The AALS Annual Meeting is scheduled for January 6-9, 2026 in New Orleans. The theme — Impact, Excellence, Resilience: the Enduring Contributions of Legal Education — is designed to provide opportunities to reflect on the positive contributions that law schools have made, in part to mark celebration of AALS’s 125th Year Anniversary. The program looks terrific, but I’m particularly looking forward to three panels that are part of the Presidential Program, and which I’ll have the privilege to introduce. I’m also looking forward to a special panel focused on access and opportunity in law schools that is being hosted by the Journal of Legal Education. Details about these panels are included below.

• AALS Presidential Panel #1 – AALS at 125: Reflecting on History and Impact. The first panel is scheduled for 9:35-10:50 am on Wednesday, January 7, 2026 in the St. Charles Ballroom of the Hilton New Orleans Riverside. Speaking with be former AALS presidents and leaders in legal education, including Judith Areen, Elliot Milstein, Blake Morant, Lauren Robel, and Dan Rodriguez. It will be moderated by Kimberly Robinson (Univ. of Virginia School of Law). The panel will discuss the history and impact of the Association, as well as some of the major milestones, long-term changes, and significant innovations in legal education. The plenary panel presentation will draw from the recent publication The First 125 Years: An Illustrated History of the Association of American Law Schools.

• AALS Presidential Panel #2 – Legal Education, the Courts, and the Profession. The second presidential plenary panel is scheduled for 2:35-3:50 pm on Wednesday, January 7, 2026 in the St. Charles Ballroom. Moderated by AALS CEO and Executive Director Kellye Testy, the panel will include Michelle Behnke (ABA President), Nikia Gray (NALP Executive Director), Judy Perry Martinez (Partner, Simon, Peragine, Smith, Redfearn), and Hon. Collins J. Seitz Jr. (Supreme Court of Delaware and current Chair of the Conference of Chief Justices). The panel will highlight examples of a wide range of collaborative approaches taken by state courts and the way judges, faculty, lawyers, bar associations, and other leaders of the legal profession have worked together successfully. The panel will also reflect on challenges and opportunities, along with the panelists’ own experiences, while reflecting on how law schools, in collaboration with others, can continue to advance the interests of the communities they serve.

• AALS Presidential Panel #3 – Rule of Law, Executive Orders, and the Legal Profession. The third presidential plenary panel will occur from 9:15-10:30 am on Friday, January 9, 2026 in the St. Charles Ballroom. Moderated by Professor Ann Southworth (UC Irvine), the panel will explore and discuss the executive orders, regulatory pressure, and public accusations against major law firms, the resulting legal challenges, the different responses by firms, and the implications for the profession. The panel will also discuss some of the legal challenges around attempts to reshape higher education and some of the similarities in the administration’s campaign against firms and universities. The panel consists of managing partners of prominent law firms and others who have advised law firms and universities, including Hailyn Chen (Munger Tolles & Olson), Mack Jenkins (Hecker Fink), and Peter Zeughauser (Zeughauser Group).

• Journal of Legal Education – The Access Imperative: A Special Issue of the Journal of Legal Education. The panel presentation follows a national convening that the AccessLex Institute and AALS hosted in September in Philadelphia  (The Access Imperative: Strengthening Legal Education and Challenges). The panelists will critically engage with the theme of access and inclusion in legal education, and the panel will include presentations from a range of perspectives. Selected papers and presenters include Erin Dallinger-Lain (Drake Law), Marc Falkoff (Rutgers), Jennifer Fernandez (CUNY Law), Jared Mollenkof (Mitchell Hamline), Aaron Taylor (AccessLex Institute) and the panel will be moderated by Amy Wallace (New York Law School). This panel is scheduled for Wednesday, January 7, 2026 at 1:00-2:15 pm.

I’m looking forward to the Annual Meeting and hope to see many readers of this blog there.