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.
