Four Generations of Support & Legal Legacy
Gonzaga Law School is proud to host the Quackenbush Lecture on a bi-annual basis, bringing in renowned jurists and academics to speak with students and members of the Spokane community. This lecture series is named in honor of Judge Justin Quackenbush, known for his many outstanding contributions as a United States District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Washington. Nominated to the bench by President Jimmy Carter and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 1980, Judge Quackenbush served as Chief Judge of the Eastern District from 1989 to 1995, when he assumed senior status. An undergraduate alumnus of the University of Idaho and graduate of Gonzaga University School of Law (J.D. ’57), Judge Quackenbush served in the U.S. Navy, worked as deputy prosecuting attorney in Spokane County, served in private practice, and taught as an adjunct professor at Gonzaga Law School before his appointment to the bench.
The Quackenbush family endowed this lecture series in 2024 and is proud to support Gonzaga Law School in its mission of exposing students to a broad variety of perspectives, leaders, and principles that may challenge their ways of thinking and encourage them to “lean into the tension,” in the best of the Jesuit educational tradition.The Quackenbush family endowed this lecture series in 2024 and is proud to support Gonzaga Law School in its mission of exposing students to a broad variety of perspectives, leaders, and principles that may challenge their ways of thinking and encourage them to “lean into the tension,” in the best of the Jesuit educational tradition.
February 25, 2025: Register Today
Raul C. Pangalangan
Judge (ret.), International Criminal Court
Former Dean, University of the Philippines College of Law
2024: Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices
Erwin Chemerinsky
Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law
University of California, Berkeley School of Law
View the 2024 Quackenbush Lecture here.
2018: Corporate E-discovery and Privacy Concerns in the Digital Age
George Socha
Co-founder of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM)
2017: Diversity's Challenge to Democracy
Vincent Rougeau
Dean of Boston College Law School
2016: Unraveling the mysteries of the U.S. Federal Election Commission and the 2016 Elections
Commissioner Ann M. Ravel
Chair of the Federal Election Commission
2015: A Conversation with Judge Kozinski
Judge Alex Kozinski
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
2014: NSA Mass Spying, the Constitution and You
Cindy Cohn
Legal Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation & General Counsel
2013: Free Speech in the Roberts Court
Kathleen Sullivan
Appellate Attorney
2012: Can the Supreme Court deal with the 21st Century?: Privacy and the Court
Erwin Chemerinsky
Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law,
and Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law
University of California, Irvine School of Law
2011: Hauptmann's Ghost
Judge Vaughn Walker
Chief Judge, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
2010: The Death Penalty - Where are we now?
Judge William A. Fletcher
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit