Janet Walsh, a New York City-based partner with Locks Law Firm and a director of the Irish American Bar Association of New York (IABANY), has been named chairperson of IABANY’s 2016 Bloomsday Celebration and John Quinn Memorial Address to be held on June 16, 2016 at the National Arts Club.

This is the seventh year that IABANY has hosted this event which commemorates James Joyce’s masterwork, Ulysses, and its contribution to First Amendment jurisprudence in the United States.

The centerpiece of the evening is the John Quinn Memorial Address, named after the famed Irish-American lawyer who represented Joyce’s publishers pro bono in their criminal prosecution for obscenity in 1922.  The term “Bloomsday” relates to the main character of Ulysses, Leopold Bloom, and his adventures over the course of one day in Dublin - June 16, 1904.

This year’s keynote speaker is the Hon. Reena Raggi, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, whose address will center on free speech on college campuses.  Judge Raggi will be introduced by the Hon. Carol Bagley Amon, United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The event will include a reception and a performance piece based on Ulysses.

The unique focus of the IABANY event is the impact of Judge John Woolsey’s 1933 decision from the Southern District of New York in U.S. v. One Booked Called Ulysses on First Amendment rights as they relate to freedom of speech and expression. 

In deciding that Ulysses was not obscene and could be admitted into the United States, Judge Woolsey famously stated that “In respect of the recurrent emergence of the theme of sex in the minds of [Joyce's] characters, it must always be remembered that his locale was Celtic and his season Spring.” 

Since its inauguration in 2009, when noted First Amendment attorney Susan Buckley reviewed the history of censorship in the U.S. since Judge Woolsey’s decision, the John Quinn Memorial Address has addressed several important First Amendment topics, including the interplay of copyright laws with the First Amendment, and the release of classified information. 

Past keynote speakers for this event have included Judge John Gleeson, United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York; Kathleen Sullivan, former Dean of Stanford Law School; Judge Adrian Hardiman, Irish Supreme Court Justice, recently deceased; Judge Gerard Lynch, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; and Lynn Oberlander, former general counsel for the New Yorker magazine.

Ms. Walsh, who was raised and educated in Ireland, is a past president of IABANY, and is very active in the Irish American legal community in New York. Locks Law Firm is proud to sponsor this event and support its partner.

About Locks Law

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