Law Union Conference

What: Annual Conference
Where: University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario
When: February 27 - February 28
Who: The Law Union of Ontario (the Canadian NLG)
How much: $15CAD
How to get there: megabus.com or carpooling
Where will I stay: The Law Union said they could find us free housing

The Forgotten City

The UB Lawyer’s Guild is proud to present
the award-winning Buffalo documentary:

“THE FORGOTTEN CITY”

A searching discussion of race, violence, crime, and socioeconomics in Buffalo.

Wednesday Nov. 19, 6-8 PM
Room 106, O’Brian Hall

To be followed by a discussion of the film led
by Prof. Carl Nightingale of the Department
of American Studies and the Baldy Center,
and Buffalo civil activist Jim Anderson.

Pizza & pop will be provided.

Bake Sale

The UB Lawyers Guild is changing the world one pastry at a time.

The UB Lawyers Guild Bake Sale

Tuesday November 18
in the O’Brian Lobby

County Budget Press Conference

The Governor and Legislative Leaders Must Include New Revenues and Better Budget Balancing Solutions as They Seek to Address the State’s Fiscal Woes

WHAT: In coordination with groups across NYS, the Partnership for the Public Good (PPG) will call upon Governor Paterson and legislative leaders to formulate a comprehensive approach to budget balancing and fair taxation that enhances New York’s economic future and does not disproportionately impact low-income New Yorkers. PPG is particularly concerned that the Governor’s proposed cuts will be felt on top of the service cuts being advocated by County Executive Chris Collins in his 2009 budget. They will gather to also call upon the County Legislature and Executive to restore funding to vital programs such as the arts and the parks, provide funding to settle union contracts, and seek new solutions to revenue generation.

WHEN:4:30pm November 12, 2008

WHERE: Steps of Erie County Legislature, 92 Franklin St


WHO: Representatives from the PPG’s over 40 non-profit, academic, and serviceorganization partners, as well as union representatives and religious leaders.

Rebellious Lawyers Conference & Law Union Conference

The Law Union of Ontario (basically the Canadian Lawyer's Guild only not
national) is having their annual conference on February 27-28.

The location is being finalized still. If folks want to go, start thinking
about it now. If people can commit early enough (in the next 6 weeks or so)
we can get dirt cheap bus tickets to Toronto ($1 or so) which will be way
cheaper than driving or parking. They'll provide us with free housing. I
don't think the schedule is settled but this is last year's if people want
to take a look. Last year was $10CAD for students for all the panels.

The Rebellious Lawyers Conference is the weekend before at Yale. We can get
free housing there, too. It's early in the semester, so folks may try to do
both, but I imagine most people won't. Just something to think about.

I'll keep people posted on more Law Union stuff. I think this could be a
great relationship for us to develop. I met some of the folks at NLG
conference in Detroit and they're pretty awesome.

Yours,
Rebecca Hoffman

UB Lawyers Guild Newsletter

The UB Lawyers Guild has put together a short newsletter that will be mailed out in the next week to those on our mailing list. A digital version will be posted on our google group, http://groups.google.com/group/university-at-buffalo-lawyers-guild-announcements. If you'd like to be added to either our "announcements" group or our daily business group, please email ublg@googlegroups.com.

The UBLG @ the NLG Conference

On October 9th ten National Lawyers Guild members tore themselves away from their studies at the University at Buffalo to attend the annual NLG conference, which this year was held in Detroit. The group consisted of seven 1Ls, two 2Ls and one 3L. A ten-strong contingent from any school was considered respectable, let alone from such a recently-revived student chapter as Buffalo’s. How was it? In short, a great success. Given the number and variety of things that could have gone wrong but didn’t, the success speaks not only to the caliber and cohesiveness of the members, but also to the incredible support and inspiration provided to us from the NLG.

The content of the panels and workshops was varied and balanced – perhaps surprisingly so in a world made ever more complicated by globalization. The competing interests of undocumented immigrants shared time with the champions of organized labor; panels specific to Michigan such as the high instance of rape of women inmates across the state appeared back to back with global concerns in Palestine; threats to civil liberties were presented in tandem with environmental injustices. Each student initially gravitated towards the issues that brought him or her to law school, but over the course of three days, no one came away without branching out and learning something completely new.

For the 2- and 3Ls who are poised on the verge of practicing law, the conference was a happy reminder of the meaningful roles that lawyers play in social change, social justice. Anna Falicov, the most senior of the group, thought the conference was inspiring and refreshing for these reasons. Rebecca Hoffman, a 2L and an active member of the Working Families Party of Buffalo thoroughly enjoyed hearing labor union leader discuss immigration, the rights of undocumented workers, and the need to unite along class lines. Demian Fernandez, another continuing 2L whose goal is to work towards greater American corporate accountability outside of our borders, took away some much needed guidance from the conference. He reflected that the human perspective – and perhaps more to the point, the human-rights perspective – is largely absent from the law school curriculum. He speaks for many in the group in that he feels more energized and focused after hearing what is actually being done in the field to further social justice everywhere.

For the 1Ls the experience was less of a reinforcement and more of an instance of first impression – a first time seeing such a concentration of people in whom we see manifestations of our fledging social justice aspirations. More concretely, it underscored for us the ‘national’ nature of the NLG. Unlike the other student groups at UB, the conference underscored the fact that the NLG is something that we can be a part of for the rest of our lives, reaping the benefits of the network, and furthering its cause long after we leave law school.

The impressions from the conference and the impressions from Detroit itself cannot be clearly separated in anyone’s mind. The whole group was housed for free in one place thanks to the generosity of a friend of the guild chapter of Detroit – a boon for organizational and bonding purposes. By traversing the city ourselves in order to get to and from the downtown, getting lost a couple times, and being rerouted by Sunday’s marathon, we got to see a substantial cross-section of what was once one of the richest cities in the U.S. turned poorest. Evidence of past wealth starkly contrasted with the multitude of empty lots, abandoned buildings, and homeless people camped out in fields. Granted, coming from the second poorest (financially disadvantaged?) city in the U.S. no single scene was anything new. The extent of the decline, however, seemed more pervasive than in Buffalo since Detroit is larger and more sprawled.
‘Poor’ in the context of Detroit cannot be applied to the city’s cultural offerings nor to its pride. Mike Raleigh, a 1L and native of Buffalo, found the conviction of those who choose to live in the city a heartening characteristic Detroiters share with Buffalonians. He met many like-minded people. Melissa Wischerath, a fellow 1L and also a Buffalo native, felt the people of Detroit among the friendliest ever.

When we were not at the conference center we were walking in Greektown, listening to live jazz at the longest running jazz club in the country, going ‘feather bowling’ (a Detroit past-time rooted in its Belgian immigrant past), riding the People Mover (the closest thing to the Simpson’s monorail we will ever see), admiring the shiny 1950’s GM sports cars on display, dancing the night away at a pub across from the old Lions’ stadium, eating late-night greasy goodness at Detroit’s famous heartburn heaven ‘Coney Island’, doing U-turns in a 12-passenger van, and coming home from a party only to find the party has beaten you there.

I am a 1L. For me the weekend confirmed in my mind that I’ve found an amazing group of people to share my law school experience with. I became excited about the potential we have for the future with so many new recruits. But most importantly, I could have been overwhelmed by the number of fronts the NLG presented in the continuing struggle for equality in the eyes of the law, but I wasn’t – I was convinced that individuals can make a difference. That is, individuals united.

Sara Korol.

PPG Forum: Poverty, Housing, Economic Development

Partnership for the Public Good, Tuesday Forums
Poverty, Housing, Economic Development
Free and Open to the Public
Tuesday, October 21, 2008; 4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Cornell University ILR
237 Main Street, Ste. 1200
Buffalo NY 14203-2719

Seating is limited.
To guarantee a space, please register by sending
an e-mail to Katie Chadwick at klc27@cornell.edu

Join us in a town-hall style meeting with New York State candidates from Erie County.
Panelists will focus the discussion on the topics of poverty, housing and economic development.
Moderator: Bill O’Connell, Esq.; Homeless Alliance
Panelists: Aaron Bartley, Esq.; PUSH Buffalo
Mark Dunlea, Hunger Action Network

The Partnership for the Public Good is a new project of the Coalition for Economic Justice (CEJ). CEJ has joined with more than forty other community focused groups and businesses around common principles of revitalization and a common platform for progress in 2008. To learn more about PPG and sign on to be a supporter, visit http://ppgbuffalo.wikispaces.com.

NLG Convention 2008

The NLG 2008 Conference is right around the corner, starting 10/15 and ending 10/19. If you are interested in attending, visit nlg.org to reserve a place (and to receive a better rate, first become a member). If you'll need housing in Detroit, let post on the GoogleGroup as soon as possible, as housing is limited and there are deadlines. There are some terrific workshops and there are a number of excellent major panels this year, featuring many amazing speakers.

Labor Renewal: Fighting for the Future of Work
The panel will examine developing strategies within the labor movement that are generating opportunities for labor renewal, explore initiatives within AFL-CIO and Change To Win unions and discuss opportunities for building broader worker solidarity in the United States in the face of ongoing national and global attacks against organized labor. Invited speakers include Bill Fletcher, Cindy Estrada, and Sandy Pope.

Alternatives to Prison Proliferation
The development of the prison-industrial complex and the racism, classism, and other problems associated with it have been a major issue for the National Lawyers Guild and other progressive organizations. What are the alternatives to putting people in prison? This panel will feature three speakers on the following subjects: drug courts as an alternative, harm reduction, and strategies to shift spending to public services.

Legal and Political Strategies to Support the Liberation of Palestine
The nature of support for Palestine, and the movement to condemn Zionism as a form of racism, has been at the center of many NLG discussions. This panel seeks to build on that work, particularly in light of the 60 year anniversary of the Nakba, and propose concrete legal strategies for dismantling the Zionist occupation and ending the genocide. In addition, many NLG members are looking for concrete ways to support Palestine solidarity work. This panel helps provide strategies, such as legal support for a comprehensive boycott of Israel, expelling Israel from the United Nations and other measures in the international arena, litigating against Israel and Israeli officials for genocide, use of Israel’s human rights violations to aid asylum seekers in the U.S., addressing movement building in the U.S., dealing with internalized Zionism and prioritizing the voices of Palestinians, litigation in Israel’s courts by Palestinian organizations.

Transgender Constituency Panel
This panel will focus on the different legal and non-legal tactics that are being used around the country to help ensure that all people are able to have their legal documents reflect their gender identity. Depending on what state a person resides in or is born in, this can be accomplished through a court order, a legal change on a birth certificate or other measures. Most of these measures require some form of a surgical standard to allow for a legal change in gender. Lawyers, legal workers and organizers have been working in different ways to try and change standards that often create barriers for people to legally change their gender. From campaigns to change surgical standards required for gender changes on birth certificate to court room battles to obtain court orders changing a person’s gender, different strategies are being utilized all over the country to accomplish common goals. This panel will explore the successes and setbacks that have occurred as well as the pros and cons of the different tactics that lawyers, organizers and legal workers have used when assisting people and working to change policies around the legalization of gender.

Displacement and Occupation of Our Inner Cities: Understanding Post-Fascist Amerikkka
People living in inner-cities areas are being squeezed out. With “white flight” in reverse, poor people and people of color are forced out of desirable downtown city-areas. This panel will explore the ways that city and county governments are working with private developers, business interests, and the police to achieve these ends. The panel will also explore the legal tools attorneys and activists are using to combat these forces.

Hearing from the Arab, Muslim and Middle Eastern Communities of Metro Detroit
Metro Detroit has the largest Arab, Muslim and Middle Eastern population in the U.S. The 2008 NLG convention in Detroit provides a unique opportunity for Guild members to learn about the issues of concern to these communities and how we can support activists working to address those problems. Since 9/11 Middle Easterners have been heavily targeted by law enforcement agencies at all levels. These largely ineffective efforts have had devastating effects on these communities including secret detentions, disrupted families, frustration of religious obligations (e.g. annual contribution to Islamic charity) and weakening of social bonds. Speakers include activist lawyer Nabih Ayad, ADC National Board Member and the MI Advisory Board Chairman, Shahid Buttar of Muslim Advocates and the Pakistan Justice Coalition and others.

Eve Ensler, the American playwright, performer, feminist and activist best known for 'The Vagina Monologues', wrote the following about Sarah Palin

Drill, Drill, Drill
I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.

I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.

But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, 'It was a task from God.'

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.

She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.

Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.

Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.

I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.

If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, 'Drill Drill Drill.' I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.

Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?

Eve Ensler
September 5, 2008

Resolution to the Resolution

The referendum is in. You can find the results to the right of the screen.

The votes indicate that location was not the deciding factor in students attending UB, but students would have preferred a city location to an Amherst one, and would have much preferred a BNMC location over other city locations. So according to students, they would have been roughly equally likely to attend UB regardless of location, but surmise that they would have had more benefit and enjoyment from their law school experience at a Downtown location.

Law school need not be a cold, institutional experience. It can and should be a vibrant and independent experience providing both academic and practical knowledge, and can and should interrelate with the larger legal community which would, in theory, benefit the school and community alike. The response from the student body was a resounding approval of these ideals.

Saturday. Keep it open.

Keep a clean slate this Saturday afternoon & evening, as a Buffalo mainstay & an up-and-coming event take precedent. The Whiskerino Pageant & the Progressive Pub Crawl are on the docket.

Next Saturday, April 19th, is the First Annual Mustache Pageant. Growers will be competing for "Mustache King" along with other prizes. Some of our region-renowned Roller Girls will be present to judge, and ultimately shave the mustaches. Hair will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. It takes place at Gordon's Pub (Delaware Ave--just south of Hertel). A $10 minimum donation is requested, with all proceeds going to Compass House. Please stop by if you can. The judging and pageant will take place around 7. Doors will open around 4. Keep in mind that a certain fellow Guildmember will be sporting a mustache he has dubbed "Thin Lizzy," which puts Adam Morrison (and only Adam Morrison) to shame.

& don't think that the party ends here! Ohhh, not by a long shot, Kemosabe. Wear comfortable shoes, 'cause it's gonna be a marathon.

The Progressive Pub Crawl continues its trek across Allentown. Some give it the moniker "Pub Stall" for its lack of mobility. But, when you look at the big picture, it has slowly crawled across the neighborhood lo these many months, one bar at a time. Check back for its as yet to be determined location. Good times, good drinks, good conversation, and a guarantee that Kirk will sing a sea shanty.

Law School Relocation Resolution Forum & Referendum

To date, no group of law students and/or faculty have had any involvement in the UB2020 process. Last week, the Student Bar Association passed a resolution expressing support for student involvement in the planning process. SBA members were reluctant to support resolutions supporting a move of the law school to within the city limits or to Downtown, at least until the student body has a chance to voice their opinion. There will be an opportunity to voice opinions on April 10th at 4 Pm in O'Brian 106, at a forum designed to hash out the issues related to the move. A referendum will be held April 16th & 17th (during SBA Executive Board elections) to determine that opinion. Current law students should most certainly vote on the E-Board elections, in addition to voting on the Law School Relocation Referendum.
The three apparent possible destinations would be Downtown (BNMC, CBD, etc.), South Campus (as part of a shift of UB's graduate programs to that campus), or to North Campus' Center for Tomorrow parking lot. It seems likely that O'Brian Hall is out, and will become home to undergraduate studies.
North Campus is the least accessible and least physically attractive option. As part of further development on North, it would simply be a part of an expanded campus which already has the appearance of a '60s Eastern Bloc factory complex. The only benefits North provides over South and Downtown relate to a discomfort some have with an urban setting. This would include safety, a lack of access to mall shopping and chain dining, a lack of bedroom communities etc. While this may disquiet some, most law students bemoan the fact that North Campus is so divided from the Metro community.
A move to South Campus, along with a move of the majority of graduate studies at UB, would also be a positive step. The law school would retain its ability to crosslist classes & continue to facilate dual degree programs. South Campus is objectively more attractive than North, is on the trainline, is home to a more mature group of students (save the residence halls), and is incorporated into an actual neighborhood, instead of being segregated by an arterial road. There is ample space on South to build upon, including space for on-campus apartments & townhouses dedicated to graduate students. Also, contrary to popular belief, there are some habitable houses in the Heights not adjacent to pseudo-frat houses, and armed robbery is not a daily occurrence.
A Downtown location would offer a more practical approach to the law, with proximity to courts, law offices and financial institutions, as well as volunteer & non-traditional progressive opportunities. It would create a tighter bond between the law school and the greater community. It would be more attractive to prospective students. By placing the school in a highway, busline, and rail accessible central location, it would decrease travel time & have less of a net negative effect on the environment. In addition, there are the benefits that would be seen by the city, compared to the benefits now gained by an already overdeveloped Amherst. The calls against such a move center on less connection with the greater university, the possibility of a more practical & less academic approach to legal education, and a perceived lack of housing, parking, and safety. The first point may well be true, the second would remain to be seen, and as for the third, well, Bob Shibley is a smart man & I'm sure he could put something together.
Again, there will be an opportunity to voice opinions on April 10th at 4 Pm in O'Brian 106, at a forum designed to hash out the issues related to the move, and the referendum will be held April 16th & 17th. Please attend the forum if you can and vote on the referendum. Be heard. Also, feel free to comment to this post.

Steve Marshall, UB JD Candidate '09

Legal Obervation Training

Legal Observation Training with Charlie Cobb on April 26th at 281 Grant St.

This Legal Observation training is designed to teach law students, lawyers and other interested individuals how to observe people expressing political views in a way that protects and ensures their constitutional rights. The Guild is known for its visible presence of legal observers at large marches and protests (Guild Legal Observers often wear a neon green hat). Charlie Cobb, former director of the WNY Peace Center, graduate of UB and current attorney at Cantor, Lukasik, Dolce and Panepinto, will lead this 2 hour training at the Massachusetts Ave. Project at 281 Grant St. Food and drink will be provided.

Mr. Cobb will cover legal observation at mass protests -- such as those that will take place at the Republican National Convention this summer-- and observation at smaller, more local events. If you are interested in attending, please RSVP to ublg@gmail.com.

Join the National Lawyers Guild

For 15 bucks, students can become a part of a national network of progressive public interest lawyers, law students and legal workers. Your membership gets you several great newsletters, email updates (if you wish), a very handy directory of all NLG members, and membership in the Buffalo city chapter

There is a sliding scale membership fees for attorneys and non-students. If you are an attorney, your fee gets you listed in the directory. Join online at www.nlg.org.

Meet & Greet a Hit!

It's true. The Meet & Greet was no one hit wonder. This year's event was bigger & better than the last's, as hard as that may be to believe. Turnout from lawyers, political figures, community members, and law students was simply tremendous. An anonymous bemulleted gentleman circulated through the room, adding an air of mystery that truly capped the evening. Plans for the 3rd annual Meet & Greet are already in the works, but as our defining event of the year, it demands a bigger space, more food, more drink, more mullets etc. We've set the bar high, but a new era for the Guild demands a new look for the Meet & Greet.

2d Annual Meet & Greet!

The UB Lawyers Guild is pleased to offer our second annual "Meet and Greet."

Please join us again for complimentary beer, wine and food, and for an opportunity to meet some of the area's most progressive community members.

Last year's event was a huge success, with over 100 students, attorneys, elected officials, legal workers and non-profit leaders in attendance.

The goals of the event are to connect students to non-profit organizations and political campaigns, foster a progressive legal community in Buffalo, and to build the National Lawyers Guild Buffalo Student & City Chapters.

[The SBA reminds law students to drink responsibly. The Lawyers Guild reminds law students to love like you've never been hurt & to dance like no one is watching.]