Attorney, Professor, Writer, and Advocate Deborah LaBelle to Deliver Pitt's Rubash Lecture in Law and Social Work April 10

PITTSBURGH—Deborah LaBelle, attorney, professor, writer, and advocate, will deliver the annual Norman J. and Alice Chapman Rubash Distinguished Lecture in Law and Social Work from noon to 2 p.m. April 10 in the Barco Law Building's Teplitz Memorial Courtroom, 3900 Forbes Ave., Oakland. Labelle's talk is titled " Bringing Human Rights Home."

The free public lecture includes a responding panel discussion. Panelists include Marsha V. Hinton, chair of the Pittsburgh Citizen Police Review Board; Gary L. Lancaster, U.S. District Court Judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania; and Jules Lobel, professor of law—constitutional and international law and civil and human rights—in Pitt's School of Law. Jeffrey Shook, assistant professor in Pitt's School of Social Work will moderate.

LaBelle, who advocates for the rights of people in detention, is a senior Soros Justice Fellow. In addition to her private practice, she is director of the ACLU's Juvenile Life Without Parole Initiative. As part of this project, LaBelle authored "Second Chances: Juveniles Serving Life Without Parole in Michigan's Prisons," a report that fully documented this practice and has served as a model for advocates nationwide.

LaBelle has been lead counsel in more than a dozen class actions that have successfully challenged policies affecting treatment of incarcerated men, women, and juveniles, as well as their families. Several of these cases have been argued before the U.S. Supreme Court and in international forums.

For her work on behalf of women prisoners and domestic use of international standards, LaBelle was the first American to be designated a human rights monitor by Human Rights Watch.

Her most recent publication is "Ensuring Rights for All: Realizing Human Rights for Prisoners" in "Bringing Human Rights Home" (Praeger Press, 2008). LaBelle also has written on issues pertaining to treating juveniles as adults and women in prisons.

The Rubash Distinguished Lecture Series was established through gifts from Norman J. Rubash, a 1957 graduate of Pitt's School of Law, and his wife, Alice Chapman Rubash, a 1956 graduate of Pitt's School of Social Work. Each year a distinguished individual in the fields of law and social work is invited to the University to present a public lecture.

This program has been approved by the Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Board for two (2) hours of substantive CLE credit. The cost for credit is $25, payable when registering at the door with a check made out to University of Pittsburgh School of Law. For information on CLE credits, call Matt Moon at 412-648-1320 or mmoon@pitt.edu. Social Work CE certification also is available for $10, payable at the door with a check made out to the University of Pittsburgh. For information on CE certification, call 412-624-6902.

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