HAMPTONS INSTITUTE AT GUILD HALL x THE COMMON GOOD
GUARDRAILS ON DEMOCRACY
Featuring NORMAN EISEN
SUSAN CORKE, &
ANTHONY D. ROMERO,
Moderated by JIM ZIRIN
Norman Eisen, a globally recognized authority on law, ethics, and anti-corruption, Susan Corke, executive director, Democracy Defenders Action & Democracy Defenders Fund, and Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU, will lead a discussion on the prosecutorial process and enforcing legal limits on the current Trump administration. Jim Zirin, author, legal analyst, and television show host, will moderate. Together, this panel will explore the urgent threats facing democracy today—and the essential guardrails needed to protect it—in a candid, insightful, and compelling conversation.
Please note, you will be redirected to the Guild Hall website page to RSVP
ABOUT HAMPTONS INSTITUTE
The Hamptons Institute, established in 2010, returns to Guild Hall this summer, featuring leaders in their fields discussing ideas that shape our community and the world. The 2025 installment is guest-curated by Ellen Chesler, author and Hamptons Institute co-founder (with Guild Hall late Chair, Mickey Straus), and Patricia Duff, founder of the nonpartisan non-profit, The Common Good, dedicated to civic participation, civil dialogue, and finding solutions and common ground. Each evening will explore a single topic from the perspective of multiple professionals, followed by a Q&A.
ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS
NORMAN EISEN is the founder and executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, which has been helping lead the successful national court fights against the Trump Administration, helping secure multiple landmark orders against its authoritarian moves.
Eisen’s work in the courts of law is matched by his efforts in the court of public opinion as the co-founder and publisher of The Contrarian.
He is also the co-founder and former chair of other major non-profits including CREW and States United.
ANTHONY D. ROMERO is the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union—the nation’s leading defender of civil liberties—since just days before 9/11. The longest-serving leader since founder Roger Baldwin, Romero has transformed the ACLU into a powerhouse of legal, political, and grassroots advocacy, expanding it twelvefold and making it the largest civil liberties organization in the U.S.
Under his leadership, the ACLU has led major fights: challenging the war on terror and Guantánamo, defending free speech across platforms, combating systemic racism and mass incarceration, advancing LGBTQ rights, and protecting abortion access. The organization filed over 400 legal actions during Trump’s first term and more than 120 during his second.
Romero also launched a political action committee in 2024 and a national campaign for racial justice. As the first Latino and openly gay head of the ACLU, he has overseen its evolution into a nonpartisan force with staffed affiliates in every state—defending rights for all, regardless of politics.
SUSAN CORKE is Executive Director of DDA and DDF, with over two decades of leadership in democracy and human rights at the Southern Poverty Law Center, German Marshall Fund, Freedom House, Human Rights First, and the U.S. State Department. She has led global programs defending democracy, from building international coalitions and media networks to launching a data lab to track online threats. A frequent congressional witness and speaker at global forums including the UN and EU, she’s also a Webby-nominated podcaster, co-author of The Democracy Playbook, and a contributor to major research and policy reports. Corke serves on several nonprofit boards and holds degrees from William & Mary and George Washington University.
JIM ZIRIN is a former federal prosecutor under Robert Morgenthau, a leading litigator, and the author of three books, including Plaintiff in Chief: A Portrait of Donald Trump in 3500 Lawsuits—praised by Kirkus Reviews as a “damning portrait” grounded in legal record. He hosts the PBS-broadcast talk show Conversations with Jim Zirin and was featured in the documentary Where’s My Roy Cohn?
Zirin’s first book, The Mother Court, inspired the Shonda Rhimes series For the People. His second, Supremely Partisan, critiques the politicization of the Supreme Court. He’s published over 200 op-eds in outlets like The Hill, Time, Forbes, and the Washington Post, and has lectured on the Court at Chatham House.
He was appointed by Mayor Bloomberg to the NYC Commission to Combat Police Corruption and is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.