Guberman Lectures
The Joshua A. Guberman Lecture was established at Brandeis University to honor the memory of a man whose passionate concerns were for individual well-being and social justice.
As a practicing attorney in Greater Boston, Mr. Guberman was well known for his keen intellect, precise legal knowledge, wide-ranging interests and wise judgment. He was a counselor whose relationships with clients were characterized by a depth of caring rarely seen. Colleagues commented that he would become involved with the families of his clients and that, as time went on, he would serve their children. As the family businesses grew, so did the practice of Joshua Guberman.
After graduating from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he joined the firm of Brown, Rudnick, Freed and Gesmer. He served in World War II and then became a dedicated public servant, active in the American Jewish Congress, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, the Capital Punishment Information Services and many other groups. He also worked to improve the public schools. He was himself an excellent teacher.
Mr. Guberman’s colleagues recollect his work with the Boston Broadcasters, where his sense of fairness and good humor frequently helped resolve seemingly insoluble dilemmas. “When we sought his advice, we were assured of both precise legal answers and consummately just ones.”
In tribute to Joshua A. Guberman, his family has endowed an annual lecture in law and social policy at Brandeis University. The lectures are sponsored under the auspices of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management and the Legal Studies Program.
It is appropriate that the host for these lectures is a university named in honor of the great jurist, Louis D. Brandeis, whose profound concern for social justice is reflected in the social and economic issues he introduced in his judicial writings.
Through the lectures named in his honor, Joshua A. Guberman — who loved social justice and human beings — will be aptly remembered and linked with Justice Brandeis and the university which bears his name.
Dr. Anita Hill presents 2024 Guberman Lecture: “Law, Policy and the Future of Social Justice: Lived Experience as our Measure of Equality"
Family and friends gathered to honor "Milly" and Joshua Guberman at the 2024 Joshua A Guberman Lecture: “
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The 2024 Joshua A. Guberman Lecture was delivered by Dr. Anita Hill, the new David R. Pokross Professor of Law and Social Policy. This lecture was established at Brandeis University to honor the memory of Joshua Guberman, a lawyer whose passionate concerns were for individual well-being and social justice. This year, we are particularly honored to celebrate the life of Joshua’s widow and long-time Heller staff member, Milly Guberman Kravetz, who passed away in September. For over 20 years, David R. Pokross was a driving force on the Heller School Board of Advisors and also served as board chair from 1991-1997. This event also celebrates Professor Anita Hill taking on a chair in his name.
In this presentation, Anita Hill, University Professor and David R. Pokross Professor of Law and Social Policy, argued that equal access principles alone are not enough to promote social justice goals. Legal and policy gains of the civil rights and women's rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s relied heavily on the theory of equal access. However, time has taught us those policies that tout equal access without attention to equal anti-discriminatory outcomes will not, to quote Justice Ginsburg, "undo generations of rank discrimination." Recent Supreme Court reasoning attempting to usher in an era of color and gender blindness ignores historic and contemporary structural and institutional discrimination. Legal decisions combine with state Anti-DEI and CRT legislation, book bans, and the elimination of sociology as a higher education core course to erase knowledge that higher education and social justice movements have produced. Progress toward social justice must be measured by equality of lived experiences. And law and policy must be guided by that vision. To paraphrase Justice Thurgood Marshall, to reach "complete equality," we must bring "reality closer to theory and democratic principles."
View the recorded lecture here.
Presented by Elizabeth Matos, JD, in 2022
Elizabeth Matos is the executive director of Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS) of Massachusetts and was a staff attorney with the organization for over seven years. Matos has been involved in litigation about solitary confinement practices regarding prisoners with mental illness, discrimination against deaf and hard of hearing prisoners, draconian classification practices, guard-on-prisoner assaults and lowering exorbitant and monopolistic prison phone rates. She works closely with coalitions and alongside those most impacted, and advocates with the state legislature on the organization’s legislative priorities, including ending the predatory charging for prison phone calls, expanding access to visitation and voting rights, ending solitary confinement, establishing a prison building moratorium, and providing meaningful access to mental health services, among others. Prior to practicing prisoners’ rights law at PLS, Matos practiced housing, education, disability and immigration law at South Coastal Counties Legal Services. Preceding her legal career, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Mozambique and served as the Immigrant Rights Coordinator for the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.
Presented by Elizabeth Badger, JD, in 2018
Elizabeth Badger has worked in immigration law for 14 years, predominantly in legal services focused on representing non-citizen children, asylum-seekers, victims of domestic violence and other crimes, and persons in prolonged immigration detention. She has received the National Immigration Project's Daniel Levy Award for her work representing victims of immigration raids while at the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project, which awarded Badger with its 2013 Pro Bono Mentor of the Year Award. She has successfully argued cases before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court regarding access to the courts for immigrant youth. From 2010-13, Badger taught in the Boston University School of Law's Immigrants' Rights Clinic. She has also worked extensively with the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute and other members of the Massachusetts immigration community on amicus briefs and other law reform projects.
Presented by William J. Leahy, JD, in 2014
William J. Leahy is director of the NYS Office of Indigent Legal Services. American criminal justice is strong on constitutional rights, but often falls short putting those rights into practice. Seen from a global perspective, the American system mixes high ideals with glaring inequalities and inconsistencies. Perhaps the greatest controversy — at home and abroad — surrounds the role of the death penalty in American justice. At a time when American foreign policy has confronted the problem of terrorism, the very definition of “just punishment” has grown more challenging.
Leahy brings a lifetime of experience with criminal justice, the rights of defendants, and global engagement. For 25 years, he directed the public defender system for Massachusetts, serving as the Commonwealth’s chief advocate for the constitutional right to counsel for all criminal defendants. He has testified in many jurisdictions on behalf of expanding resources for defense counsel, and in opposition to the death penalty. After retiring from the Massachusetts system, he accepted the leadership of a task force in New York State dedicated to improving the quality of representation for poor people throughout New York.
Leahy is also well known as a teacher and lecturer, both close to home, at Brandeis and abroad in forums ranging from China to The Hague. He has served on international commissions to review criminal justice practices, and has spoken widely on the right to counsel as a bedrock principle. In March 2013, he spoke at the U.S. Department of Justice on the 0anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision defining the right to counsel, Gideon v. Wainwright. Bill’s mission is to clarify our challenge — over the next 50 years — of defining justice in a changing world.
Presented by David Hemenway, PhD, in 2013
Professor David Hemenway is with the Harvard School of Public Health.
Presented by Mary Ann Chirba, JD, DSc, MPH, and Alice A. Noble, JD, MPH, in 2012
Presented by Michael Bien, JD, and Jane Kahn, JD, in 2011
Presented by Philip R. Reilly, MD, JD, in 2010
Philip R. Reilly is director of clinical genetics at Interleukin Genetics.
Presented by Allan M. Brandt, PhD, in 2007
Allan M. Brandt is the Amalie Moses Kass Professor of the History of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Presented by Matthew W. Stagner, PhD, in 2005
Matthew W. Stagner is director of the Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population — The Urban Institute in Washington, D.C.
Presented by Judge Rudolph Kass in 2004
Judge Rudolph Kass sat on the Massachusetts Appeals Court from 1979 – 2003).
Presented by Deborah Stone, PhD, in 2003
Deborah Stone was the David R. Pokross Chair in Law & Social Policy with Heller School from 1986 –1997.
Presented by Michael Fix, JD, in 2002
Michael Fix is director of the Immigration Studies Program — The Urban Institute.
Presented by Felton Earls, MD, in 2001
Felton Earls is a professor of social medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Presented by Aviam Soif, JD, in 2000
Aviam Soifer is a professor of law at Boston College.
Presented by Saul Touster, JD, in 1999
Saul Touster is Brandeis University's director (emeritus), Legal Studies Program Professor (Emeritus), Law and Social Policy, Heller School Professor (emeritus), Legal Studies; American Studies Head (emeritus), and Humanities and the Professions Program.
Presented by Harold A. Richman, PhD, in 1998
Harold A. Richman is director of Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago.
Presented by Peggy Cooper Davis, J, in 1997
Peggy Cooper Davis is the John S.R. Shad Professor of Law at New York University.
Presented by Donald K. Stern, JD, in 1996
Donald K. Stern is the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts.
Presented by Harris L. Wofford, JD, in 1995
Harris L. Wofford is the former U.S. senator of Pennsylvania.
Presented by Charles R. Lawrence III, JD, in 1994
Charles R. Lawrence III is a professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center.
Presented by Antonia C. Novello, MD, MPH, in 1993.
Antonia C. Novello is the Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service, Department of Health and Human Services.
Presented by Carol Weisbrod, JD, in 1992
Carol Weisbrod is a professor of law at the University of Connecticut School of Law.
Presented by Judge Sherman G. Finesilver in 1991
Sherman G. Finesilver is Chief Judge, U.S. District Court, in Denver, Colorado.
Presented by Howard H. Hiatt, MD, in 1989
Howard H. Hiatt is a professor medicine at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health.
Presented by George J. Annas, JD, MPH, in 1988
George J. Annas is a professor of law and medicine at Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health.
Presented by Alexander D. Brooks, JD, in 1987
Alexander D. Brooks is a professor of law at Rutgers University Law School.
Presented by Martha L. Minow, JD, in 1986
Martha L. Minow is a professor of law at Harvard Law School.
Presented by Robert A. Burt, LLB, in 1985
Robert A. Burt is the Southmayd Professor of Law at Yale Law School.
Presented by Harold W. Demone, Jr., PhD, in 1984
Harold W. Demone, Jr. is dean of Graduate School of Social Work, Rutgers University.
