We are thrilled to announce that registration for the 2021 Virtual New Clinicians Conference is now OPEN! Please visit the conference website to register and learn more about the incredible programming of this entirely free conference that will be held online between May 17 - May 20th, 2021. 

CLEA's Best Practices in Pedagogy is pleased to announce the next session it its "Teaching Justice" webinar series. 

Kicking the series off for 2021 will be Deborah Archer (NYU School of Law) and Kele Stewart (University of Miami School of Law) presenting Lawyering Across Silos for Community Equity on February 25, 2021, at 1pm EST/ 12pm CST/11am MST/10am PST. 

Please register here: https://forms.gle/jSggEeKZyS79Y8io6

As ever, the goal for these sessions is to highlight new approaches to teaching justice in the classroom, drawing on the wisdom of current resistance movements.

And - please mark your calendars for the following session in March:

Teaching Justice through Abolition
March 15, 2021
12pm EST/11am CST/10am MST/9am PST, Alexis Hoag (Columbia Law School) 

If you'd like to view past sessions, you can find them here:

https://www.cleaweb.org/Teaching-Justice-Webinar-Series

We are excited to share that CLEA will again offer a FREE Virtual New Clinicians Conference on May 17-20, 2021.

Like last year's conference, which brought together more than 250 attendees, the 2021 CLEA Virtual New Clinicians Conference will convene over four days. Each day's program will begin at 11:00 a.m. Eastern and conclude at 1:30 or 2:00 p.m. Eastern. Our varied conference format will include live and asynchronous webinar programming, concurrent sessions, and facilitated small group discussions. We also expect to offer some fun networking opportunities, including an evening social event during the week of the conference. Session topics will include:

Foundations of Clinical Teaching: An Overview of Best Practices

Racial Justice in the Classroom and in Practice

Technology Innovations in Clinical Teaching and Practice

Teaching Movement Lawyering

Clinical Teaching and Practice During Crisis

Pedagogy Deep-Dive: Clinic Design

Pedagogy Deep-Dive: Externship Design

Plus: Case Rounds, Supervision, and More!

We will be back in touch later this month to share a detailed schedule and information for how you can register to attend the 2021 CLEA Virtual New Clinicians Conference. For now, please SAVE THE DATES (May 17-20, 2021) and do not hesitate to contact us or any of the CLEA New Clinicians Committee members identified below with questions.

We look forward to “seeing” you in May for the 2021 CLEA Virtual New Clinicians!

Best wishes,

Lisa Martin and Danny Schaffzin

On behalf of the CLEA New Clinicians Committee:

Lisa Martin (University of South Carolina) (Co-Chair)

Danny Schaffzin (University of Memphis) (Co-Chair)

Jeff Baker (Pepperdine)

Kathryn Banks (Washington University in St. Louis)

Lauren Bartlett (St. Louis University)

Christine Cerniglia (Stetson)

Crisanne Hazen (Harvard)

Rachael Kohl (Michigan)

Praveen Kosuri (Penn)

C. Benjie Louis (Hofstra)

Nickole Miller (University of Baltimore)

Sue Schechter (Berkeley)

Shonda Sibley (Temple University)

Anita Sinha (American University)

Kele Stewart (Miami)

Wendy Vaughn (Northern Illinois University)

2021 CLEA New Clinicians Virtual Conference

May 17th - 20th, 2021

Stay tuned for more details!

Please see over forty pages of new CLEA news in our CLEA Newsletter Winter 2020-2021. We hope everyone has a safe and smooth start to the new semester!

By Prof. Alicia Plerhoples

Pivoting to Represent Nonprofits Confronting the Pandemic and Anti-Black Racism

During a typical semester in the Social Enterprise & Nonprofit Law Clinic (SENLC) at Georgetown Law, law students represent D.C.-area social enterprises and nonprofits working in a range of fields, including social services, education, and international development. During this atypical semester, SENLC students have not only pivoted to virtual representation, they have also sharpened the focus of their representations to serve organizational clients who are responsive to the converging COVID-19 pandemic and our national reckoning with anti-Black racism. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated the racial wealth gap, disparities in access to capital for Black-owned businesses, as well as workplace and educational inequities between a professional workforce who can work remotely and a working class who cannot.

Recognizing that the pandemic is not only a public health crisis, but also an educational and economic crisis that has disproportionately impacted communities of color, and heeding our moral obligation to work to dismantle these inequities, this semester SENLC students are representing:

(1) A newly-formed Virginia nonprofit that is providing college- and master-level tutors to low-income K-12 students to enhance their online education during COVID-19 school closures. The nonprofit is in its pilot phase and is operating with the support of Senator Warner (D-VA) who hopes to champion it nationally under the AmeriCorps umbrella;

 (2) A D.C. legal aid organization committed to saving the homes of D.C. residents through pro bono foreclosure legal defense;

(3) A Virginia nonprofit focused on educational equity by providing scholarships and social-emotional learning resources to low-income college students;

(4) A D.C. nonprofit whose mission is to empower, prepare, and advocate for Black women in the quantitative sciences, including economics, finance, and data sciences; and

(5) A D.C. nonprofit offering free home ownership workshops and financial resources for teachers and other employees of D.C. Public Schools, 70% of whom are people of color and 50% of whom are Black, to allow educators to live where they work and build intergenerational wealth.

SENLC students are representing these clients on grant funding, governance, contracts, liability protection, and compliance issues. The Clinic will continue to work with organizational clients confronting the economic and educational impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and anti-Black racism for the foreseeable future and has plans to work with mutual aid organizations and worker cooperatives in the spring semester.

The 2020 election for CLEA's Board of Directors and Executive Committee will open on November 1, 2020 and the voting will close at midnight on December 1, 2020.

On November 1, you will receive an email with a link to the voting platform. We recommend that you remove “noreply@qemailserver.com” from your email spam filters before November 1 to be sure that you receive your ballot.

All CLEA Members in good standing are eligible to vote. If you are not yet a CLEA Member and you would like to be, please visit our website at CLEAWeb.org to become a member. All new member registrations must be completed by close of business Friday, October 30, 2020 in order to be able to vote in the 2020 election. If you are not sure about your membership status, please contact Gautam Hans (Gautam.hans@vanderbilt.edu) and Kathryn Banks (kpbanks@wustl.edu), Co-Chairs of the Membership Committee.

In advance of the opening of the Board elections, please review the candidate’s statements and bios linked here.

This year’s slate of candidates for the CLEA Board are as follows:

Chante Brantley

Davida Finger

Pedro Gerson

Crystal Grant

Llezlie Green

Melina Healey

Ronnie Hochbaum

Anna Kirsch

Gowri Krishna

Tameka Lester

Michael Murphy

Jenna Prochaska

Paul Radvany

Melissa Redmond

Rebecca Robichaud

Shanda Sibley

Sarah Horn Wolking

And the nominees for the Executive Committee are:

Secretary: Jodi Balsam

Co-Vice Presidents: Caitlin Barry & Shobha Mahadev

Thank you and we look forward to CLEA’s election season!

Sincerely,

The CLEA Elections Committee

Lauren Bartlett, St. Louis University School of Law

Melanie DeRousse, University of Kansas School of Law

Kendall Kerew, Georgia State University College of Law

Lynnise Pantin, Chair, Columbia Law School

By Melissa Toback Levin, Lewis Steel Racial Justice Fellow, New York Law School

The Racial Justice Project (“RJP”) is a legal advocacy organization housed in New York Law School dedicated to protecting the constitutional and civil rights of people who have been denied such rights on the basis of race, and to increasing public awareness of racism and racial injustice in, among other areas, the areas of education, employment, political participation, economic inequality, and criminal justice.  The RJP’s work includes impact litigation, appellate advocacy, legislative advocacy, training, and public education.  Professor Penelope Andrews and Professor Alvin Bragg co-direct the RJP; they are aided by post-graduate fellows and students in the Project’s work. 

Recently, the RJP has been keenly focused on efforts to promote police transparency and accountability as well as efforts to end the criminalization of poverty.  The following provides an overview of two RJP matters:

Carr v. de Blasio

In late August 2019, the RJP filed a petition on behalf of Eric Garner’s mother, sister, and police accountability advocates against the Mayor of New York City, the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”) Police Commissioner, and other New York City officials.  The petition was brought under Section 1109 of the New York City Charter, a “sunlight” provision which allows a judge to preside over a summary inquiry at which City employees and officers can be made to testify about violations or neglect of duties.

The respondents moved to dismiss the petition.  On September 24, 2020, Justice Joan A. Madden granted the majority of the petition for a summary inquiry. The Court granted the petition for a summary inquiry with respect to alleged violations and neglect of duty in connection with: (1) the stop, arrest, and use of force against Mr. Garner; (2) the filing of false official documents concerning Mr. Garner's arrest; (3) the leaking of Mr. Garner's alleged arrest history and medical condition in the autopsy report; and (4) the alleged lack of medical care provided to Mr. Garner by police officers. 

The respondents filed a notice of appeal and are seeking to invoke an automatic stay.  If the inquiry proceeds, Mayor Bill de Blasio, former Police Commissioner O'Neill, among others with knowledge or information concerning the four areas of inquiry, will be required to testify and a transcript of their testimony will become a public record.

In addition to the lawsuit, the RJP submitted a Freedom of Information Law (“FOIL”) request to the NYPD and the Civilian Complaint Review Board (“CCRB”) relating to Mr. Garner’s arrest and death.

The lawsuit and FOIL request were part of a broader campaign to repeal New York State Civil Rights Law Section 50-a, which provided protections for police officer personnel records and had been interpreted in an overly broad manner.  (The City had pointed to Section 50-a as a basis for the lack of key disclosures concerning Mr. Garner’s death.)  In October 2019, New York Law School Professor Alvin Bragg testified at a hearing before the New York State Standing Committee on Codes on the repeal of Section 50-a on behalf of the RJP.  On June 12, 2020, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an act to repeal Section 50-a into law.  As a result, the public has access to police disciplinary records as they are considered “presumptively open for public inspection and copying” under New York’s Freedom of Information Law (“FOIL”).  One week after the law’s repeal, the City pledged to release all disciplinary records – this is now the subject of litigation brought by law enforcement unions, including the Police Benevolent Association.

Driving While Black and Latinx: Stops, Fines, Fees, and Unjust Debts

In February 2020, the RJP produced a report entitled “Driving While Black and Latinx: Stops, Fines, Fees, and Unjust Debts.”  The report examines the disparate impact that a law which authorizes driver’s license suspensions for non-payments of traffic debt and nonappearances in traffic court has on communities of color.  It notes that between January 2016 and April 2018 New York issued nearly 1.7 million driver’s license suspensions for traffic debt and highlights how the practice unduly targets and harms communities of color, forcing people to choose between, on one hand, stopping driving and not being able to get to work or, on the other hand, risking criminal charges by driving on a suspended license.

The report was utilized in a campaign to help secure the passage of the Driver’s License Suspension Reform Act, which passed both chambers and now awaits Governor Cuomo’s signature. 

The CLEA Elections Committee (Caitlin Berry, Melanie DeRousse, Shobha Mahadev and Lynnise Pantin) is soliciting nominations through October 1, 2020, of individuals to serve on the CLEA Board of Directors starting in January 2021. This year, there are several Board positions open. All positions require a three-year commitment. See below for a memo prepared by the CLEA Elections Committee, which sets forth the activities and responsibilities of CLEA Board members in more detail. Current CLEA members are invited to nominate themselves or other CLEA members as candidates for one of these open positions. The committee also encourages "new clinicians" (defined as clinicians with fewer than 6 years of experience) to run for the CLEA Board. Our Bylaws create a separate election process for candidates identified as "new clinicians," to ensure that the identified "new clinician" candidate who receives the greatest number of votes will be assured a place on the Board.

The Committee strongly encourages CLEA members to nominate individuals from groups that are currently underrepresented within the leadership of various clinical institutions, including CLEA, the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education, and the Clinical Law Review. The nomination process is simple. Nominate yourself or someone else by contacting the chair of the CLEA Elections Committee, Lynnise Pantin, lynnise.pantin@law.columbia.edu. If you are nominating yourself, please include a paragraph or two about why you are running and a link to your faculty profile, which will be included with the election materials to be sent later in the fall. If you are nominating another CLEA member, there is no need to include such a paragraph; the name alone will suffice, and the Elections Committee will contact the nominee for further information. If you have less than six years of clinical teaching experience and wish to be identified as a "new clinician" candidate, or if you want to nominate a candidate for the "new clinician" category, please indicate that as well.

Although the process of nomination is easy, our Bylaws set a strict deadline for receiving nominations. All nominations must be received by October 1, 2020. If you have questions about the CLEA Elections process, please feel free to contact Lynnise Pantin at lynnise.pantin@law.columbia.edu.

--------------------

Why CLEA Exists

The Clinical Legal Education Association is a membership driven organization that serves as a voice for instructors teaching clinic and skills courses, advocating on their behalf both inside and outside of the academy.  It is the largest association of law teachers in the United States.  The mission statement delineates the many purposes of CLEA and can be found here: http://cleaweb.org.  Historically, CLEA can act more quickly and speak more forcefully and on a broader range of issues than other clinical organizations.

The organization engages in community-building activities, co-sponsors the Clinical Law Review, and engages in important advocacy efforts on behalf clinicians as a whole, as well as individual programs challenging political interference with educational activities.   Past board members have advocated to change the ABA’s evaluation of outcomes in the accreditation process, ensuring that clinical outcomes are integrated into new standards.  Others have fought to preserve gains in status won by earlier generations of clinicians.  Many have defended clinics from political attack and interference, most notably in Louisiana, Maryland, and New Jersey.  In addition, the organization continues to monitor and bring to the fore concerns about the racial diversity within clinical legal education.

Board and Committee Activities

The CLEA Board is responsible for the management of the business, affairs and programs of CLEA.  Board meetings take place twice a year, at the AALS Conference in January and at the Clinical Conference in April/May.  Throughout the year, the Board usually meets via conference call a number of times.  Board members are also expected to actively participate in e-mail discussion of various issues. 

In addition to participation in CLEA meetings, Board members are expected to be actively involved in one or more of the CLEA committees.  Currently there are thirteen committees: Website/Communication; Accreditation/Standards (subgroups on Security of Position and Outcome Measures); Best Practices Implementation; Per Diem; Awards; Membership/Outreach; Creative Writing; Elections: Fundraising; Conferences; New Clinicians; Clinics and Law School Rankings; Task Force on Minorities in Clinical Legal Education.  The work of each committee varies.  Some are active all year (Accreditation/Standards) while others are active during particular times each year (Awards, Elections).  Board members are also expected to seek other ways to meet the mission of CLEA, such as being involved in special projects, writing for the CLEA newsletter or website, leading a small group at the CLEA New Clinicians Conference, or other appropriate activities.

If elected, Board members serve for a three-year term and are eligible to run for two consecutive terms if they so desire.

Board Member Responsibilities

Each member of the Board should expect to do at least the following:

• Prepare for and participate actively in each meeting of the board, and keep CLEA leadership informed if unable to do so.
• Participate in the work of at least one standing CLEA committee.
• Stay alert to matters of broad concern among clinicians and raise those concerns within CLEA as appropriate.
• Become informed about matters relating to ABA regulation of legal education and CLEA’s advocacy: ask questions, get answers, be pushy, and figure it out!
• Assist in administrative support for CLEA events, including staffing of dues tables and assistance with the New Clinicians Conference.
• Remain current in CLEA dues, and encourage others at your school and in your region to pay their dues.

It is understood that not all members of the CLEA Board will be able to attend the January meetings at AALS, particularly for those members newly elected (since they will not know the results of the election until mid-December).

We write this call at an unprecedented moment. Streets are filled with protesters rising up in response to horrific and ongoing systemic racism manifested by the continued attack on black and brown lives, and the COVID-19 pandemic has changed our daily reality. This has and will impact our professional and personal lives in critical ways. We are called upon as clinical faculty to reflect on and approach our pedagogy and practice differently. We are in new territory trying to determine the best way to run our clinical programs with the need for all or some of our teaching, services, and advocacy to be delivered remotely. We must re-examine the best way to teach about racial injustice and leverage clinical resources to take action to bring about real, lasting change. With these challenges and the inability to connect in-person, it is our goal to build community, draw on our collective wisdom, and provide a forum for discussion.

The AALS/CLEA Virtual Clinical Conference will be held from Tuesday-Thursday, July 21-23.

The conference will consist of two plenaries, a webinar, asynchronous videos, large group discussions, small group discussions focused on specific topics or within affinity groups, programming sponsored by Clinicians of Color (a committee of the Section), and a final community-building session.

The conference will run during the following times:

(All below times Eastern)

Tuesday, July 21: 12:00pm - 5:00pm

Wednesday, July 22: 12:00 - 6:00pm 

Thursday, July 23: 12:00 pm - 4:30pm 

Registrants can sign up to participate in all or some sessions, and can choose whether to participate in one discussion group and one affinity group discussion per time slot. Registrants need not attend all scheduled sessions of a discussion or affinity group unless otherwise specified.

To see the conference program guide, please click here. 

To register for the conference, please click here.