FREE CLE: New Mexico has a Civil Rights Act!

Free CLE: New Mexico has a Civil Rights Act

Date: July 16, 2021

Watch the event.

 

Get Credits:

• Tracking sheet for attendees.
• Presenter tracking sheet.

Agenda:

1. Overview of the NMCRA -- What is the NMCRA and How did we get here?
Speaker(s) Mark T. Baker, Shareholder, Piefer, Hanson, Mullins, & Baker, P.A. (.7 hours general)

• Presentation
• NM Civil Rights Commission Report

2. The Process – Pre-filing, Venue, and Procedural Determinations
Speaker(s):  Maureen Sanders, Sanders & Westbrook (.7 hours – general)   

• Hand-Out

3. Federal Qualified Immunity and How it became so Problematic
Speakers: Linda M. Vanzi, of Counsel, Rodey Law (.7 hour -- general)

• Hand-Out

4. New Mexico Bill of Rights Jurisprudence -- How Does It Differ From Its Federal Counterpart?
Speakers:  Andy Schultz, Director, Rodey Law (.7 hour – general)

• Hand-Out

5. Panel - Foreseeable Claims Under NMCRA, Problematic Federal Standards and How to Push State Courts to Avoid Adopting them
Speakers:  Laura Ives, Partner, Ives & Flores; Adam Flores, Partner, Ives & Flores; (1.1 hours – general)

6. Article II, Section 10 – Most Developed Bill of Rights Provision in State Law
Speakers: Ryan Villa, Law Office of Ryan J. Villa, LLC (.6 hours – general)

• Presentation

7. Attorneys' Fees, Litigation Expenses and Statutory Costs in NMCRA Cases
Speakers: Phil Davis, Davis Law New Mexico (.7 hours – ethics/professionalism)

• Hand-Out
• Attachment 1
• Attachment 2
• Attachment 3

8. Live Question and Answer (4:00 - 4:30 P.M.)
Speakers: Panel of faculty who presented above (.5 hours – general)

• Watch here.

5.7  hours of CLE credit; 5.0 general, .7 ethics

Speakers

Mark Baker

Mark Baker is a shareholder at Peifer, Hanson, Mullins, & Baker, P.A., where he handles trials and appeals in complex cases. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America, a listing based on a lawyer survey, in the categories of Personal Injury Litigation - Plaintiffs and Commercial Litigation, and in Southwest Super Lawyers. Mark has served as Chair of the Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel for the District of New Mexico since 2010. He was Vice Chair of the New Mexico Civil Rights Commission and testified as an expert on the New Mexico Civil Rights Act in both houses of the Legislature during the 2020 legislative session.

Before joining his firm, Mark served as an Assistant United States Attorney. During his time as a federal prosecutor, he had primary responsibility for prosecuting all criminal civil rights cases in New Mexico and was lead counsel in jury trials involving a range of violent felonies that occurred on reservations and Pueblos within the District of New Mexico. He has argued and briefed civil and criminal cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, the New Mexico Supreme Court, and the New Mexico Court of Appeals.  Since 2008, he regularly has served as appointed counsel for indigent criminal defendants appealing convictions from throughout the Tenth Circuit. 

Mark regularly teaches as an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law. In Spring 2021, he co-taught Civil Rights Litigation, a new course he developed with Judge Linda Vanzi (retired). He also has been an adjunct professor for Evidence & Trial Practice and Advanced Evidence & Trial Practice, and he will teach Federal Jurisdiction for the Fall 2021 semester.

Mark began his career as a law clerk to United States District Judge Bruce D. Black. He then was an associate with Morrison & Foerster LLP, in Denver, Colorado, and an associate and later partner with Long, Pound & Komer, P.A. in his hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

A 2002 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, Mark served on the editorial board of the Virginia Law Review and published a note in that journal in the field of federal Indian law.

Maureen Sanders

Maureen Sanders is a partner at Sanders & Westbrook. She landed in New Mexico as an Army Brat while in high school. After graduating from St. Pius here in Albuquerque, she returned to the Midwest. After getting her undergraduate degree in mathematics and a masters degree in guidance and counseling, she returned to New Mexico. Her first career was as a teacher in various high schools and a community college. She became frustrated with the public education systems and decided to go to law school at the University of New Mexico. As a practicing lawyer she was a law clerk for Judge Edwin L. Mechem, an insurance defense lawyer, General Counsel for the State Corporation Commission, and Director of the Civil Division of the NM Attorney General’s Office. She then became a Professor at UNM Law School for ten years. She has been involved in many constitutional battles seeking to protect the rights of all individuals. She serves on the volunteer legal panel for ACLU-NM and in 2012 had the honor of successfully arguing the marriage equality case before the New Mexico Supreme Court.
 

Linda Vanzi

Judge Linda Vanzi recently joined the Rodey Law Firm after retiring from the Court of Appeals where she served for 12 years, including as Chief Judge for two years. Prior to her appointment to the Court of Appeals, Judge Vanzi spent four years as a judge in the Second Judicial District Court. She has spoken at countless seminars and served on many committees, including as the Chair of the Judiciary Budget Committee, Chair of the Uniform Jury Instruction-Civil Committee, Chair of the Judicial Education Committee, and Co-Chair of the New Mexico State Bar Association’s Alternative Disputes Resolution Committee. She is currently the Vice-Chair of the Client Protection Fund Committee. Judge Vanzi will be teaching State Constitutional Law at the UNM School of Law in the Fall and has previously taught Civil Rights Litigation, Constitutional Law, Advanced Legal Writing and Evidence and Trial Practice.  

Andy Schultz

Andrew Schultz is a Director and former President and Managing Director of Rodey, Dickason, Sloan, Akin & Robb, P.A.  He currently serves as Chair of the Firm’s Complex and Commercial Litigation practice group. 

His degrees include: a B.A., with honors, from Swarthmore College, a M.S., with highest distinction, from Carnegie-Mellon University, and a J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of New Mexico where he graduated first in his class, was Order of the Coif and served as Lead Articles Editor of the New Mexico Law Review. 

From 1985-1986, Mr. Schultz served as a law clerk to Byron R. White, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States  To-date, he is the only graduate of the University of New Mexico School of Law to serve as a law clerk at the United States Supreme Court.  From 1984-1985, Mr. Schultz was law clerk to the Honorable Alvin B. Rubin, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.  He has served as an adjunct professor and frequent lecturer at the UNM School of Law for 30 years.

Mr. Schultz is listed in Best Lawyers in America for bet-the-company litigation, commercial litigation, litigation-First Amendment law, and personal injury litigation-defendants.  Best Lawyers in America also named Mr. Schultz Albuquerque First Amendment Litigation Lawyer of the Year in 2020, 2018 and 2013, Albuquerque Bet-the-Company Litigation Lawyer of the Year in 2021 and 2017, and Albuquerque Personal Injury Litigation-Defendants Lawyer of the Year in 2012.   Southwest Super Lawyers has named Mr. Schultz as one of the Top 25 Lawyers in New Mexico, and recognizes him for his expertise and experience in business litigation.  Mr. Schultz is also listed in Benchmark Litigation-The Definitive Guide to America’s Leading Litigation Firms and Attorneys for his experience and expertise in antitrust, appellate, civil rights, commercial litigation, and media law.  The Albuquerque Bar Association selected him as the 2018 Lawyer of the Year.  He also serves as Chair for the City of Albuquerque Board of Ethics and Campaign Practices.

Laura Schauer Ives

Laura Schauer Ives is a partner at Ives & Flores, P.A., a civil rights law firm in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the former Legal Director of the ACLU of New Mexico, and former partner at Kennedy, Kennedy, and Ives. As Legal Director of ACLU, New Mexico, Laura litigated the constitutionality of the reduction of separation pay for honorable discharges under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell; the right of same sex couples to marry in New Mexico; the right for terminally ill persons to elect physician aid in dying; the lawfulness of placing inmates in solitary confinement after they have reported sexual assault. She also settled a case on behalf of a Jane Doe subjected to a series of unnecessary and invasive searches—including a cavity search— for 1.7 million dollars.

In private practice, Laura’s work includes representing estates of people wrongfully killed by law enforcement; women who have been sexually trafficked; and women, children, and prisoners who have been sexually assaulted.

Laura sits on the ACLU New Mexico’s Legal and Reproductive Rights Panels. She is a frequent speaker on civil rights and civil liberties to public and professional audiences.

Adam Flores

Adam Flores is a partner at Ives & Flores, P.A. Adam graduated law school in 2014, clerked for Judge Linda Vanzi for two years, and has been practicing civil rights for five years now. Adam has successfully briefed and argued cases in the New Mexico Supreme Court and the New Mexico Court of Appeals, and was recently awarded the Foundation for Open Government’s First Amendment Freedom Award for his work advancing public records laws related to the production of police investigatory records during ongoing investigations. Adam primarily specializes in litigating Fourth Amendment unreasonable seizure and excessive force cases against the police. 
 

 

Ryan Villa

Ryan Villa is in private practice in Albuquerque.  His practice focuses on criminal defense, civil rights, and plaintiff’s personal injury cases, with an emphasis in federal criminal defense of complex cases and federal civil rights. He is a native of Albuquerque.  He graduated from UNM Law School in 2005. After law school, he clerked for then Chief Justice Richard Bosson of the New Mexico Supreme Court from 2005 to 2006. He then worked as an attorney with the Robert Cooper Law Firm from 2006 to 2014 before opening his own law firm in 2014.
 

Phil Davis

Phil Davis has lived in New Mexico since 1972. A 1978 graduate of the University of New Mexico School of Law and a former federal district court law clerk, Phil has been in private practice in Albuquerque since 1981. Since then, he has represented the victims of government and corporate wrongdoing. He has handled hundreds of civil rights cases involving police false arrest and excessive force, employment cases involving wrongful termination, free speech retaliation and whistleblower claims, and numerous race, age and gender discrimination claims. Phil has been involved as well in class action cases on behalf of inmates in jails and prisons and persons with developmental disabilities in state- supervised facilities. He has tried cases in the federal and state courts all over New Mexico and has been involved in numerous appeals in both the New Mexico and federal appellate courts.

Phil is also a lawyer’s lawyer – he has been hired to represent other lawyers in nearly one hundred cases involving attorneys’ fees. He regularly consults with other attorneys on civil rights and attorneys’ fees matters in New Mexico and throughout the United States.

Since 2013, Phil has served in more than 250 cases as a mediator and an arbitrator in a wide array of civil rights, personal injury, employment and contracts cases. He is a member of the National Association of Distinguished Neutrals. Phil’s widespread acceptance as a neutral facilitator and a decision maker by his colleagues is a testament to his integrity, wisdom and experience.