Category Archives: Events

Upcoming event: Panel Discussion: The Antioch Law School, Engine of Change April 2, 2016

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Announcement cross-posted from H-DC

When: Saturday, April 2, 2016, 2 – 4 PM

Where: Anacostia Community Museum, Program Room

Related Exhibition: Twelve Years That Shook and Shaped Washington, 1963-1974

Program description: Join in on this discussion that looks at the history of this influential school that would eventually become the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law.  Panelists include Antioch School of Law Co-Dean and Co-Founder, Edgar Cahn, Sandra Mattavous-Frye, Antioch graduate and current People’s Counsel in DC, and Shelley Broderick, Dean, David A. Clarke School of Law at UDC.  Antioch alum, Jonathan Smith will be the panel moderator.

The Antioch School of Law supported an “open-admissions” policy which afforded many low-income African American students in the district the opportunity to obtain a quality post-secondary education during the 1970s.

Overcoming Poverty: Public Opening Session of the Catholic-Evangelical Leadership Summit with Robert Putnam at Georgetown University, May 11

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Overcoming Poverty: Catholic-Evangelical Leadership Summit at Georgetown University, May 11, 2015

When: May 11, 2015, 6:30-9:00 p.m.

Where: Gaston Hall, Georgetown University

From the announcement: One in five children grows up poor in the richest nation on earth. Harvard Professor Robert Putnam​ ​documents and challenges this human and economic failure in his new bestselling book Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis. Putnam, also the author of​ ​Bowling Alone and co-author of American Grace, will share his groundbreaking research, compelling stories and unusual passion for the widening opportunity gap at the opening public session the Catholic-Evangelical Summit on Overcoming Poverty.

Putnam’s presentation ​will be followed by a distinguished panel of religious and national leaders will ​discuss long-neglected questions including ​h​ow Catholic, evangelical, and other leaders ​can ​help make overcoming poverty a clear moral imperative and urgent national priority​. Georgetown President John J. DeGioia will open the Dialogue. ​

Link to full announcement and RSVP.

Extended Deadline, Call-for-Papers: “Poverty Law: Academic Activism,” Seattle University, Feb. 19-20, 2016

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[Cross-posted from the Poverty Law blog]

Extended Deadline, Call-for-Papers: “Poverty Law: Academic Activism,” Seattle University, Feb. 19-20, 2016.  Deadline for submissions extended to July 1, 2015.  Full information here: Poverty Law Conference 2016 Call-for-Proposals Extended Deadline.

Symposium at USC Gould School of Law: Reframing the Welfare Queen

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Reframing the Welfare Queen: Feminist and Critical Race Theory Alternatives to Existing Poverty Discourse,  held on on April 23-24, 2015 at USC Gould School of Law. The symposium will feature numerous feminist and Critical Race Theory scholars from across the country.  The gathering will “discuss the ways in which the cultural construct of the welfare queen imposes discursive limits on anti-poverty discourse and, additionally, to consider what the welfare queen construct teaches us about the State’s anxieties about poor women and women more generally.  The opening speaker for the event is Dorothy Roberts.”

For more details about the conference and to RSVP, click on the link:  http://weblaw.usc.edu/who/faculty/conferences/welfare-queen-conference/

Upcoming program: The Great Society in Florida at 50: A Look Back, A Look Forward

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The University of South Florida St. Petersburg Department of History and Politics has organized a wonderful discussion series that looks at the impact of “The Great Society” on Florida and on the nation, while also debating the future of “the Great Society,” and programs inspired by its vision. The week-long program, which places a specific emphasis on the Great Society as a grassroots movement, will begin next week. The local NPR station did a story on the program, which includes an interview with Elisa Minoff, Assistant Professor of History at USFP, as well as Florida legal services pioneer Joe Segor, who talks about the challenges that Florida Rural Legal Services faced in the mid 1960s, the impact of their work, and the ongoing critical need to provide farm workers and the rural poor with legal assistance and social services.war_on_poverty_usf

A flyer of the full program can be accessed here.

Poverty Journal Symposium Highlights Access to Justice

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Poverty Journal Symposium Highlights Access to Justice

Every American knows that he or she has a right to an attorney in a criminal case — thanks to Miranda warnings on TV crime shows. But what many do not know is that they could…

Go to the Law Center’s web story on last week’s Rationing Justice symposium….

Rationing Justice: Access to Justice and the 40th Anniversary of the Legal Services Corporation

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Rationing Justice: Access to Justice and the 40th Anniversary of the Legal Services Corporation: 2015 symposium presented by the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy, March 3.

We can look forward to the publication of the proceedings in the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy.

View the full recording of the symposium.

The title of the symposium was inspired by Judge Learned Hand’s speech before the Legal Aid Society of New York in 1951, who had said: “If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.” The symposium, introduced by Professor Peter Edelman, was as thought-provoking as it was inspiring, and featured two discussion panels, as well as two key note spearationing_justicekers: Jim Sandman, the president of the Legal Services Corporation, and Chief Judge Lippman of New York. Speakers on the first panel discussed how things have changed in four decades of legal services. Panelists included Alan Houseman, former Executive Director and Emeritus Senior Fellow of CLASP; Hannah Lieberman, Executive Director of DC’s Neighborhood Legal Services Program; and Lisa Dewey, DLA Piper’s full-time Pro Bono Partner. The second panel was titled: Ensuring Justice – New Directions in Legal Strategy, and featured Rhonda Brownstein, Southern Poverty Law Center’s Legal Director; Sharon Dietrich, Litigation Director at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, Dean Jane Aiken, Professor of Law and Director of the Community Justice Project at Georgetown Law Center; and Purvi Shah, Director of the Bertha Justice Institute at the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Law Forum: 50 Years of the War on Poverty

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edward_sparerBrooklyn Law School

Thursday, March 19
6:00 to 8:00 pm

Program:

Rates of poverty and homelessness are on the rise, particularly among minority populations, women, children, and families. This year’s Sparer Forum will explore current policies that promote or prevent access to safety net resources and examine where we are now, 50 years after President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a “War on Poverty.”

The program will feature Steven Banks, Commissioner of the New York City Human Resources Administration (HRA)—the largest social services agency in the country—and formerly Attorney-In-Chief of the Legal Aid Society. Program participants will include Wayne Ho, Chief Program and Policy Officer of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, Sondra Youdelman, Executive Director of Community Voices Heard, and Professor Ann Cammett of CUNY Law School. Participants will discuss social services, the future of poverty alleviation, and strategies for legal advocacy.

RSVP online by Tuesday, March 17

More information and contact at: http://www.brooklaw.edu/en/newsandevents/events/2015/03-19-2015.aspx

 

The Long Crisis: Economic Inequality in New York City, video of November 2014 event

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CUNY Law School had an excellent War on Poverty event on November 12, entitled The Long Crisis: Economic Inequality in New York City on Nov. 12th, which focused on the role that economic inequality and injustice play within the context of social justice legal issues and practical solutions lawyers and activists are employing to help overcome the inequality.  Proceedings will be published in an upcoming issue of the New York City Law Review, and you can also watch it online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSht2NV_ZcE

The panel featured Fahd Ahmed, acting executive director of DRUM–South Asian Organizing Center, Tom Angotti, professor of Urban Affairs and Planning and Director of the Hunter College Center for Community Planning and Development, Jennifer Jones Austin, CEO and executive director of Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, Shawn Blumberg, legal director of Housing Conservation Coordinators, and Robin Steinberg, founder and executive director of The Bronx Defenders.

Call-for-Proposals: Poverty Law: Academic Activism Conference — Seattle University School of Law — Feb. 19-20, 2016

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(Cross-posted from the Poverty Law blog.)

Call-for-Proposals: Poverty Law: Academic Activism Conference — Seattle University School of Law — Feb. 19-20, 2016 .

Call for Proposals:

We invite proposals for presentations at a Spring 2016 conference, “Poverty Law: Academic Activism” to be held on Feb. 19-20, 2016, hosted by Seattle University School of Law.  The conference will focus on the connection between academics and activism, broadly understood.  Just as “poverty law” is a broad category that includes everything from welfare and education programs to immigration and tax policy, so too, “academic activism” includes a wide range of activities.  This conference will explore how members of the legal community directly engage with activists to effect social, legal, and policy changes; how scholarship can help improve the lives of the poor; and how to educate the next generation of poverty warriors.

The conference is organized around these three tracks – direct engagement, scholarship, and teaching – and the hope that the conference will be a large gathering of those whose work (including direct involvement as well as scholarship) focuses on or relates to poverty law.  The deadline for proposals is Friday, April 24, 2015.  Please submit the title of your presentation with an abstract or overview of no more than 300 words to erosser@wcl.american.  To submit a full panel presentation, include the above information for all panelists.

Additionally, for those who are interested (though this is not a requirement for participation in the conference), conference participants may have publication opportunities with both the Seattle Journal for Social Justice and the Seattle Law Review.  Conference attendees will be responsible for their own travel expenses. We look forward to seeing you in Seattle in Feb. 2016!

If you have any questions, please contact the conference organizers: Sara Rankin (Seattle University School of Law) and Ezra Rosser (American University Washington College of Law)

A pdf copy of the CFP can be found here.