Equal Justice Society News - Newsletter Summer 2007 - EJS Scholar Advocate Program Launches at Boalt and Hawai'i Law Schools

On March 21, 2007, at the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, a team of emerging "Scholar-Advocates" translated critical legal theory insights about law and (in)justice into strategies for frontline advocacy.

The panel in Berkeley was the inaugural event of the Equal Justice Society's Scholar-Advocate pilot program at the University of Hawai`i Law School, and was sponsored by the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice, Boalt Hall School of Law. The panel was moderated by EJS board member Professor Eric Yamamoto, the lead educator for the innovative Hawai`i program, and in Berkeley as the Henderson Center's Spring Scholar-in-Residence.

Conservative groups have over the last 20 years successfully fueled a retreat from social justice through the melding of theory, policy and frontline legal and political action with well-funded and well-coordinated think tanks, advocacy groups, law schools, and media. Progressive scholars and organizations are now coordinating their work to develop new advances in theory that can be translated into policy initiatives and strategies for frontline lawyers and activists.

The Scholar-Advocate program aims to accelerate this process by training law students and recent graduates as cutting-edge progressive legal scholars who can contribute immediately to justice advocacy on the ground.

Since its inception, EJS has sought to engage law professors and students in a coordinated affiliation focused on research and advocacy for racial justice. In 2004, Prof. Yamamoto and former EJS research director Susan Serrano (now Director, Educational Development Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law at the University of Hawai'i law school), designed this new program. EJS’s Director of Law and Policy, Kimberly Thomas Rapp, now spearheads the Scholar-Advocate program.

In the summer of 2006, EJS initiated a conversation with Simona Farrise of the law firm of Kazan, McClain, Abrams, Fernandez, Lyons & Farrise about creating a model program at several law schools. Thanks to her and the generosity of all the partners in the firm and Merilyn Wong, the executive director of the law firm's foundation, a grant was provided to EJS to launch the program at the University of Hawai'i and the Henderson Center for Social Justice at Boalt Law School. Professor Yamamoto and Professor Mary Louise Frampton agreed to serve as the faculty facilitators at their respective campuses.

The panelists at the March 21 program spoke about their training as developing Scholar-Advocates in the context of their substantive work on fashioning new remedies for injustice. Prof. Yamamoto and Serrano were joined by Sandra Kim, a third-year law student at the University of Hawai‘i Law School and a former Patsy Mink Congressional Justice Fellow, and Iokona Baker, a Post-Juris Doctor Research Fellow in the Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law.

Kim, our first EJS Scholar-Advocate, spoke eloquently on the intersection of race and gender in reparations cases. She reminded a standing room only crowd of Boalt students of the failed Tuskogee syphilis experiment and the formal apology issued during the Clinton administration. She then pointed out that to this day there has been no mention of the wives and children of those men who also suffered great harm. An edited version of Professor Yamamoto’s introduction and Ms. Kim’s speech can be heard at http://equaljusticesociety.org/research.html

The need for scholar-advocates

Mentoring and training progressive scholar-advocates is critical to counter the calculated right-wing assault on civil rights and achieve our progressive vision for America. Training students and recent graduates to do critical legal analysis, develop new legal theories, work with social scientists and media personnel, and interact with frontline civil rights advocates is an essential element of our strategic plan towards achieving lasting change in our society.

Neoconservatives have been successful implementing their strategic plan, devised during the Reagan era, to get a stronghold on our judicial system. The additions of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court are examples of this plan in action. Efforts to overtake the circuit courts and even state courts are well underway. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the erosion of our public school system and the virtual elimination of social programs, we can see notions of federalism, elitism and social divisions at work. While the list goes on, EJS and allies in the progressive community are engaged in tactical efforts to thwart neoconservative success. However, we cannot afford to be shortsighted strategically while acting tactically.

Our future depends on the achievement of incremental steps towards long-term sustainable change to reach our vision. Training Scholar Advocates is essential because current investments in student development not only contribute to present tactics, but also creates a rich pool of future resources for strategic placement to implement long-term strategies.

Our goal, through the Scholar-Advocates program, is to reinforce the foundations of our progressive movement by helping students become scholar-activists. Such training will enable students to then help, for example, do the kind of “intent doctrine” theory work that translates into frontline strategy and action. Training these students and recent graduates to do this kind of sophisticated work will enable them to make major contributions immediately out of law school and respond to the kind of training facilitated by organizations like the Federalist Society. It also will help long-term to generate the scholar-activists sorely needed in our progressive community to craft and implement laws and policies.

With support from EJS and its allies, these students will likely become sustaining and active members in our community – supporting current outstanding advocacy efforts and helping EJS more fully do the kind of theory-to-practice work necessary to achieve lasting change. Through research, litigation and public education, EJS is prepared to fully integrate students into our strategic efforts to counter neoconservative jurists and legislatures seeking to rewind the clock on important civil rights advancements, limit remedies, and impede access to courts.

Later this fall, research by scholar-advocates at Boalt Law School will help prepare a Symposium on the Intent Doctrine co-sponsored by the Henderson Center and EJS.

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