Standard 206 in Flux: What Faculty Need to Know
Integrating Doctrine & Diversity Speaker Series presents Standard 206 in Flux: What Faculty Need to Know
The proposed changes to ABA Standard 206 have prompted important conversations throughout legal education about accreditation, institutional mission, and the future of diversity in law schools. But what does Standard 206 do, why does this matter, and what is changing for us who actually teach in the classroom?
Whether the standard is retained, revised, or repealed this summer, law faculty will continue to face practical questions about what and how we teach. How do evolving accreditation standards intersect with academic freedom, professional responsibility, and our obligations to prepare students for the practice of law?
Panelists will explore how changes to Standard 206 and related standards may shape curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and classroom practice in the coming year.
This event is co-sponsored by Roger Williams University School of Law, City University of New York School of Law, Berkeley Law, JURIST, and Antiracist Development Institute.
2:00 - 3:00 p.m. EST
Check back for the registration link.
In 2021, RWU Law began sponsoring an ongoing Integrating Doctrine & Diversity Speaker Series in collaboration with CUNY School of Law and JURIST. Each previous installment has been attended by hundreds of legal education professionals from across the country.
View Previous Integrating Doctrine & Diversity Speaker Series
FEATURED SPEAKERS
Steven Bender
Professor and Associate Dean for Planning and Strategic Initiatives
Seattle University School of Law
Associate Dean Steven Bender at Seattle University School of Law is a national academic leader in the areas of critical theory, especially LatCrit, and immigration law and policy, as well as an expert in real estate law and thought leader in innovation/technology and ethics. Among his honors, the Minority Groups Section of the Association of American Law Schools presented him with the C. Clyde Ferguson, Jr., Award, a prestigious national award recognizing scholarly reputation, mentoring of junior faculty, and teaching excellence; in 2024 the Society of American Law Teachers awarded him the Great Teacher Award; and in 2025 he received a Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Scholarly Activity from Seattle University.
He joined the faculty from the University of Oregon in 2011 and served as Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development from 2014-2017 and since 2017 as the Associate Dean for Planning and Strategic Initiatives. He taught at UO for 20 years and served as the James and Ilene Hershner Professor of Law, founding Director of Portland Programs, Director of the Green Business Initiative, and Co-Director of the Law and Entrepreneurship Center.
Professor Bender is a prolific author of dozens of law review articles and book chapters, a casebook on real estate transactions, a national two-volume treatise on real estate financing, and more than a dozen other acclaimed books. His recent books include the co-authored textbook "Critical Justice: Systemic Advocacy in Law and Society" (West Academic 2021) and an overview of the history and future of the international LatCrit academic nonprofit organization, "LatCrit: From Critical Legal Theory to Academic Activism" (NYU Press 2021).
Associate Dean Bender is an elected member of the American Law Institute, the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, and the American College of Mortgage Attorneys. During 2009-2011, Bender served as co-president of the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT). He is also the founder and initial chair (2023-2024) of the AALS Section on Critical Theories, and Director of the Seattle law school's Summer Initiative for Technology, Innovation, and Ethics (SITIE).
Jennifer M. Fernandez
Associate Professor of Law
City University of New York School of Law
Jennifer M. Fernandez is an Associate Professor of Law at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law, where she teaches courses including Legal Methods, Skills, and the Housing Justice Practicum. She previously served as a Clinical Supervisor and Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, where she taught in the Civil Practice Clinic and Externship Program, supervising students in matters involving housing, family, consumer, and employment law. Before full-time law teaching, she practiced as a staff attorney with Queens Legal Services and Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem and served as a New York City Department of Education special education teacher.
Professor Fernandez is Co-President of the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA). She has been appointed by the Chief Administrative Judge of the New York State Unified Court System to the Advisory Council of the NYC Housing Court and to the newly formed New York City Housing Court Practice and Policy Advisory Committee. She is also actively engaged in service with the New York City Bar Association Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging and the Association of Academic Support Educators (AASE).
Professor Fernandez’s recent scholarship includes The Time is Now; ABA Standard 303(C) as the Impetus for a Truly Inclusive 1L Classroom (Washington University Journal of Law and Policy, 2024) and Dismantling Second-Class Justice through Transformative Reform in New York City Housing Court (Albany Law Review, 2026). She holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School, an M.S. in Teaching from Pace University, and a B.A. in American Studies from Yale University.
Kara Sheli Wallis
Associate Professor
CUNY School of Law
Professor Kara Sheli Wallis (she/her) is an Associate Professor of Law at CUNY School of Law. She is a former public defender and civil rights litigator, who teaches courses in Civil Procedure and impact litigation, ethics and professional responsibility, and legal writing and client-centered lawyering skills, among others.
After graduating from CUNY Law, Kara was a staff attorney at Bronx Defenders, where she represented parents and caregivers in Family Court. In 2020, Kara then joined Florida Justice Institute’s 1983 practice. With Southern Poverty Law Center and Florida Legal Services as co-counsel, Kara primarily litigated class action challenges to Florida’s draconian use of solitary confinement in its state prisons. Prior to law school, Kara was a program and policy associate at Pregnancy Justice, a nonprofit focused on combating the criminalization of pregnancy and its outcomes.
Kara holds an M.A. in Ethics and Society from Fordham University (’12) and a B.A. in Philosophy with Departmental Honors from Seattle University (’09). Kara is a faculty affiliate with the Institute on Gender, Law, and Transformative Peace and sits on the Board of the Critical Legal Collective.
Additional Panelists - To Be Announced
MEET THE MODERATOR
Nicole P. Dyszlewski is one of the editors of Integrating Doctrine and Diversity: Inclusion and Equity in the Law School Classroom. She currently serves as a Professor and the Director of Special Programs, Academic Affairs at Roger Williams University School of Law. She received a B.A. from Hofstra University, a J.D. from Boston University School of Law, and an M.L.I.S. from the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Library and Information Studies. She is a member of the Massachusetts State Bar and the Rhode Island State Bar. Her areas of interest are mass incarceration, access to justice, and systems of race and gender inequality in law. Nicole was the 2020 recipient of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Volunteer Service Award and the 2015 recipient of the AALL Emerging Leader Award.
SPECIAL ACCOMMODATIONS
Persons who, because of a special need or condition, would like to request an accommodation for an event should contact Kara Dalessio, kdalessio@rwu.edu, as soon as possible, but no later than 72 hours before the event, so that appropriate arrangements can be made.