Languages
Pages
Legal
Social Justice Lawyering
“The first thing I lost in law school was the reason that
I came…”
“I am not sure justice is being done, but I am following the law.”
Law Justice
But you can help narrow the gap!
Though we say differently
Justice is actually a counter-cultural
value in the legal profession
Challenge: Hold on to the justice
dreams that brought you to law school
Thousands of others have been able to
do social justice law and make a living
Katrina sample of examples
Scope of DamageMississippiLouisianaAlabamaFlorida
300,000 homes uninhabitable
Katrina Damaged
90,000 Square Miles
Area from Boston to Baltimore
Inland hundreds of miles
One Million Displaced
Response of Legal Community
Incredible!
Advancement
Project
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
Lawyers Volunteer 24/7to Identify Unknown Prisoners
• Phyllis Mann – interviewed over 2400 prisoners herself by September 13, 2005.
St. Bernard Parish:
September 2005
Rent Only to Blood Relatives
Ordinance
Waves of Evictions Hit New Orleans
Federal challenge to LA eviction laws – tacking 3 day notice
LA Secretary of State:“299,000 voters in N.O. not back”
NAACP LDF & Civil Rights
Advocates file Voting Rights
Action
FEMA - November 15, 2005 Quit paying for housing for nearly 60,000 homeless Katrina families
residing in government paid hotel and motel rooms.
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
8300 Prisoners Left in Cells
Criminal Courthouse Closed
No Jury Trials
No Witnesses
No Victims
Accused Still Lost in System
Criminal Evidence Room: Chest-deep Water
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;
Pre-Katrina, 5000 families lived in public housing
June 2006 - 1040 families allowed to return to public housing
HUD Announces
Demolition of4500
Apartments
Class Action USDC Filed on behalf of 4500 families displaced from
public housing
Federal suits filed to open public schools & stop wait list
USDC Class Action v FEMA Termination and Recoupment
There are thousands
of social justice lawyers
High profile
Social Justice Lawyers
Shirin EbadiNobel Peace Prize Iran
Stephen BrightSouthern Center Human Rights
Admitted 1974 - Kentucky
Marian Wright
Edelman
Children’s Defense FundAdmitted 1960s
Kim GandyPresident of NOW
Loyola New Orleans 1978
Refuse the Standard Choices: “$-or- Good Work”
Guantanamo Detainee Lawyers – hundreds – eg Neal Katyal & Lt. Commander Charles Swift
Lawyers Protest in Kashmir Against Human Rights Violations Committed in Local Jail – July 2004
Digna Ochoa
Human Rights DefenderMexico City
+ 19 October 2001
Lawyers Protest Threat to Arrest Human Rights Lawyer A.S. Chahal in Chandigarh India
MarjorieCohn
PresidentNational
Lawyers Guild
Brian Concannon & Mario JosephHaiti Human Rights Advocates
You Make the Path by Walking – No Superhighway to Social Justice
Judith Browne & Penda Hair – Advancement Project – Civil Rights
Pakistani Lawyers Protesting for Freedom of Judiciary – March 2007
Do not let anyone tell you it is impossible
Chen Guangcheng
Human RightsDefender
Shandong China
Louise ArbourProsecutor
Yugoslavia War Crimes
Graham Russell – Human Rights Global Justice
MaryRobinson
UN High Commissionon Human
Rights
Brian Stevenson Death Row Lawyer
Hassan Bubacar Jallow
of Gambia
ProsecutorRwanda War
Crimes
Carla del PonteChief Prosecutor
War Crimes in Yugoslavia
CarolBellamy
UNICEF Director
Learn and Reclaim The History of
Social Justice Lawyers
A Sample Follows
James StephenAbolitionist Advocate - 1807
John Quincy Adams
Amistad Defender - 1840
Albion Tourgee – Admitted 1865 Ohio and North Carolina - Plessy v Ferguson (1896)
Arabella Babb Mansfield
Admitted 1869 Iowa
Suffrage Advocacy
Charlotte E. RayFirst
African AmericanWoman Lawyer
Admitted DC 1872Suffrage Activist
Louis BrandeisEconomic Social Political Justice – Admitted 1877
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
Option for the Poor and Powerless
Clara Shortridge Foltz
Women’s rightsPublic defenderAdmitted 1878
ClarenceDarrow
Union DefenderAdmitted Ohio 1878
Mohandas Karamchand GandhiBarrister-at-Law – admitted 1891
Carol Weiss King
Human Rights LawyerAdmitted 1920
1895-1952
Charles Houston, NAACP Counsel, Howard Law Prof.
“A lawyer is either a social engineer or a parasite on society.”
Hope has two beautiful daughters:
Courage and Anger.
Augustine of Hippo
Max Hirschberg, Anti-Nazi Lawyer
in Germany in 1920s
and 1930s
Thurgood Marshall
Civil Rights & U.S. JusticeAdmitted 1933
Nelson Mandela - Admitted 1944
Constance Baker Motley and Thelton HendersonCivil Rights Lawyers & Federal Judges
Social JusticeLawyers on
the Front LinesToday
Astrid Puentes Riano
Inter-American Association for Envronmental
Defense
Colombia MexicoPeru
Greg SchellLegal Services Farmworker Advocate - Florida
Tulika Srivastava – Women’s Rights India
Brian KogoroHuman Rights Zimbabwe
Laura Tuggle - Housing Advocate New Orleans
Vanita BanksNational Bar Association
Sarah Cleveland
Human Rights
Advocate for Sugar Cane
Cutters
Janice Fukai (L.A.) & Bob Wolfrum (St. Louis) Public Defenders
Domestic Violence Victim Lawyers Sarah Buel & Rachel Amy Putterman
Salih Mahmoud OsmanSudan Organization Against Torture
Ella BhattSelf-Employed Women’s Association - India
Michele Stephenson
Human Rights Attorney andFilmmaker
Dionisio Diaz Garcia
Lawyer of the Poor Labor Lawyer
More Just SocietyHonduras
+ 4 December 2006
Disability Advocates – Matt Laffin & Claudia Gordon
Mental Health Law Advocates - Georgia
Child Advocates Susan Knowles & LaShanda Taylor
Jeanette KellerIowa Legal Services
Advocate for Disabled Veterans
Law Profs (SALT) Protesting for Affirmative Action
If there is no
struggle,
there is no progress.
Monica E. Magoke-MhojaWomen’s Legal Aid Center Tanzania
Seek Out Hope Joy Love
Wherever you find tragedy and injustice
You will also find
resistance and
inspiration
If you have come to help meyou are wasting your time.
But if you have comebecause your liberationis bound up with mine,
then let us struggle together.
Solidarity
Lila Watson – Aboriginal Activist Collective
Law Justice
But it can!
http://www.loyno.edu/~quigley/
Top Related