private mediation company, Resonate Mediation & Arbitration. They have two adult sons.

About the Kastenmeier Lecture

Robert Kastenmeier This lecture is supported by the fund established to honor Robert W. Kastenmeier, an outstanding graduate of University of Wisconsin Law School, who served with great distinction in the United States Congress from 1958 to 1990. During his tenure, Congressman Kastenmeier made special contributions to the improvement of the judiciary and to the field of intellectual property law. He drafted the rules for the House Committee on the Judiciary that were used for the impeachment of President Richard M. Nixon, as well as the articles of impeachment against Judge Harry Claiborne. In 1985, Congressman Kastenmeier received the Warren E. Burger Award, presented by the Institute for Court Management, and the Service Award of the National Center for State Courts. In 1988, American Judicature Society honored him with its Justice Award for his contributions to improving the administration of justice.

The Kastenmeier Fund was created to recognize these contributions by fostering important legal scholarship in the fields of intellectual property, corrections, administration of justice, and civil liberties. It is a fitting tribute to the leadership of Robert W. Kastenmeier in these areas.

View a complete list of Kastenmeier lectures

2021	Daniel P. Dinapoli, Andrei Iancu, Lisa Larrimore Ouelette, "Patents and the Public Interest in Pandemic Vaccine Policy," moderated by BJ Ard
2019	Vanita Gupta, “The Federal Government and Local Policing: A Conversation with Vanita Gupta”
2018	Shirley S. Abrahamson, “A Conversation with Justice Shirley Abrahamson”
2017	Maria A. Pallante, "I am the Captain Now: Resisting Piracy and Contortion in the Copyright Marketplace"
2016	Sonia Sotomayor, "A Discussion with Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court of the United States"
2015	James Sensenbrenner, "A History of the USA FREEDOM Act"
2014	Bryan Stevenson, "Just Mercy: Confronting Mass Incarceration and Excessive Punishment in America"
2013	John Dean, "Crossing the Line: Watergate, the Criminal Law and Ethics"
2012	Mark A. Lemley, "Software Patents and the Return of Functional Claiming"
2011	Barbara Crabb, "Bridging the Divide between Congress and the Courts"
2010	Bob Herbert, "Afghanistan: What Are We Fighting For?"
2009	Walter Dickey, Cecelia Klingele and Michael Scott, "Re-Imagining Criminal Justice: Implications for Practice, Research and Teaching"
2008	David Obey, "Economic Injustice"
2007	Harold Hongju Koh, Tom Petri, and Russ Feingold, "The National Security Constitution in a Time of Terror"
2006	Carl Gulbrandsen (with remarks from Birch Bayh), "The Law in Action: What the Bayh-Dole Act Means to the University of Wisconsin and the State of Wisconsin and an Effective National Science Policy"
2005	George McGovern, "The Iraq War: Lessons from the Past"
2004	Frank Tuerkheimer, "Civil Rights Act of 1964: Hopes and Promises" Roger Wilkins, "Bob Kastenmeier and 1960s Civil Rights Legislation: Leadership Through Commitment and Foresight"
2003	Lawrence Lessig, "The Forgotten Balance of Robert Kastenmeier"
2002	Anthony Lewis, "Civil Liberties in a Time of Terror"
2001	Douglas Berman, Michael Smith, John Steer, and moderator Thomas W. Hutchison, "Sentencing Criminals: After a Quarter Century of Reform, Where Are We?"
2000	Martin Abrams, Deirdre Mulligan, Paul Schwartz, and moderator Robert Gellman, "From the Bill of Rights to the Internet: Protecting Privacy Rights and Interests in the New Millennium"
1999	Robert Drinan, Michael Gerhardt, Stanley Kutler, Frank Tuerkheimer, and moderator David Broder, "From Watergate to the Present: Impeachment, Presidential Accountability, and the Separation of Powers"
1997	Paul Goldstein, "The Transformation of American Copyright Law"
1996	Abner J. Mikva, "Political Extremism: Is It New, Is It Worse, Is It Curable?"
1995	Symposium: "Is Effective Crime Policy Possible?"
1993	Symposium: "Computer Software Protection: Reinventing Intellectual Property"
1992	William H. Rehnquist, "Seen in a Glass Darkly: The Future of the Federal Court"

Digital Repository

Check out the UW Law School Digital Repository for more about past Kastenmeier Lectures »