Philip Pro Lectureship in Legal History with Frank Zimring

This year's Philip Pro Lectureship in Legal History will be delivered by Professor Franklin Zimring of University of California Berkeley School of Law on the topic of his latest book, The City That Became Safe: New York’s Lessons for Urban Crime and Its Control.

Franklin E. Zimring is the William G. Simon Professor of Law and chair of the Criminal Justice Research Program at the University of California, Berkeley. Since 2005, he has been the first Wolfen Distinguished Scholar at Boalt Hall School of Law. Professor Zimring has specialized for four decades in the empirical study of legal institutions and the assessment of the behavioral impacts of legal regulation. He was director of the Center for Studies in Criminal Justice at the University of Chicago and of the Earl Warren Legal Institute at the University of California. In his latest book, The City That Became Safe: New York’s Lessons for Urban Crime and Its Control, Zimring argues that a close look at the more than 80% drop in safety crime in New York City over two decades undermines the basic assumptions about crime and crime control that have determined policy in the United States for a generation. The lecture will outline the study’s empirical findings and outline five important policy lessons that emerge from a close reading of the New York data. In addition to his scholarly writing, Zimring is a frequent author of op-ed and general essays. Pieces of his work are reprinted as models in eight college writing textbooks.

Judge Philip M. Pro
Philip M. Pro is an Article III federal judge for the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. He joined the court in 1987 after being nominated by President Ronald Reagan. He served as Chief Judge for the District of Nevada from 2002 to 2007. Prior to his appointment as District Judge, Judge Pro served as United States Magistrate Judge from 1980 to 1987. Since 1998, Judge Pro has participated in a variety of international “Rule of Law” programs in the countries of Hungary, Republic of Georgia, Netherlands, and Spain. In March 2003, he was a Co-moderator for the U.S. Department of Justice Colloquium for Iraqi Jurists in Washington, D.C. He is also active in the We, the People . . . the Citizen and the Constitution program for high school students, and has participated in a wide variety of continuing legal education programs sponsored by local, state and national bar associations, including the Department of Justice Attorney General Advocacy Institute.

About the Lecture Series
In 2005, Pulitzer prize-winning historian Gordon Wood inaugurated the Philip Pro Lectureship in Legal History at the William S. Boyd School of Law. The series annually brings an internationally prominent scholar to UNLV to deliver a public lecture. Past lecturers include Jack Rakove, Geoffrey Stone, Sarah Barringer Gordon, John Witte Jr., Larry Kramer, and Joyce Appleby.