Let's come together to get some refuge from the chaos and experience a Shabbat Shalom, a Shabbat of Peace.

The speaker follows the Oneg Shabbat. Judge Shawn Watts will be speaking about Native American law and rights.

Judge Shawn K. Watts joined the KU Law lawyering faculty in 2018 and became a Lecturer of Law in January 2022. Watts supervises students in the Tribal Judicial Support Clinic, and teaches courses in Mediation Skills and Federal Indian Law. He is also a district court judge for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.

Prior to KU Law, he taught at Columbia Law School in New York City where he was the Associate Director of the Mediation Program. He taught an Advanced Mediation Clinic and a Native American Peacemaking Clinic. He has been a visiting professor at both Yale Law School and National Taiwan University Law School in Taipei, Taiwan.

In his practice, Judge Watts mediates federal and state cases with an emphasis in employment discrimination cases. He is also a consultant with the National American Indian Court Judges Association specializing in helping tribal court programs to include traditional and customary justice practices.

In addition to his work with Indian tribes and tribal organizations, Judge Watts is also a lead trainer and formal partner for the United Nations Institute of Training and Research where he trains and advises world diplomats on the issues facing the world's indigenous peoples. He also provides the U.N. training and curriculum on conflict resolution, negotiation, and peace dialogue.

A Citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Judge Watts graduated from Columbia Law School, where he won the Jane Marks Murphy Prize for clinical advocacy, was a Strine Fellow, a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and managing editor of Columbia Law’s Journal of Law and Social Problems. While in law school, he served as the president of the National Native American Law Students Association.