Originally held on Tuesday, March 25, 2025 | 5:30pm – 7:30pm

Description:
Clients convicted and imprisoned for state crimes have the right to challenge the constitutionality of their convictions and sentences in federal court by bringing habeas corpus actions. Today is a moment of great opportunity and great risk for clients for whom habeas corpus provides this last line of defense against unconstitutional incarceration.

With a focus legal, historical, strategic, and tactical considerations, this program will inform attendees on how to afford clients a newly available opportunity to secure full and fair federal court review while minimizing risks posed by recently asserted bases for denying such review:

• The opportunity: A new way to demand independent federal court review of state decisions imposing unconstitutional convictions based on the Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision overturning “Chevron deference” to agency interpretations 

• Limiting the risks: Compelling responses to arguments that habeas review is limited to claims that the state convicting court had no jurisdiction or to cases in which prisoners can show they are innocent

The program will begin with an introduction by Muhammad Faridi, President, NYC Bar Association and Partner at Linklaters, whose scholarship laid the groundwork for legal theories the panelists will discuss.

Who Should Attend: Counsel currently conducting or contemplating habeas corpus litigation on behalf of clients incarcerated or otherwise under state supervision as a result of state convictions.

Click Here to View Program Agenda & Faculty

Program Fee:
$29 for Members | $49 for Nonmembers

New York: 2.0 Professional Practice
New Jersey: 2.0 General 
California: 1.5 General
Pennsylvania: 1.5 General 
Connecticut: Available to Licensed Attorneys

Newly admitted attorneys in New York CANNOT earn skills, ethics, or cybersecurity-ethics credit for transitional on-demand courses but CAN earn credits in the areas of professional practice, law practice management, or cybersecurity-general if offered for this program.

For New York Attorneys: Newly admitted attorneys (those admitted to the New York State Bar for two years or less) may participate in Skills CLE courses in  live, nontraditional formats, where questions are allowed during the program (through December 31, 2024 per recent guidance of the CLE Board – for more information, click here). 

For New York Attorneys: This program is a transitional/non-transitional course.

Program Chair:
Eric M. Freedman | Siggi B. Wilzig Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Rights; Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University