Judge Herbert Phipps, Georgia Court of Appeals (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

More than 300 state and federal appellate judges, staff attorneys and lawyers from around the country will be gathering in Atlanta for four days to talk about the law, justice, legal writing and civil rights.

The event is the Appellate Judges Education Institute Summit, hosted with Eleventh Circuit Appellate Practice Institute and the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke University law school. The location is the Atlanta Marriott Marquis at 265 Peachtree Center Ave. N.E. in downtown Atlanta.

The opening of the summit on Thursday will feature some of Georgia's civil rights icons: retired Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Herbert Phipps, who as a lawyer in Albany helped enforce school desegregation after Brown v. Board of Education, and former Atlanta mayor, United Nations ambassador and U.S. Rep. Andrew Young, who served with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Phipps will speak during the opening of the event at 1:30 p.m. Thursday with a program called Drum Majors for Justice: the Georgia Experience.

Following Phipps, Young will give the keynote speech, after being introduced by King & Spalding partner Harold Franklin, a past president of both the Atlanta Bar Association and the Gate City Bar Association.

Later Thursday, Eleventh Circuit Judge William Pryor will take part in a panel discussion of “Maximizing Your Chances for Discretionary Review.” Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Anne Barnes will join a discussion of “Whey There Are So Few Diverse and Women Lead Appellate Lawyers.”

Friday's schedule will open with a discussion of My Lai, the Vietnam War and the “enduring legacy” of U.S. v. Calley. Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Sara Doyle will share what judges and practitioners would like each other to know. Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold Melton will give a welcome speech, and Eleventh Circuit Judge Jill Pryor will join a conversation about judicial courage and the civil rights movement.

Saturday's schedule features a look at the #MeToo movement with an eye toward avoiding the need for future claims.

On Sunday, Eleventh Circuit Judges Pryor and Elizabeth Branch will talk about effective reply strategies. Eleventh Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom and Georgia Supreme Court Presiding Justice David Nahmias will participate in a constitutional law discussion, along with Laurie Webb Daniel of Holland & Knight and Georgia State University law professor Eric Segall and Duke law professor Ernie Young.

The program is open to all lawyers and judges. The full schedule and the registration link are on the Duke judicial studies website.