Professor Donald Tibbs was a panelist at the 2017 Mercer Law Review Symposium at Mercer University School of Law on Oct. 6.

The symposium, focused on “Disruptive Innovation in Criminal Defense,” explored existing and imaginable innovations in criminal defense that would depart from convention and influence the delivery of legal services. Speakers examined how changes can be made as well as the legal, political and other barriers to innovation.

Tibbs discussed his paper, “Let Them Speak: Paradigms from the Black Power Era as Disruptive Innovation in Criminal Defense,” joining University of Texas School of Law professors Susan Klein and Elissa Steglich on the panel.

An expert in legal history as well as criminal law, Tibbs explores overlapping issues of race, law, civil rights and criminal procedure in his scholarship.  His article, “Requiem for Laquan McDonald: Policing as Punishment and Abolishing Reasonable Suspicion,” appeared in Temple Law Review in 2017.