Publication Date
1-1-2016
Document Type
Article
Organizational Units
Sturm College of Law
Keywords
Legal training, Low-income communities, Law and race, Social change
Abstract
This article presents a critical reflection on the disconnect between conventional legal training and the skills needed by lawyers to support low-income communities of color, among others, in addressing U.S. systems of oppression. It is intended to assist aspiring “movement lawyers” in developing their capacity to align their strategic and tactical decision-making with the power dynamics faced by the communities they serve. It offers some analytical tools and strategic resources – including the “Social Change Power Meter” – and provides a case study of the national movement to dismantle the “school-to-prison pipeline,” in which lawyers played a critical supporting role in addressing the overuse of out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, referrals to alternative schools, school-based arrests, and other school referrals to the juvenile justice system.
Publication Statement
Copyright held by the authors. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Originally published as Alexi Nunn Freeman and Jim Freeman, It’s About Power, Not Policy: Movement Lawyering for Large-Scale Social Change, 23(1) Clinical L. Rev. 147 (2016).
Recommended Citation
Alexi Nunn Freeman and Jim Freeman, It’s About Power, Not Policy: Movement Lawyering for Large-Scale Social Change, 23(1) Clinical L. Rev. 147 (2016).