Track 2: Is there Room for Racial Justice, Truth and Equality in the New Normal?

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Session Type: AALS Programs

Session Capacity: N/A

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Legal
education is in an intense period of rethinking given economic challenges and
new demands from today’s graduates and the legal market they are entering. Schools
are trying to meet the ABA guidelines while prioritizing job placement for
students and demands from students, donors, alums and University
administration. With all of this reorientation and rethinking, vulnerable
populations may be overlooked – in the community, our student bodies and
faculty – now more than ever. This is particularly problematic in light of
recent events in places like Ferguson. This panel is concerned with how
questions of racial justice and equality, in particular, may be the first victims
of this “new normal.”
The
panel will address a number of questions, including:
·How
do we as a clinical community lift the voices and concerns of these populations
while grappling with realities of the economy and legal market?
·How
do we as clinicians deal with the pressure to “sell” our programs when they may
not be, particularly now, delivering services consistent with their original
vision?
·When
we are talking about “costs” associated with legal education, what do we really
mean?
·Do
we have an additional responsibility to be more explicit with our racial
justice advocacy given the current times?; if so, how?
Through small group
dialogues, we expect participants to further develop their consciousness around
these issues and take away some tips of ways to effectively address these
issues. We will generate a list of “best practices” and a working document
and/or working group that we hope will continue well beyond the conference