Speaker, New Jersey State Bar Association 2023 Mid-Year Meeting Education, "Americans in Paris: The Influence of French Law and Culture"

The City of Light has long beckoned artists, politicians, journalists, and lawyers. Join us for an engaging conversation about the ways that the foundations of America, the Declaration of Independence and even Constitution, can be traced to Paris. In the era of the Revolutionary War, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, the fathers of our country, looked to France for policies and practices that would inform the birth of the new nation – some to copy and some to reject. Another wave of influence came in the 1800s, starting with the Louisiana Purchase and extending to a period when men and women went to Paris from America believing it was the only place they could realize their ambitions. Paris was a place to learn, to grow, to thrive. They brought those lessons back to America in ways that reverberated throughout the government and culture. Learn from a panel of judges and luminaries from the legal profession about the risks they took to excel at their craft and how their achievements altered the course of American history, the influence of which is still being felt today.