Civil Rights Symposium 2026 – Part One: Speech, Protest, and the First Amendment: Legal Limits in a Polarized Era

Brian Hauss is the deputy director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, where he focuses on free speech issues. Since joining the ACLU in 2012, he has litigated cases throughout the country defending the First Amendment rights of authors, journalists, media organizations, protesters, labor unions, civil servants, nonprofits, for-profits, and gadflies. He is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School and served as a law clerk to the Hon. Marsha S. Berzon of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Malak Afaneh is a Staff Attorney at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), where she litigates cases challenging anti-Arab discrimination. Her work focuses on civil rights and free speech litigation. She has challenged legislation restricting political expression, including California’s AB 715, brought civil rights claims arising from police misconduct and the suppression of protest activity, and represented students, workers, and advocates facing retaliation by universities for protected political speech. She received her J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law and a B.A. in Politics and Middle Eastern Studies from Pomona College.

Samantha Harris is a founding and managing partner of Allen Harris PLLC, a law firm she co-founded in 2021 to represent college students and faculty in matters involving free speech and due process. She represents clients nationwide in high-stakes disputes with colleges and universities, including campus disciplinary proceedings, Title IX matters, and cases involving academic freedom and First Amendment rights. Samantha has devoted her career to protecting civil liberties in higher education and has more than 20 years of experience advising students, faculty, and attorneys on these issues. Before founding Allen Harris PLLC, she spent 15 years at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, where she worked to reform university policies and practices that infringed on fundamental rights. Samantha is a frequent speaker and author on campus free speech and due process issues. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, New York Daily News, Inside Higher Ed, Reason, National Review, and Quillette, among other outlets, and she has appeared on ESPN, Fox News, CNN, NPR, and other media platforms.

Maria Feeley chairs the Board of Rosemont College and is the Chief Legal Officer of Washington and Lee University, a top nationally ranked university with an endowment exceeding $2 billion. She previously served as Vice President, General Counsel, Secretary, and Interim Division I Athletics Director (2 years) of the University of Hartford, which has seven colleges and offers over 100 degree programs. There she oversaw the Office of General Counsel, Office of EEO Programs and Title IX, Division I Athletics Department, Office of the Secretary, Compliance and ERM Programs. Before Hartford, she was the Chief Legal Officer of Florida A&M University, a partner in the AmLaw100 firm Troutman Pepper Locke f/k/a Pepper Hamilton, and a senior consultant for FGIS, a risk management company former FBI Director Freeh founded and Pepper Hamilton acquired. In 2014, the Pennsylvania Governor appointed her to the State Ethics Commission, an independent agency which enforces the Lobbying Disclosure Law, Ethics, Gaming, and Medical Marijuana Acts. Philly Biz named her a “Top Business Attorney;” Profiles in Diversity Journal honored her in its 10th Annual WomenWorthWatching® issue; The Legal Intelligencer and Pennsylvania Law Weekly named her one of Pennsylvania’s 25 Women of the Year.

Johnda “Jonnee” Bentley is associate counsel in the legal department of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) in Washington, DC. In that role, she supports litigation and amicus brief filings to advance academic freedom and protect First Amendment rights. Prior to joining the AAUP, Jonnee served as an appellate attorney in the Occupational Safety and Health Division of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of the Solicitor. She also was associate general counsel at the Service Employees International Union, where she supported the Fight for $15 fast‑food organizing campaign and healthcare campaigns. Jonnee began her legal career at the National Labor Relations Board, working at both headquarters and regional offices in Baltimore and Washington, DC. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ohio University and a Juris Doctor from the City University of New York School of Law. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and New York.

Dan Berger is a Partner at Green & Spiegel, U.S. leading the Academic and Medical Immigration Team. He is an Academic Fellow at Cornell Law School, and an Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys. He is on the Legal Advisory Board and the Board of Directors of the Presidents’ Alliance on Immigration & Higher Education, and on the Legal Advisory Council of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (largest bipartisan congressional caucus). Dan also advises the Talent Mobility Fund on STEM immigration issues. He is a frequent writer and speaker on immigration, including after the 2020 election for the Brookings Institute on recommendations for the Biden/Harris Administration and also on strategies to support international entrepreneurs. He co-edited an updated edition of Immigration Options for Academics and Researchers. He also wrote an Issue Brief for the American Council on Education (ACE) after the 2016 election, and was a co-author on a “Note” on academic immigration for the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA). Dan has been quoted in various media including the Atlantic Magazine, USA Today, Al Jazeera, Associated Press, Science, Bloomberg News, the Guardian, Forbes, and the Huffington Post. In 2023, AILA awarded Dan the “President’s Commendation” for “exemplary service to the President and AILA,” including on the USCIS Headquarters Liaison Committee, writing practice advisories, serving on the AILA Afghanistan Taskforce (a rapid response effort to help Afghans after the Taliban takeover), and being on the editorial board of the AILA Law Journal. Dan has a particular focus on DACA and undocumented students, evaluating options for longer term status. He advises thedream.us (nation’s largest private scholarship fund with over 10,000 scholarships in ten years to Dreamers). Dan co-founded and helps lead an innovative DACA clinic at Cornell focused on employment-based options, as described in this Boston Globe article. Last year, he helped lead a pilot program for President Biden’s waiver program for Dreamers to move into status through employer-sponsorship, as described in this New York Times article. Dan was invited to the White House for the June 2024 announcement as recognition of his role in the process. He was until recently an immigration law adviser on an NIH grant on the use of DNA technology in immigration, and co-authored a peer reviewed article in Science on the use of DNA technology to address family separation at the border. Dan developed his interest in immigration in college at Harvard, where he studied immigration history and taught English to adult refugees. He graduated from Cornell Law School and has practiced immigration law for over 25 years.

Sarah Paoletti founded and directs the Transnational Legal Clinic, the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s international human rights and immigration clinic. Students enrolled in the clinic grapple with international and comparative legal norms, working across borders, legal systems, cultures, and languages, representing individuals in immigration proceedings, and advocating on behalf of and in collaboration with organizations and individuals before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the UN, and other fora. Paoletti’s research focuses on the intersection of human rights, migration, labor law, and access to justice. In addition to authoring numerous amicus briefs addressing international law in federal court litigation, she was the lead author of an in depth report, “Migrant Workers’ Access to Justice at Home: Nepal” (June 2014), and co-author of “Migrant Workers’ Access to Justice at Home: Indonesia” (October 2013), both published as part of the Open Society Foundations’ Migrant Workers’ Access to Justice Series. Other recent scholarship includes: “Finding the Pearls When the World Is Your Oyster: Case and Project Selection in Clinic Design,” (Drexel Law Review, 2013); “Redefining Human Rights Lawyering Through the Lens of Critical Theory: Lessons for Pedagogy and Practice,” (Georgetown Journal of Poverty Law & Policy, 2011) (co-author).

Patricia Hamill is the Co-Chair of Clark Hill’s Title IX and Campus Discipline practice with a nationwide practice representing college students, faculty members, and administrators in campus disciplinary proceedings and in litigation following flawed disciplinary processes. She is a skillful negotiator who works to resolve matters without the need for litigation. When that is not possible, Patricia has been successful in bringing lawsuits around the nation for violations of Title IX or other civil rights statutes, breach of contract and tort liability on the basis that colleges’ disciplinary processes failed to ensure fundamental due process rights, discriminated on the basis of sex and/or breached contractual obligations. Nationally ranked in the Chambers & Partners national Higher Education practice area, Patricia was noted by clients as “highly regarded for her plaintiff-side Title IX expertise” whose biggest strength is “her great judgment and her human touch when dealing with complicated situations.” Patricia is a frequent speaker on the ever-changing legal landscape of higher education. Given her expertise, she has testified numerous times before the Department of Education and was invited to testify on due process issues before the United States Senate’s hearing on “Reauthorizing HEA: Addressing Campus Sexual Assault and Ensuring Student Safety and Rights” in Washington DC (April 2019).

Currently in private practice, Ms. Shuster was Chief Counsel of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission from 1983-2005. She was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1974 and to the United States Supreme Court in 1978. She served as a Deputy Attorney General, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Office of Civil Litigation, from 1978-83, as an Assistant Attorney General, Pennsylvania Department of Health, 1977-78, and as an Assistant General Counsel, Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, 1974-77. Ms. Shuster has conducted nation-wide training on employment discrimination for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and for numerous legal and business organizations. She has been a course planner and faculty member for several Pennsylvania Bar Institute courses, including the first three CERC CLEs on Election Law, the annual CERC Civil Rights Symposia, Practice Before the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, Whose Constitution Is It, Anyway?, Errant Judges and Lawyers: What to Do? and Civil Rights: To Preserve and Protect, and many discrimination law courses, covering the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, general discrimination law, sexual harassment, age discrimination and discrimination on the basis of disability. Her discrimination law publications include “The Commonwealth Court and the Interpretation of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act,” Widener Law Journal, 2011, and “Service/Support Animals,” Pennsylvania Bar Quarterly, 2006. Ms. Shuster served as the Civil and Equal Rights Committee’s ambassador to the PBA Diversity Team from 2010-2015. She served on the “Paths to Leadership” panel at the 2012 YLD Summer Meeting, as a member of the PBA Task Force on the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice, and as a member of the “Court as Employer Gender Bias Subcommittee Work Group” of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias in the Justice System. Ms. Shuster received her B.A. from Temple University in 1971 and her J.D. from Villanova School of Law in 1974. She is admitted to the bars of the United States Supreme Court, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, the Middle and Eastern District Courts of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Ms. Shuster is a member of the American Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, where she is a member of the Civil and Equal Rights Committee (Chair of the CLE Committee, past Chair & Co-Chair of CERC), Women in the Profession Committee (Member of the Executive Committee, Chair of the Book Club), Minority Bar, Statutory Law, and Immigration Law Committees. She is a Bencher in the James S. Bowman American Inn of Court and a past president of the Harrisburg Area Women Lawyers Association. In November 2023, Ms. Shuster was the first recipient of the PBA Women in the Profession’s Special Achievement Award which recognizes achievements by a female member of the legal profession whose actions and work have promoted the betterment of women in the law and have enhanced services to women in general. She was included in the 2021 Women in the Profession Report Card’s “Profiles of Women Advocating for Social Change.” In 2020, Ms. Shuster was awarded the PBA Civil & Equal Rights Champion Award, an annual award established by the Civil & Equal Rights Committee to honor an individual who champions civil rights for all Pennsylvanians.Currently in private practice, Ms. Shuster was Chief Counsel of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission from 1983-2005. She was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1974 and to the United States Supreme Court in 1978. She served as a Deputy Attorney General, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Office of Civil Litigation, from 1978-83, as an Assistant Attorney General, Pennsylvania Department of Health, 1977-78, and as an Assistant General Counsel, Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, 1974-77. Ms. Shuster has done nation-wide training on employment discrimination for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and for numerous legal and business organizations. She has been a course planner and faculty member for several Pennsylvania Bar Institute courses, including the first three CERC CLEs on Election Law, the annual CERC Civil Rights Symposia, Practice Before the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, Whose Constitution Is It, Anyway?, Errant Judges and Lawyers: What to Do? and Civil Rights: To Preserve and Protect, and many discrimination law courses, covering the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, general discrimination law, sexual harassment, age discrimination and discrimination on the basis of disability. Her discrimination law publications include “The Commonwealth Court and the Interpretation of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act,” Widener Law Journal, 2011, and “Service/Support Animals,” Pennsylvania Bar Quarterly, 2006. Ms. Shuster served as the Civil and Equal Rights Committee’s ambassador to the PBA Diversity Team from 2010-2015. She served on the “Paths to Leadership” panel at the 2012 YLD Summer Meeting, as a member of the PBA Task Force on the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice, and as a member of the “Court as Employer Gender Bias Subcommittee Work Group” of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias in the Justice System. Ms. Shuster received her B.A. from Temple University in 1971 and her J.D. from Villanova School of Law in 1974. She is admitted to the bars of the United States Supreme Court, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, the Middle and Eastern District Courts of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Ms. Shuster is a member of the American Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, where she is a member of the Civil and Equal Rights Committee (Chair of the CLE Committee, past Chair & Co-Chair of CERC), Women in the Profession Committee (Member of the Executive Committee, Chair of the Book Club), Minority Bar, Statutory Law, and Immigration Law Committees. She is a Bencher in the James S. Bowman American Inn of Court and a past president of the Harrisburg Area Women Lawyers Association. In November 2023, Ms. Shuster was the first recipient of the PBA Women in the Profession’s Special Achievement Award which recognizes achievements by a female member of the legal profession whose actions and work have promoted the betterment of women in the law and have enhanced services to women in general. She was included in the 2021 Women in the Profession Report Card’s “Profiles of Women Advocating for Social Change.” In 2020, Ms. Shuster was awarded the PBA Civil & Equal Rights Champion Award, an annual award established by the Civil & Equal Rights Committee to honor an individual who champions civil rights for all Pennsylvanians.

Ms. Martinez founded JBM Legal, LLC, a full-service law firm dedicated to providing legal representation to the Pittsburgh immigrant community . Currently, JBM Legal, LLC has offices in Pittsburgh, PA, Whittier, CA, and Venice, FL. Ms. Martinez is a graduate of Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She obtained her Juris Doctorate from the Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law at Arizona State University. Prior to establishing JBM Legal, LLC, Ms. Martinez was in-house counsel to a large International IT company, where she gained extensive experience in employment-based immigration and global immigration. Ms. Martinez’s currently is the managing partner, and her practice focuses on business immigration, family immigration and removal proceedings. JBM Legal, LLC attorneys also provide legal services to the immigrant community in the areas of criminal law, family custody and support law, small business law and litigation-general practice. Ms. Martinez has been asked to present at AILA National Meetings, PBI panels and webinars, Sole and Small Firm Conference, Civil Litigation Conference-PBA, PBA Annual Meeting. Ms. Martinez currently serves/served on various boards: PBA Board of Governors- Secretary of the PBA, Zone 12 Governor, Minority Governor at large, Pennsylvania Industrial Development Board, CASA-Court Appointed Special Advocate Board, ACLU-Pittsburgh Chapter Board, and the ACBA-Allegheny County Bar Association Board. Ms. Martinez, currently serves as the chair of the Pittsburgh Chapter of AILA, and the AILA National Board of Governors 2005-2006, 2022-2023, 2023-2024. Committees: AILA National Membership Committee, Waivers Committee, Hispanic Interest Law Group, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013 AILA National Conference Planning Committee, Current Vice-chair Bylaws-PBA, Vice-chair of Immigration Law Committee-PBA, chair of the Diversity Team-PBA, and chair of the Minority Bar Committee- PBA. Ms. Martinez founded the John Alan Meehan Citizenship Institute under the Allegheny County Bar Foundation, which provides pro bono legal representation to applicants for U.S. Citizenship and sponsors a fellow for summer work in a public-interest entity.