Several Southwestern Law School faculty will be presenting at the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) 2026 Annual Meeting, held January 6–9, 2026, in New Orleans. The meeting’s theme—“Impact. Excellence. Resilience. The Enduring Contributions of Legal Education”—sets the stage for wide-ranging conversations about legal education, professional formation, and the pressures (and possibilities) facing the academy.  

Below are highlights of Southwestern’s scheduled presentations, spanning well-being, mandatory arbitration, food and health law, trusts and estates in an AI-and-privacy era, and national security—plus leadership programming for deans. 

• Professor Ronald G. Aronovsky will moderate the Alternative Dispute Resolution program “The Future of Mandatory Arbitration: Pathways for Reform,” which will examine access-to-justice concerns raised by mandatory arbitration and explore reform ideas ranging from procedural and regulatory approaches to technology-enabled fairness improvements.  

• Dean Darby Dickerson, a former AALS President, will be a featured panelist with other long-serving deans during the Deans Forum Opening Plenary, “We Manage, We Pivot, We Move Forward, and We Lead,” sharing thoughts on challenges facing legal education and providing input on a variety of topics facing deans and other law school leaders.  

• Professor Meera E. Deo will moderate the AALS Discussion Group “Working Toward Well-being,” which will focus on mental-health challenges that law students experience and the research- and practice-informed strategies that can improve well-being across the profession.  

• Professor Andrea Freeman will moderate the Agricultural and Food Law session “MAHA: Facts and Fictions,” which will address intersections of food systems, health, and evidence-based policymaking—including impacts on Indigenous food sovereignty and broader debates about expertise in health-related litigation and regulation.  

• Professor Andrew Gilden will present during the Trusts and Estates program “Privacy, Social Media, and the World of Trusts & Estates,” exploring how rapidly evolving privacy issues and AI-related developments are reshaping trusts-and-estates doctrine, teaching, and practice.  

• Professor John Tehranian will be a featured speaker during the Intellectual Property session, which will focus on how professors should use theory in the service of teaching law students intellectual property law concepts. 

• Associate Dean Rachel E. VanLandingham will moderate the National Security Law program “Judicial Deference in the National Security Space: Is It Warranted?,” convening a discussion on the role and limits of judicial deference in national security matters.  

Southwestern’s presence at AALS 2026 reflects the school’s engagement with the core questions animating the meeting—how legal education can deliver impact, model excellence, and build resilience.