These three one-hour CLEs are presented to prepare volunteer judges for the William McGee National Moot Court Competition to be hosted by Hamline Law at the Hamline University Minneapolis campus in February. These three sessions, presented in person in the Hamline Law Moot Court Room and by live webcast.

This CLE is available to both alumni and non-alumni at a cost of $30.

This CLE is FREE for lawyers who volunteer to serve as judges for the William E. McGee National Civil Rights Moot Court Competition to be held at the Hamline University Minneapolis Campus on February 19, 20 and 21. To volunteer and for free registration to this CLE event, contact Deb Lange at dlange@hamline.edu.

(3) standard CLE credits are being sought.



2-3 p.m.      Beyond Marriage Rights: Next Steps for GLBT Advocacy 
featuring Celeste Culberth    

As the legal battle over marriage equality turns the corner, advocates are looking forward to where civil rights advances for LGBTQ individuals need to be made in future years. Among those issues, which will be explored in this session, are transgender student rights to compete in sports of the gender to which they identify, anti-bullying efforts, conversion therapy legislative initiatives and court battles, transgender rights in prison, Department of Justice responses to transgender rights, and the impact of marriage rights in the military. Celeste Culberth will present this session.

3-4 p.m.      The U.S. Supreme Court and LGBT Rights featuring Anthony Winer
The History of LGBTQ Constitutional Rights Claims in the U.S: This session will describe the history of attempts to recognize equality and liberty rights of LGBTQ persons under the United States Constitution, the constitutional standard under which those rights have been adjudicated in the past decades, and the relevance of these cases to the same-sex marriage litigation being pursued in federal and state courts in recent years.  


4-5 p.m.       Marriage Equality before the Supreme Court featuring Mary Pat Byrne

Although the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari in October 2014 on several cases involving the rights of same-sex couples to marry under the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the United States Constitution, cases are still being brought and decided in the lower courts.This session will explore the Ninth Circuit cases which are the subject of the McGee competition, including the arguments of advocates on both sides of this controversy and the decisions of the lower courts in these cases.

About the Presenters:

Mary Pat Byrne is the Associate Dean for Administration and a professor at William Mitchell College of Law, where she has taught since 2007. She holds a JD from University of Minnesota Law School and a bachelor’s degree from Loyola University Chicago. She clerked for Judge John Tunheim at the U.S. District Court of Minnesota from 2004 to 2005.  From 2003-2004, she clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit Judge Gerald Heaney. She is a member of the Minnesota Law Review Alumni Board and a board member of the Minnesota Lavender Bar Association. Professor Byrne’s research interests include assisted reproductive technology, sexual orientation, family law, and constitutional law.

Celeste Culberth represents individuals in employment and civil rights cases.  She also provides legal advice and training to companies regarding their employment practices. She has recently expanded her practice to providing mediation services. Ms. Culberth is a partner at Culberth & Lienemann, LLP, and has been practicing for 20 years. She is an adjunct professor at Hamline University School of Law and is a frequent lecturer at local, regional, and national seminars. She is also a former chair of the Minnesota Lavender Bar Association. She was first named to the Super Lawyers list in the area of Employment Law in 1998; she has been named a Super Lawyer in 2008, and each year from 2011 through 2014.  

Anthony Winer is a professor of law at William Mitchell College of Law, where he has taught since 1994. He holds an LLM from New York University School of Law, a JD from the University of Chicago Law School, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California/Berkeley. From 2008 to 2009, he was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Academy of Public Administration in Baku, Azerbaijan. He served as an attorney with Moses & Singer in New York, from 1987 to 1990; at Shearman & Sterling in New York from 1982 to 1987, and from 1980-82 as a staff attorney with the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. Professor Winer’s practice background was in international banking law, and he retains a teaching and publishing interest in topics dealing with international law. As an academic writer and educator, he has also been active in the fields of constitutional law and administrative law.  Many of his teaching and academic projects have placed special emphasis on the relationships between law and sexuality. In addition to service on the Minnesota State Bar Association International Business Law Section, and the American Bar Association International Law Section, he has served on the board of the Minnesota Lavender Bar Association, the board of Directors of the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association, and as a member of the Hennepin County Bar Association Lesbian and Gay Issues Subcommittee.