Haynes and Boone, LLP Partner M.C. Sungaila moderated a panel on "LGBT+ Issues in a Post-Kennedy World" at the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Litigation's 2019 LGBT+ Forum on April 30 in New York. The New York Law Journal quoted Sungaila in an article about the panel discussion.
Here is an excerpt:
The panel, which also included Melissa Sherry, a Latham & Watkins partner and member of the firm’s Supreme Court & Appellate Practice, and Douglas NeJaime, a Yale Law School professor focused on family and constitutional law, made clear that Kennedy’s court writings and a number of past court decisions left precedent and language that will be used to influence the high court’s more conservative, textualist-based justices.
Led by moderator Mary-Christine Sungaila, a partner and appellate litigator at Haynes and Boone, the panel addressed several key LGBT-rights issues now moving through the courts, including an issue that just last week the Supreme Court announced it will decide: Whether the nation’s major workplace anti-bias law, Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and transgender status.
The U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second and Seventh circuits have split with the Eleventh Circuit on the issue; and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Trump administration have parted ways on it. The EEOC has reportedly said that Title VII’s protections do extend to gay and transgender workers. The Trump administration has reportedly said they do not.
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Sungaila has been honored for her sustained commitment to community service and pro bono work, receiving recognition from groups as diverse as California Women Lawyers, Alpha Phi International Fraternity, the Orange County Hispanic Bar Association, the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, and Coastline Community College Foundation. In 2017, she was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, whose recipients include seven U.S. Presidents, Nobel Prize winners, athletes, leaders of industry, artists and others whose work has made a lasting impact on humanity, for her combined professional achievements and humanitarian and pro bono work.
In addition, her various articles on effective amicus briefing, appellate brief writing, and gender issues have been cited in more than 45 law review articles, treatises and blogs, and appear as required reading on law school course syllabi throughout North America. Her commentary has appeared in a variety of publications ranging from the ABA Journal and National Law Journal to the Los Angeles Times and USA Today.
Sungaila currently serves as co-chair of the Appellate Practice Committee of the ABA Section of Litigation, and has held several presidential appointments, including on the Standing Committee on Amicus Briefs.