Lillian R. BeVier, the Doherty Charitable Foundation Professor of Law at the University of Virginia, will deliver the 43rd annual John R. Coen Lecture on March 14 in the Lindsey Memorial Courtroom at the CU-Boulder School of Law.
The lecture titled "When I Speak, Does the State Act?" will begin at 4 p.m. and will focus on First Amendment and freedom of speech issues.
BeVier graduated from Smith College and Stanford Law School, where she was on the Law Review and elected to the Order of the Coif. Before beginning her teaching career, BeVier practiced law in Palo Alto, Calif., and worked with the late Professor William F. Baxter on a project of the American Bar Association and the Federal Aviation Administration studying legal options for controlling airport noise.
She taught at the University of Santa Clara Law School for three years prior to her appointment at the University of Virginia in 1973. She has taught a wide variety of courses including property, constitutional law, legal process, trusts and estates, unfair competition and many others.
BeVier聮s scholarship has focused primarily on First Amendment topics and she has written about the First Amendment and political speech, the right to know, the public forum doctrine and campaign finance regulation. In November 1999, at the request of the Supreme Court Historical Society, she delivered a speech to the society on "Free Expression in the Warren and Burger Courts." In 1998, Suffolk University Law School awarded BeVier an honorary degree and she received the Virginia Women Attorney聮s Association Foundation Distinguished Faculty Award in 1992.
The Coen Lecture Series is sponsored by a gift from Adrian S. Coen in memory of her husband, John, who was a distinguished member of the Colorado bar. The income from the Coen Trust is used to bring distinguished scholars, lawyers and jurists to the CU-Boulder School of Law for public lectures.
The lecture has been approved for one credit in general continuing legal education.