Symposium

The University of Louisville Law Review, in partnership with the Louisville Bar Association's Health and Wellness Committee, will hold the Mental Health and the Legal Profession Symposium on February 25 - 26, 2022 in Louisville, Kentucky. Individuals can participate in-person or virtually.

We welcome David Jaffe, Associate Dean of Student Affairs at American University, who will be presenting the keynote speech. 

For questions or inquiries, please email the Senior Symposium Editor, Meredith Harbison, at meredith.harbison@louisville.edu.

Submission Dates: Open now through October 15, 2021. 

Encouraged Topics: 

• prevalence of mental illness in the legal profession
• barriers to seeking treatment and possible solutions
• compassion fatigue
• vicarious or secondary trauma
• mental health resources available to members of the legal community
• mental health issues caused/exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic
• mental health access, equity, and/or justice
• limitations of current mental health laws and policies
• therapeutic jurisprudence
• problem-solving courts
• treatment diversion programs
• how the legal profession can uniquely assist those experiencing mental illness in terms of intervention, treatment, and/or advocacy
• possible ways to reduce disproportionate rates of incarceration and recidivism in those who are connected to the criminal justice system and experiencing mental illness
• how mass incarceration implicates the mental health issues of those incarcerated
• lack of sufficient mental health treatment for those incarcerated
• any other topic related to mental health and the legal profession 

Submission Details: 

• Interested individuals should submit an abstract of roughly 500 words or a full article to the Senior Symposium Editor, Meredith Harbison, at meredith.harbison@louisville.edu. 
• The Law Review will choose submissions to present at the Symposium and subsequently publish. 

Submission Decisions: Selected authors will be notified by November 5, 2021. 

Publishing Schedule: 

• Winter 2021 and Spring 2022: The editors and members will work with authors during this period to prepare and edit the articles for publication. 
• January 1, 2022: First drafts will be due no later than this date. 
• February 18, 2022: A second draft will be due no later than this date, which will allow the Symposium editors to prepare for the events held on February 25 and 26, 2022. 
• March 12, 2021: Finished articles of approximately 5,000 words will be due no later than this date, which will allow authors time to incorporate feedback offered by students, representatives of nonprofits, and local practitioners in the field at the Symposium. 
• Late Spring of 2022: All selected articles will be published in the University of Louisville Law Review’s third issue of Volume 60 in late spring of 2022.

For More Details about symposium information, topics, sponsors, and submissions, please refer to the Call for Papers Letter below.