A former attorney for the National Organization for Women who helped to establish the Violence Against Women Act will give this years Donley Law Lecture at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, March 2, at West Virginia University.

Sally Goldfarb is an associate law professor at the State University of New Jersey at Camden where she teaches family law, professional responsibility and torts.

Her lecture in the law schools Lugar Courtroom is titled”Domestic Violence: What Role for Federal Law?”

A scholar and advocate in the area of domestic violence since she graduated from Yale Law School in 1982, Goldfarb is best known for helping to draft and pass the Violence Against Women Act as an attorney for NOWs Legal Defense and Education Fund.

“We are very pleased to have someone of Sally Goldfarbs stature give this years prestigious Donley Law Lecture,”said WVU College of Law Dean John Fisher.”Her talk will shed light on the important role federal law plays in establishing rules affecting domestic violence legislation.”

The Edward G. Donley Memorial Lecture Series is conducted annually under the direction of law faculty, and is made possible through a trust fund created by Donley’s widow and son, now both deceased. Donley’s granddaughter, Mrs. Demain Whitesides, currently resides in Morgantown.

The Donley Lecture is part of an encompassing two-day conference on family law at WVU . Besides domestic violence, some of the issues to be discussed by several of the nations top legal minds include the legalities of same sex marriage and adoption rights.

“This conference brings together several of the countrys best scholars to talk about some of the most hotly debated issues currently making headlines,”said Lisa Kelly, WVU law professor and conference planner.

In addition to Goldfarb, Katharine T. Bartlett, dean of law at Duke University, will speak on”The American Law Institutes Model Standards: A Reporters Notes”during a 6 p.m. dinner sponsored by the Womens Law Caucus in WVUs Erickson Alumni Center on Thursday, March 2. The dinner, which costs $50 each, raises money for the caucus.

Professor Bartlett has served as a reporter for the American Law Institutes Principles Governing the Allocation of Custodial and Decision-making Responsibility for Children. She earned her law degree from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.

Other speakers include Karen Czapanskiy, a law professor at the University of Maryland. Czapanskiy, Bartlett and Goldfarb will speak from 10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. on Friday, March 3, in the Lugar Courtroom on Troxel vs. Granville, a case involving the rights of grandparents currently before the Supreme Court.

Mark Strasser, also from the University of Maryland, will speak Friday from 9 a.m.-10:30 a.m. on”Unity, Sovereignty and the Interstate Recognition of Marriage”in the Lugar Courtroom as part of a marriage forum.

Also participating in this panel discussion will be Associate Professor Theresa Glennon, Temple University School of Law and Raymond OBrien, Catholic University. Glennon will discuss”Somebodys Child: Evaluating the Erosion of the Marital Presumption of Paternity.”OBriens topic will be”The Reawakening of Marriage.”

Another talk of particular interest to state and national lawmakers will be a noon-time discussion on Friday, March 3, in room 153 of the law school. The brown-bag lunch will feature the lawyers involved in the Kessel v. Leavitt decision who will discuss this controversial case.

The case, which took place recently in southern West Virginia, involved a woman who placed her newborn daughter for adoption without telling the father of the child, whom she was not married to or living with. The father was awarded an $8 million judgment.

The conference and the Donley Lecture are free and open to the public. They are sponsored by the WVU College of Law, the West Virginia Law Review, the Edward G. Donley Memorial Lecture Series, the Ralph J. Bean Law Review Endowment and the Womens Law Caucus.

For more information, call Kelly, 304-293-7040, or register at the website:http://www.wvu.edu/~lawfac/lkelly/