2004 Summer Brown Bag Series in Public Interest Law
Hosted by The Legal Aid Society - Employment Law Center
Co-sponsored by the Asian American Bar Association - Civil Rights Committee

Tuesdays from 12:00 - 1:30 p.m.
At the Offices of The LAS-ELC
600 Harrison Street (at 2nd Street), Suite 120, San Francisco, CA 94107
Phone: 415-864-8848
TTY: 415-593-0091

Join us for these informal presentations on a wide variety of current issues in public interest law. Feel free to bring your own lunch. Light refreshments will be provided.

The Legal Aid Society - Employment Law Center is a California MCLE Approved Provider. Each session is approved for 1.5 hours of MCLE credit. All presentations are free and open to the public.

ASL interpreting or captioning provided upon request. Please give four business days' notice.


JUNE 15
The Fight for Same-Sex Marriage (San Francisco-style!)
Molly McKay, Executive Director, Marriage Equality California
Shannon Minter, Legal Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights
Therese Stewart, Chief Deputy City Attorney, Office of the San Francisco City Attorney

The past year has seen breathtaking victories in the battle for same-sex marriage rights in the United States, with San Francisco at the forefront of the action and debate. This panel will review the status of legal and political struggles for equal marriage rights in California and elsewhere, and look ahead to future strategies and battlegrounds. Molly McKay is a longtime marriage rights activist who will discuss grassroots organizing around legal and legislative initiatives to end marriage discrimination. Shannon Minter and the National Center for Lesbian Rights represent plaintiffs who were denied the chance to marry after the California Supreme Court ordered San Francisco to stop issuing licenses to same-sex couples. Chief Deputy City Attorney Therese Stewart spearheads San Francisco's defense of its authority to issue licenses to same-sex couples, arguing that the state statutes banning such unions are unconstitutional.

JUNE 22
Brown @ 50: The Continuing Struggle for Educational Equity
John Affeldt, Managing Attorney, Public Advocates, Inc.
Linda Darling-Hammond, Professor of Education, Stanford University
Goodwin Liu, Acting Professor of Law, Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley

In the 50 years since the Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education, many legal battles have been fought over whether and how to integrate public school systems. Although many have questioned the success of efforts to implement the Court's integration mandate, no one questions the need for continuing efforts to advance another, perhaps implicit goal of Brown: ensuring quality education for all children. This panel examines whether public school integration in the United States has achieved this goal, and what legal approaches have been tried or should be tried to achieve it. John Affeldt is a Managing Attorney at Public Advocates, Inc., lead counsel in Williams v. State of California, a class action lawsuit alleging that deteriorating conditions in California's public schools violate the state constitution. Professor Linda Darling-Hammond is a nationally-recognized expert in educational reform; her research has analyzed the effects of unequal funding of schools on the children in rich and poor communities. Professor Goodwin Liu has written and published widely on Brown and its progeny; in addition to teaching at Boalt Hall, he serves on the boards of the American Constitutional Society and Chinese for Affirmative Action.

JUNE 29
Shrinking World: The Effects of Globalization on Human Rights
Gerald Gray, Program Manager, Center for Survivors of Torture
Antonia Juhasz, Program Director, International Forum on Globalization
Stephen Knight, Coordinating Attorney, Center for Gender and Refugee Studies
Kavitha Sreeharsha, Staff Attorney, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach

While globalization has done much to increase international commerce and generate revenue for the world's economic super powers, the toll it has taken on the local economies and indigenous cultures of developing nations has been devastating. The expansion of global markets has given rise to growing trends of human rights abuses around the world, from the exploitation of low-wage workers in South America to war crimes in the Middle East to the trafficking of humans everywhere. This panel will examine the impact of economic globalization on international human rights. Antonia Juhasz, director of several programs at IFG addressing corporate and military globalization, the privatization of water, and alternatives to globalization, will discuss the effects of globalization on the environment, labor, and women's rights. Kavitha Sreeharsha will talk about the growing rates and legal efforts to stop human trafficking: the movement of people, often through violence, deception, or coercion, for the purpose of forced labor or slavery-like practices. Gerald Gray, LCSW, MPH, will expand on the recent controversy over war crimes in Iraq with information about the psychological effects of torture and the social services and legal recourse available to survivors of human rights violations. Stephen Knight will talk about legal innovations to help refugees and victims of trafficking and violence seeking asylum in the U.S.

JULY 6
Lights, Camera, Ethics: Representations of the Law in Film and Television
John Denvir, Professor, University of San Francisco School of Law
Rob Waring, Adjunct Professor, University of San Francisco School of Law

While the real life practice of law never quite matches the cinematic depictions of law in television and film, pop culture mediums provide a unique opportunity to take a step back and examine some of the issues and situations encountered by lawyers from a more philosophical perspective. Drawing on clips from popular movies and TV shows, such as Changing Lanes, The Verdict, and others, this panel will examine some of the ethical dilemmas attorneys face every day. Rob Waring and John Denvir, active contributors to Picturing Justice: the Online Journal of Law and Popular Culture and professors at USF School of Law, will lead a discussion of issues such as: clients who lie; confidentiality of attorney-client communications; supervising partners giving junior associates unethical orders; and, the ever-popular conflicts arising from attorneys sleeping with their clients. (Approved for 1.5 hours of MCLE Ethics Credit.)

JULY 13
Election 2004: Analysis and Predictions
Jeffrey Bleich, Partner, Munger, Tolles & Olson
Anne Voigts, Associate, Munger, Tolles & Olson
Linda Kilb, Attorney, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
Gretchen Godfrey, Legal Intern, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund

With the Democratic and Republican Conventions taking place this summer and the 2004 election just months away, our panel will discuss issues that are on everyone's mind: who will John Kerry pick as the Vice-Presidential nominee, who will be the winner in November, and, this time, will we actually know in November? Our panel also will discuss the impact of campaign finance reform as well as the role of technology in this year's race. Representatives from DREDF will discuss their lawsuit to require the implementation of electronic voting throughout California in time for the election.

JULY 20
Our Future, Our Voices: Youth Participation in Advocacy
Marlene Sanchez, Program Director, Center for Young Women's Development
Abigail Trillin, Staff Attorney, Legal Services for Children
Sherry Wise, Education Director, Family Violence Law Center

For any social justice movement to be successful, it is crucial that the perspectives and participation of the targeted constituency be included in advocacy efforts conducted on its behalf. Progress in youth activism is steadily growing as a result of the inclusion of young people's voices in addressing youth violence, education, drugs, environmental and juvenile justice, and other issues. Members of this panel will discuss how, with the help of youth activists, their youth advocacy programs have evolved in identifying and responding to the needs of young people. Sherry Wise will discuss her work directing the Relationship Abuse Prevention (R.A.P.) Program, which involves young people as counselors, public speakers, and lobbyists in educating their peers and elected representatives about the effects of family violence on youth. Marlene Sanchez of the Center for Young Women's Development, whose staff is comprised of women 26 years old and under, will talk about the issues facing young women in the juvenile and criminal justice systems and CYWD's peer-based services for high-risk, no- and low-income women. Abigail Trillin will explain the legal resources and remedies available to undocumented youth fleeing abuse or neglect, youth dealing with foster care and legal guardianship issues, and youth facing school expulsion, criminal incarceration, or detainment.

JULY 27
Supreme Court Review: Analysis and Discussion of the 2004 Term Decisions
Vikram Amar, Professor, UC Hastings College of the Law
Linda Lye, Attorney, Altshuler, Berzon, Nussbaum, Rubin & Demain

Cases this term have focused on issues ranging from the reference to "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002. Other crucial issues from the docket include: whether Vice President Cheney can invoke executive privilege with regard to the deliberations of the National Energy Policy Development Group (and whether Justice Scalia should have recused himself from the case), whether the Eleventh Amendment protects states from lawsuits for damages under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, whether detainees at Guantanamo Bay have the right to legal representation, and whether Jose Padilla can be held as an "enemy combatant." Vikram Amar and Linda Lye will review the facts and law underlying these and other cases making up the current Supreme Court term. Both will call upon their experiences as former Supreme Court clerks to further explain the Court's decisions and offer analysis regarding the effects of these decisions on future litigation and legislation.

For further information about the speaker series or building accessibility, please contact
April Dembosky at adembosky@las-elc.org.