Making a Federal Case of IT: The Basics of Section 1983 Litigation (Pt. 2) (Presented by the Federal Bar Association’s Constitutional & Civil Rights Law Section and the Federal Judicial Law Clerk Committee)

Eric Foley, Senior Counsel | MacArthur Justice Center

Eric Foley is a Senior Counsel in the Louisiana office of the MacArthur Justice Center and focuses on ending the punishment of poverty, unlawful fines and fees, pretrial detention, and police misconduct.

• Education & Credentials

Eric earned his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School (2009), where he was president of the Guild Food Stamp Clinic and participated in the Criminal Defense and Civil Practice clinics.

• Recognition & Leadership

Foley was awarded Public Justice’s “Trial Lawyer of the Year” award in 2015 for his work challenging unlawful pretrial detention and was a finalist for the Louisiana State Bar Association’s “Outstanding Young Lawyer” award for 2019.

• Professional Involvement

He is a member of the Federal Bar Association’s New Orleans Chapter.

• Experience

Before joining the MJC in January 2015, Foley was a staff attorney at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services (SLLS) in New Orleans. During his time at SLLS, Foley represented low-income clients in administrative hearings, trial court, and appellate court. His practice areas included evictions, disputes with the public housing authority, denials of Social Security benefits, and advocacy for the unhoused. Before joining SLLS, Foley was a judicial clerk at the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico.
He has argued and won a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit concerning a financial conflict of interest created by a fee collected by the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court on commercial sureties.

Kyle Kaiser, Assistant Attorney General | Utah Attorney General’s Office

Kyle Kaiser is an Assistant Attorney General of the Utah Attorney General’s Office. He has been with the office since July 2011.

• Education & Credentials

Kyle received his J.D., with high distinction, from the University of Iowa College of Law in 2003, where he was Senior Managing Editor of the Iowa Law Review, was awarded the Hancher-Finkbine Medallion, and was inducted into Order of the Coif. Kyle received his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Drake University, summa cum laude, in 2000.

• Recognition & Leadership

Kyle Kaiser is an Assistant Attorney General in the Education Division of the Utah Attorney General’s Office. From 2011 through 2025 he practiced in the office’s Litigation Division, where he rose to Senior Trial Counsel, defending claims of constitutional or civil rights violations brought against the State of Utah, its agents, agencies, and subdivisions, and Utah colleges and school districts. He serves as a judge pro tempore for the Salt Lake City Justice Court, presiding over civil small claims matters, sits on the Board of Directors of Utah Law-Related Education, and teaches as an adjunct professor at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. He was also named a nominee for a Third District Court vacancy. He presents regularly for the Federal Bar Association’s Civil Rights Law Section, including moderating a program on key SCOTUS civil rights decisions from the 2021–22 term. Earlier in his career, he served as Staff Attorney for Justice Dale Wainwright of the Supreme Court of Texas, where he oversaw the Court’s law clerk program. He earned his journalism degree summa cum laude from Drake University and is licensed to practice law in Utah, Texas, and Minnesota.

• Professional Involvement

Away from the office, Kyle is an Associate Adjunct Professor of Law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah, where he teaches Civil Rights Litigation; acts as Judge Pro Tempore for the Salt Lake Justice Court; and sits on the Board of Utah Law-Related Education.

• Experience

Kyle’s practice includes defending and advising postsecondary education institutions in Utah. For fifteen years, Kyle served in the Litigation Division of the Office, where he defended claims of constitutional or civil rights violations brought against the State of Utah, its agents, agencies, and subdivisions. Before working for the Utah AG’s Office, Kyle was employed as Staff Attorney for Justice Dale Wainwright of the Supreme Court of Texas. Before that, Kyle was a litigation and intellectual property associate with the law firm of Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A. in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and served as a law clerk for Richard Dorr, United States District Judge for the Western District of Missouri, in Springfield.

Kyle enjoys spending time with his wife Pearl, their daughter Cora, and their cat Milo; camping around Utah and travelling around the world; and playing percussion publicly with a local community band and playing piano in the privacy of his own home.

SESSION 1 – Making a Federal Case of IT: The Basics of Section 1983 Litigation (Pt. 2) (Presented by the Federal Bar Association’s Constitutional & Civil Rights Law Section and the Federal Judicial Law Clerk Committee)

Eric Foley & Kyle Kaiser | 2:00pm – 3:00pm

Join the Constitutional & Civil Rights Law Section and the Federal Judicial Law Clerk Committee for this two-part series designed to provide current clerks and new civil litigators with the basics of federal Civil Rights Claims and defenses. Part Two of this two-part series will cover identifying and understanding entity, governmental, and individual immunities in federal civil rights litigation, including sovereign and Eleventh Amendment immunity, waiver and abrogation of sovereign immunity, state-law governmental immunities, and absolute individual immunities applicable to judicial, quasi-judicial, witness, civil-rights, government defense attorneys, prosecutors, probation officers, court clerks, and case workers. The program will also address qualified immunity, including the differences between raising qualified immunity at the motion-to-dismiss and summary-judgment stages, the immediate appealability of denials of qualified immunity in state and federal court, the requirements for establishing a violation of a constitutional or federal right and clearly established law, and pleading and defending against Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) motions to dismiss, including how to successfully plead a federal civil rights case by establishing standing, naming the proper parties, alleging sufficient plausible facts, and seeking available relief.