ABA News . . .

ABA names recipients of 2020 Stonewall Award honoring LGBT advancements in legal profession

Three longstanding LGBT legal activists will be honored by the American Bar Association Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity with its eighth annual Stonewall Award during a ceremony on Feb. 15, 2020, at the ABA Midyear Meeting in Austin, Texas.

Named after the New York City Stonewall Inn police raid and riot of June 28, 1969, which was a turning point in the gay rights movement, the award recognizes lawyers who have considerably advanced lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals in the legal profession and successfully championed LGBT legal causes.

The 2020 award recipients: 

James J. S. Holmes, a partner at Clyde & Co. in Los Angeles, helped create the ABA Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, and served as its chair from 2012-15. During that time, he awarded the first Stonewall Award in 2012, and wrote the foreword to “Out and About: The LGBT Experience in the Legal Profession.” Holmes oversaw passage of ABA policy to ban conversion therapy for minors; and held an LGBT Advocacy Day in 2015 that included a White House briefing on federal LGBT laws, rights and policies, followed by a visit to Capitol Hill to lobby on two bills affecting LGBT citizens. He currently holds the first at-large LGBT seat on the ABA Board of Governors. Holmes is a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a member of the board of governors for the LGBT Bar Association of Los Angeles and the National LGBT Bar Association and does pro bono work for the HIV and AIDS Legal Services Alliance. He received his B.A. and J.D. from Arizona State University.

Carmelyn P. Malalis is chair of the New York City Human Rights Commission, where she has instituted regulations to root out discrimination based on gender identity, including regarding pronoun usage, access to single-sex facilities and programs, compliance with single-sex grooming standards. Other policies she instituted include equitable employee benefits and the provision of housing consistent with an individual’s gender identity in NYC jails. Previously, she worked for 11 years at Outten & Golden, where she co-founded the firm’s LGBT Workplace Rights Practice Group and worked in close coordination with Lambda Legal, the ACLU’s LGBT Rights Project, the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, among others. Malalis has a B.A. from Yale and received her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston.

Chase Strangio, a staff attorney at the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project in New York, where his work has included being a member of the legal team of Obergefell v. Hodges, which recognized same-sex marriage, and G.G. v. Gloucester City School Board, which challenged a Virginia public school district’s policy prohibiting transgender students from using the restroom conforming to their gender identity, at the U.S. Supreme Court. He also served as lead counsel for Chelsea Manning in Manning v. Hagel, a suit against Department of Defense officials for their failure to provide necessary treatment for her gender dysphoria, and as a member of the legal teams in challenges to the North Carolina “bathroom bill” and to President Donald Trump’s transgender military ban. In addition, Strangio is the founder and board president of the Lorena Borjas Community Fund in New York, which provides direct bail/bond assistance and other court support to LGBTQ immigrants involved in the criminal justice system. He received his B.A. from Grinnell College in Iowa and his J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law.

The ABA Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity leads the ABA’s commitment to diversity, inclusion and full and equal participation by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the ABA, the legal profession and society. Created in 2007, the commission seeks to secure equal treatment in the ABA, the legal profession and the justice system without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity.

Experts to discuss Stark Law, legislative priorities, cannabis, other timely topics at ABA meeting

Government officials and health law experts will address a variety of emerging health industry topics during the American Bar Association Washington Health Law Summit on Dec. 9-10.

 Kimberly Brandt, principal deputy administrator for operations of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and a nationally recognized expert in health care compliance, fraud and abuse, will deliver the keynote address on proposed changes to the Stark Law.

 This year, for the first time, two summit sessions will take place on Capitol Hill in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Monday, Dec. 9.

Katie Allen, vice president, Federal Affairs, America’s Health Insurance Plans; Cynthia Brown, vice president of government affairs, American Medical Association; Patrick Velliky, vice president, Legislation, Federation of American Hospitals; and Marc Schloss, vice president, Federal Government Affairs, Consumer Healthcare Products Association, will share insider knowledge of the policy priorities of their members and offer expertise about the congressional priorities and landscape heading into 2020.

Staff members of Congressional offices, including Wintta Woldemariam, policy director, Office of the Majority Whip, will provide insight into the priorities of both political parties and what they hope to achieve at a critical time in healthcare policy.

In addition, Politico’s top health care reporters, Alice Ollstein and Adam Cancryn, will discuss current affairs and what to expect in the next legislative session at a Dec. 9 luncheon.

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 Program highlights

• “AI is Transforming Healthcare: Tales from the Front Lines” — Learning how artificial intelligence works in health care requires reviewing the use of algorithms and software to approximate human cognition in analyzing complex medical data and decision-making, to better understand how such solutions might be applicable. Panelists will consider deploying AI in clinical settings, including regulatory compliance, coding and reimbursement issues, utilizing the first-ever FDA-authorized autonomous AI medical device as an example. Finally, speakers will discuss policy issues surrounding safe, clinically validated use of AI in health care and explore market responses to these innovations.

• “Cannabis and CBD for Healthcare Attorneys – What You Need to Know” — Conflicting federal and state laws regulating cannabis have resulted in legal contradictions regarding medical and wellness use. Panelists will explore liability concerns, physician perspectives, trends in the industry, and issues that should be considered by attorneys when representing clients in this industry. While hemp-based CBD is no longer listed as a controlled substance, many purveyors of CBD products do so in violation of federal law, most notably FDA regulation. Speakers will discuss the current state of CBD regulation and define legal and illegal activities.

• “Racism as a Public Health Crisis” — Earlier this year, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a policy statement entitled “Racism and its Impact on Child and Adolescent Health,” based on research regarding the effects of deep-rooted racial disparities on the health of children and teens. The panelists will explore the psychological and physiological effects of racism, pediatric health disparities and AAP policy recommendations.

• “Debrief on Risk Corridor Arguments Before the Supreme Court on Dec. 10, 2019” — On Dec. 10, the U.S. Supreme Court will take up consolidated cases over whether the federal government must pay billions of dollars to health insurers that sold coverage on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges. The Court will consider whether the government had an obligation to pay private health insurers under the named “risk corridor” program established to offset insurer losses in the early years of the ACA exchanges. Although that three-year program has ended, health insurers argue that HHS owes them more than $12 billion in unpaid funds.