Announcement: Getting from 'Here to There' in Election Reform

           "GETTING FROM 'HERE TO THERE' IN ELECTION REFORM"

                      The 2008 Quinlan Lecture at
                 Oklahoma City University School of Law

                        Thursday, April 3, 2008
                             5:00 p.m.

                     Homsey Family Moot Courtroom
                Oklahoma City University School of Law
                        N.W. 23rd and Kentucky
                       Oklahoma City, OK 73106

      Find more information online:

      http://www.okcu.edu/law/newsandevents/quinlan/

      or contact:

      CONTACT:     Oklahoma City University School of Law
                   Professor Arthur G. LeFrancois
      Email:       MAILTO:alefrancois@okcu.edu


      THE QUINLAN LECTURE:

      Heather Gerken, a professor of law at Yale Law School and a
      nationally-recognized expert on election law, will deliver
      the 2008 Quinlan Lecture in the Homsey Family Moot
      Courtroom at OCU LAW at 5 p.m. on April 3. The lecture,
      titled Getting from Here to There in Election Reform, is
      free and open to the public.

      "What we need is a new approach, one that turns the
      system's biggest flaws into a crucial asset," said Gerken.
      "Any reform should seek to harness the power of partisan
      competition rather than try to circumvent it. To fix
      elections, we must realign the interests of politicians
      with those of the voters."

      "Heather Gerken is a first-rate scholar and teacher, and
      her discussion of election reform could not be more
      important or timely," said OCU LAW Professor Art
      LeFrancois, who chairs the law school's speakers committee.

      Gerken specializes in election law at Yale Law School, as
      well as constitutional law and civil procedure. She is
      considered one of the country's leading experts on voting
      rights and election law, the role of groups in the
      democratic process, and the relationship between diversity
      and democracy.

      A native of Massachusetts, Professor Gerken graduated from
      Princeton University, where she received her A.B. degree
      summa cum laude in 1991, and from the University of
      Michigan Law School, where she received her J.D. summa cum
      laude in 1994. She then served as a law clerk for Judge
      Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
      Ninth Circuit and for Justice David H. Souter of the United
      States Supreme Court, before entering private practice in
      Washington, D.C.

      In 2000 Professor Gerken became an assistant professor at
      Harvard Law School, where she was granted tenure and won
      the Sachs-Freund teaching award. She joined the Yale
      faculty in 2006. She is currently working on a book on the
      trans-substantive concept of "second-order diversity" in
      American public law.

      Yale Law School Dean Harold Hongiu Koh has said, "Gerken
      speaks with one of the most exciting and powerful new
      scholarly voices in the legal academy. A gifted teacher and
      energizing colleague, she has already changed the way we
      think about democracy."


      ABOUT THE QUINLAN LECTURE:

      The Quinlan Lecture is named for longtime Oklahoma City
      University School of Law professor Wayne Quinlan. Born in
      1917 in Woods County, Okla., Professor Quinlan received his
      bachelor's degree from Northwestern Oklahoma State
      University. He received his bachelor of laws degree from
      the University of Oklahoma. His education was interrupted
      by a three-and-a-half year period of military service
      during World War II. He had a distinguished private
      practice and served as a special justice of the Oklahoma
      Supreme Court in 1966 and 1967. He taught at Oklahoma City
      University from 1952 until his death in 1981. Professor
      Quinlan's love for constitutional law and American history
      inspired the faculty to name this annual lecture in his
      honor. Previous lecturers include U.S. Supreme Court
      Justice Antonin Scalia and Noah Feldman, Harvard law
      professor and senior adviser for constitutional law for the
      Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. The Quinlan
      Lecture is partially underwritten by donations from family,
      friends and admirers of Wayne Quinlan.

      Gifts to support The Quinlan Lecture may be sent to:

      POSTAL:       Oklahoma City University School of Law
                    Quinlan Lecture Fund
                    2501 N. Blackwelder
                    Oklahoma City, OK 73106-1493
Posted 4/2/08