Legal academics possess a formidable, if not wholly documented, tradition of community engagement. Some law professors come to community engagement from a background of teaching and practice. Others first found their bearings in careers like community organizing before they came to law teaching and scholarship. Whatever the journey, the active presence of law professors in communities carries tremendous power.
Although law professors are ensconced in the “ivory tower,” they also function as part of the larger community. Law professors are civilians, but their legal training and knowledge provides them with both perceived and real power. For centuries, law professors have engaged the community by exercising their power in a variety of ways. For instance, law professors have contributed to the community by running legal clinics since perhaps the early 1900’s. By the 1960’s, such contributions were widespread because law clinics rapidly emerged at law schools nationwide and were regularly taking up the issues of their communities. Today, law professors engage with communities for manifold purposes, such as fostering participatory democracy, engaging in community lawyering, making film documentaries, continuing the tradition of developing legal clinics, participating in local politics and philanthropy, organizing community conferences, and conducting empirical research.
This discussion group will address the ethics, practice, and challenges of law professors’ community engagement in light of their role as civilians and their power as lawyers. These dual roles and dynamics raise questions of class, power, and voice in community engagement. They also raise questions regarding the impact of race, gender, ability, sexuality, and other identity characteristics and experiences on individual law professors’ efforts to engage the communities they struggle for and serve. In essence, this discussion group asks: How does the law professor’s liminal status influence his or her community engagement, and how should it?
The specific questions that this discussion group will address include: What is “the community,” and how do law professors find it? What are the building blocks of an ethics of community engagement? What sources can law professors draw from in engaging their communities? What is the role of law professors engaging with community--participant or observer, conduit for community voice and facilitator, or organizer and activist--and how might they tackle the tensions between these roles? How do law schools recognize the community engagement of law professors? Is it considered part of their teaching, service, or scholarship? Do law professors enhance or jeopardize their careers by engaging with the community?
The participants of this Discussion Group consist of a mix of individuals identified in the original proposal and individuals selected from a call for participation. Attendees who are not formal participants, are welcome to attend the Discussion Group, although space is limited. The moderator may open the discussion to include attendees at some point during the session.