Later this month, Erwin Chemerinsky, a renowned legal scholar, professor, and dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, will visit campus as the final speaker in the 2024 Sharp Viewpoint Speakers Series. In 2024, National Jurist magazine named Chemerinsky the most influential person in legal education in the United States. 

The Sharp Speaker Series is one way that the University of Richmond celebrates fostering important and challenging dialogues. This year’s theme is “Speaking About Speech — Dialogue, Difference, and Civil Discourse.” The series was established by UR in 2011 in honor of Richard L. Sharp, a nationally recognized entrepreneur, to present competing views on topics crucial to our society.

While visiting campus on Oct. 24, Chemerinsky will meet with campus community members. Over lunch, Richmond School of Law students, staff, and faculty will have a chance to meet with him for a conversation on a wide range of legal topics. Before the Sharp Series event in the evening, he will also meet with undergraduates enrolled in a politics, philosophy, economics, and law course. These students will have read works by Chemerinsky and will have a chance to discuss those readings with him during this engagement session.

“This year, we have been welcoming speakers like Dean Chemerinsky to help us consider why civil discourse is both important and sometimes so difficult,” said UR President Kevin F. Hallock. “The Sharp Series provides wonderful opportunities for our campus community and the Richmond region to come together and learn and grow while hearing from thought-provoking, leading public intellectuals.”

Chemerinsky is the dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law at Berkeley Law. A legal scholar known for his studies of constitutional law and federal civil procedure, he previously served as the founding dean and Distinguished Professor of Law and Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. He also taught law and political science at Duke University, University of Southern California law school, and DePaul College of Law.

Chemerinsky is the third speaker in this year’s Sharp Series. In February, UR welcomed legal and political scholar Robert P. George, director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. In March, the UR campus hosted human rights advocate and CEO of PEN America Suzanne Nossel. Recordings of the first two events are available at www.richmond.edu/sharp.