UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. -- Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David N. Wecht will visit Penn State Law on Thursday, Nov. 17, where he will speak to students, faculty and members of the Penn State and State College communities at 5:45 p.m. in the Lewis Katz’s Building’s Sutliff Auditorium on the University Park campus.
Wecht’s address—titled "Justice Louis Brandeis: Thoughts on the Centennial of the Great Jurist's Appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States”—will discuss the career and legacy of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who was first appointed to the bench in 1916 by Woodrow Wilson.
Justice Wecht, drawing on his own legal experience and scholarship, will discuss the impact and enduring influence of Brandeis’ 1916 appointment to the bench, his role in pioneering the concept of a right to privacy, his dedication to social justice, his highly-regarded defenses of the freedom of speech, and how Brandeis’ opinions continue to shape the law today.
This event is free and open to the public, as is cosponsored by the Penn State Law Review, the Moot Court Board, the Journal of Law and International Affairs, and the Yearbook on Arbitration and Mediation.
About the speaker
Justice Wecht was elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in November 2015 for a 10-year term that began this January. Prior to his election to Pennsylvania’s highest court, he served on the Superior Court of Pennsylvania from 2012 to 2016 and the Court of Common Pleas for Allegheny County from 2003 to 2012. A graduate of Yale University, he has also clerked for the Honorable George E. MacKinnon of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, worked as an associate and partner for law firms in Pittsburgh and Washington D.C., and served as the Register of Wills and Clerk of Orphans’ Court for Allegheny County.
Wecht also serves as an adjunct professor for the Duquesne University School of Law and the Graduate School of Public & International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a member of the American, Pennsylvania, and Allegheny County Bar Associations, has received multiple awards for his commitment to the law, and is the author of numerous pieces of legal scholarship.