July 26/Seattle - Torture and Legal Ethics

The Washington State Bar Association's World Peace Through Law Section meeting on Tuesday, June 26, noon – 1:30 p.m. features Professor Marjorie Cohn, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, discussing the ethical obligations of attorneys in advising their clients, using Bush lawyers such as John Yoo and Jay Bybee, who gave legal cover for the program of torture and abuse, as negative examples.

This event is co-sponsored by National Lawyers Guild (NLG).

Where: 1111 Third Ave., Third Floor Conference Room, Seattle

CLE credit: 1.5 ethics CLE credit applied forCost: Free for Section members, NLG members, and law students; $25 for others.Thanks to the Foster Pepper firm and WPTL member Kelly Angell for the generous offer of this space.

Register now at http://tinyurl.com/42hbfww or contact the WSBA at 800-945-WSBA or 206-443-WSBA. We hope to see you there!

Professor Cohn is immediate past president of the National Lawyers Guild. She lectures throughout the world on international human rights and U.S. foreign policy. A news consultant for CBS News and a legal analyst for Court TV, she also provides legal and political commentary on BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR and Pacifica Radio. In addition, Professor Cohn is the author of Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law and co-author of Cameras in the Courtroom: Television and the Pursuit of Justice and Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent. Her latest book, The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration and Abuse, was published in January 2011 by NYU Press.

Her articles have appeared in numerous journals such as Fordham Law Review, Hastings Law Journal and Virginia Journal of International Law, as well as The National Law Journal, Christian Science Monitor and Chicago Tribune. Professor Cohn is a contributing editor to Jurist, MWC News and National Lawyers Guild Review, and her frequent columns in many venues are archived at http://www.marjoriecohn.com/. She has been a criminal defense attorney at the trial and appellate levels for many years, and was staff counsel to the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board. Professor Cohn is the U.S. representative to the executive committee of the Association of American Jurists and is deputy secretary general of the Bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers.

Professor Cohn testified in 2008 about government torture policy before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and she has testified at military courts-martial about the illegality of the wars, the duty to obey lawful orders, and the duty to disobey unlawful orders. She was a legal observer in Iran on behalf of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers in 1978 and has participated in delegations to Cuba, China and Yugoslavia.