Social Justice Lawyering

Slide 1: Social Justice Lawyering

Slide 3: “The first thing I lost in law school was the reason that I came…”

Slide 4: “I am not sure justice is being done, but I am following the law.”

Slide 5: Law Justice But you can help narrow the gap!

Slide 6: Though we say differently Justice is actually a counter-cultural value in the legal profession

Slide 7: Challenge: Hold on to the justice dreams that brought you to law school

Slide 8: Thousands of others have been able to do social justice law and make a living Katrina sample of examples

Slide 14: Scope of Damage Mississippi Louisiana Alabama Florida

Slide 15: 300,000 homes uninhabitable

Slide 16: Katrina Damaged 90,000 Square Miles Area from Boston to Baltimore Inland hundreds of miles

Slide 17: One Million Displaced

Slide 24: Response of Legal Community Incredible!

Slide 29: Advancement Project

Slide 31: USDC Civil Rights Action for Release of Misdemeanor Women • Sep 20, 2005 federal civil rights action filed for misdemeanor women sent to Angola state prison – Paula Cobb, Nick Trenticosta, Carol Sobel

Slide 32: Lawyers Volunteer 24/7 to Identify Unknown Prisoners • Phyllis Mann – interviewed over 2400 prisoners herself by September 13, 2005.

Slide 33: St. Bernard Parish: September 2005 Rent Only to Blood Relatives Ordinance

Slide 35: Waves of Evictions Hit New Orleans

Slide 36: Federal challenge to LA eviction laws – tacking 3 day notice

Slide 37: LA Secretary of State: “299,000 voters in N.O. not back”

Slide 38: NAACP LDF & Civil Rights Advocates file Voting Rights Action

Slide 39: FEMA - November 15, 2005 Quit paying for housing for nearly 60,000 homeless Katrina families residing in government paid hotel and motel rooms.

Slide 40: McWaters v FEMA to halt FEMA evictions *4500 hours of pro bono legal work by 20 lawyers private firm •Lawyers Committee Civil Rights & Public Interest Law Project

Slide 41: 8300 Prisoners Left in Cells

Slide 42: ACLU Report Abandoned & Abused

Slide 44: Criminal Courthouse Closed No Jury Trials No Witnesses No Victims Accused Still Lost in System

Slide 45: Criminal Evidence Room: Chest-deep Water

Slide 46: 6000 criminal case backlog – May 2006 • Judges only in courtrooms part-time • Insufficient #s Public Defenders • Problems with Jail Facilities • Absent retired or quit NOPD officers • Evidence problems • District Attorney problems • Displaced victims, witnesses • Backlog cut to 3000 by October 06; • Backlog cut to 2000 by December 06;

Slide 48: Pre-Katrina, 5000 families lived in public housing

Slide 49: June 2006 - 1040 families allowed to return to public housing HUD Announces Demolition of 4500 Apartments

Slide 51: Class Action USDC Filed on behalf of 4500 families displaced from public housing

Slide 52: Federal suits filed to open public schools & stop wait list

Slide 53: USDC Class Action v FEMA Termination and Recoupment

Slide 54: Voter Purge Challenged in USDC

Slide 55: There are thousands of social justice lawyers

Slide 56: High profile Social Justice Lawyers

Slide 57: Shirin Ebadi Nobel Peace Prize Iran

Slide 58: Stephen Bright Southern Center Human Rights Admitted 1974 - Kentucky

Slide 59: Marian Wright Edelman Children’s Defense Fund Admitted 1960s

Slide 60: Kim Gandy President of NOW Loyola New Orleans 1978

Slide 61: Refuse the Standard Choices: “$-or- Good Work” Guantanamo Detainee Lawyers – hundreds – eg Neal Katyal & Lt. Commander Charles Swift

Slide 62: Lawyers Protest in Kashmir Against Human Rights Violations Committed in Local Jail – July 2004

Slide 63: Digna Ochoa Human Rights Defender Mexico City + 19 October 2001

Slide 64: Lawyers Protest Threat to Arrest Human Rights Lawyer A.S. Chahal in Chandigarh India

Slide 65: Marjorie Cohn President National Lawyers Guild

Slide 66: Brian Concannon & Mario Joseph Haiti Human Rights Advocates

Slide 67: You Make the Path by Walking – No Superhighway to Social Justice Judith Browne & Penda Hair – Advancement Project – Civil Rights

Slide 68: Pakistani Lawyers Protesting for Freedom of Judiciary – March 2007

Slide 69: Do not let anyone tell you it is impossible Chen Guangcheng Human Rights Defender Shandong China

Slide 70: Louise Arbour Prosecutor Yugoslavia War Crimes

Slide 71: Graham Russell – Human Rights Global Justice

Slide 72: Mary Robinson UN High Commission on Human Rights

Slide 73: Brian Stevenson Death Row Lawyer

Slide 74: Hassan Bubacar Jallow of Gambia Prosecutor Rwanda War Crimes

Slide 75: Carla del Ponte Chief Prosecutor War Crimes in Yugoslavia

Slide 76: Daniel Bekele Action Aid Ethiopia

Slide 77: Carol Bellamy UNICEF Director

Slide 78: Learn and Reclaim The History of Social Justice Lawyers A Sample Follows

Slide 79: James Stephen Abolitionist Advocate - 1807

Slide 80: John Quincy Adams Amistad Defender - 1840

Slide 81: Albion Tourgee – Admitted 1865 Ohio and North Carolina - Plessy v Ferguson (1896)

Slide 82: Arabella Babb Mansfield Admitted 1869 Iowa Suffrage Advocacy

Slide 83: Charlotte E. Ray First African American Woman Lawyer Admitted DC 1872 Suffrage Activist

Slide 84: Louis Brandeis Economic Social Political Justice – Admitted 1877

Slide 85: Option for the Poor and Powerless Instead of holding a position of independence between the wealthy and the people …able lawyers have… neglected to use their powers for the protection of the people Louis Brandies - 1905

Slide 86: Clara Shortridge Foltz Women’s rights Public defender Admitted 1878

Slide 87: Clarence Darrow Union Defender Admitted Ohio 1878

Slide 88: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Barrister-at-Law – admitted 1891

Slide 90: Carol Weiss King Human Rights Lawyer Admitted 1920 1895-1952

Slide 91: Charles Houston, NAACP Counsel, Howard Law Prof. “A lawyer is either a social engineer or a parasite on society.”

Slide 92: Hope has two beautiful daughters: Courage and Anger. Augustine of Hippo

Slide 93: Max Hirschberg, Anti-Nazi Lawyer in Germany in 1920s and 1930s

Slide 94: Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights & U.S. Justice Admitted 1933

Slide 95: Nelson Mandela - Admitted 1944

Slide 97: Constance Baker Motley and Thelton Henderson Civil Rights Lawyers & Federal Judges

Slide 98: Social Justice Lawyers on the Front Lines Today

Slide 99: Astrid Puentes Riano Inter-American Association for Envronmental Defense Colombia Mexico Peru

Slide 100: Greg Schell Legal Services Farmworker Advocate - Florida

Slide 101: Tulika Srivastava – Women’s Rights India

Slide 102: Brian Kogoro Human Rights Zimbabwe

Slide 103: Laura Tuggle - Housing Advocate New Orleans

Slide 104: Vanita Banks National Bar Association

Slide 105: Sarah Cleveland Human Rights Advocate for Sugar Cane Cutters

Slide 106: Janice Fukai (L.A.) & Bob Wolfrum (St. Louis) Public Defenders

Slide 107: Domestic Violence Victim Lawyers Sarah Buel & Rachel Amy Putterman

Slide 108: Salih Mahmoud Osman Sudan Organization Against Torture

Slide 109: Ella Bhatt Self-Employed Women’s Association - India

Slide 110: Michele Stephenson Human Rights Attorney and Filmmaker

Slide 111: Dionisio Diaz Garcia Lawyer of the Poor Labor Lawyer More Just Society Honduras + 4 December 2006

Slide 112: Disability Advocates – Matt Laffin & Claudia Gordon

Slide 113: Mental Health Law Advocates - Georgia

Slide 114: Child Advocates Susan Knowles & LaShanda Taylor

Slide 115: Jeanette Keller Iowa Legal Services Advocate for Disabled Veterans

Slide 116: Law Profs (SALT) Protesting for Affirmative Action

Slide 117: If there is no struggle, there is no progress.

Slide 118: Monica E. Magoke-Mhoja Women’s Legal Aid Center Tanzania

Slide 123: Seek Out Hope Joy Love

Slide 124: Wherever you find tragedy and injustice You will also find resistance and inspiration

Slide 125: If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us struggle together. Solidarity Lila Watson – Aboriginal Activist Collective

Slide 126: Law Justice But it can!

Slide 127: http://www.loyno.edu/~quigley/