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PANELS

    *Excited about RebLaw, but feel like something is missing?  Have an     idea about a perfect addition to the schedule?  The COMMUNITY         ROOM is the place for you.


Strategic Lawyering for Collective Entities: Models, Methods and Movement Building


This panel will look at the questions and opportunities that arise as public interest lawyers increasingly experiment with new models of lawyering that involve representing groups and communities.  These models seek to overcome some of the shortcomings of traditional lawyering and achieve greater structural and personal transformation in low-income communities.  Questions that will be addressed include: What kind of lawyering can initiate, further, or impede organizing efforts? Which lawyering models ensure that legal action is accountable to social movement priorities? When representing groups, who decides who the client is and who speaks on behalf of their interests? And can group representation level the balance of power between the lawyer and the client?


Mobilizing for Sexual and Reproductive Justice


This panel will discuss the diverse ways in which attorneys and activists mobilize to protect women’s access to sexual and reproductive freedom, including legal challenges to laws restricting women’s access to abortions, standing up for victims of sex trafficking, and legislating to protect women’s rights.  The panelists will address the prolific rise of legislation seeking to limit women’s access to abortion services, describe efforts to provide full and truthful information to women regarding their sexual and reproductive health, and discuss their efforts to protect women from sexual and workplace exploitation. The panel will address constitutional and state protections for women’s rights as well as proposed legal and non-legal strategies.


Kids Behind Bars: Reforming the Juvenile Justice System


Drawing on efforts in various states, the panelists will discuss the limits and possibilities of diverse methods of reform, including different approaches to direct representation, model programs, statewide commissions, and efforts to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline.  The panelists will also discuss how other systems, like child welfare and primary and secondary schools, impact and are impacted by the juvenile justice system. Panelists will further address how law students can become involved in efforts to reform the juvenile justice system.


Organizing the 99%: Can Lawyers Build Worker Power in the Labor Movement? 


Given the current legal impediments to union organizing and the rise in economic inequality, what is the role of the lawyer in building a progressive and worker-centered labor movement? How does the work of the labor lawyer intersect with that of organizers and rank-and-file workers, and what are the challenges that arise? This panel will discuss the relationship between legal and organizing strategies through case studies of service worker organizing campaigns, including right here at Yale.  Panelists will discuss how lawyers can (and can’t) help improve the organizing environment and work towards a vision of strong member-driven unions.

Confronting Big Food

Thirty years ago, lawyers confronted Big Tobacco's abuse of human health. Today, Big Food - agribusiness corporations that dominate America's food supply - are mistreating workers, polluting land, and abusing animals. Join three lawyers who are fighting back. Discuss tactics with them - from litigation and lobbying to negotiation and certification schemes. And learn how you too can confront big food.


Crime, But Not Punishment: Transformative Justice as an Alternative to Criminal Prosecution in Domestic & International Contexts


As the prison population continues to rise in the U.S. and around the world, there is a growing movement to address crime and build stronger communities through solutions that place power in the hands of those most affected. This panel will explore innovative strategies designed to involve victims, offenders, and impacted communities in transformative justice processes to promote repair, reconciliation and rebuilding. Rather than relying solely on the law and criminal legal systems to deter and punish crime, transformative justice initiatives encourage offenders to take responsibility for their actions and to work with those they have harmed in participant-directed healing processes. Panelists will address the use of transformative justice initiatives to address violent crime in a variety of contexts, both domestically and abroad and in both one-on-one instances of harm and in broader conflicts where violence is large-scale or systemic. Panelists will explain core features of transformative justice initiatives, provide examples of successful models, explore the relationship between transformative justice initiatives and traditional models of criminal legal prosecution, and address the challenges of building effective processes for promoting both progress and accountability.

Sovereignty & Survival: Indigenous Perspectives on Federal Law & Policy

The majority of law students are unlikely to pursue a career practicing law in Indian Country; yet everyone who helps author, pass, or practice United States law and policy will interact with the integral idea that Indigenous peoples of this continent are sovereign communities. This panel strives to bring clarity to what that sovereignty means, both as an abstract idea and as a concrete reality shaping people’s lives and autonomous movement in the world. Speakers will address the complex realities of sovereignty – the cultural context it arises from and has shaped, the vital resistance and forms of survival it nourishes, and the governmental interplay around particular decisions made in Tribal court systems  – from their own personal, political perspectives. This panel is organized by the Population & Development (PopDev) Program at Hampshire College.

Fighting the Monopoly on Medicine: Intellectual Property Rights, the TRIPS Agreement, and the Novartis Case


This panel will examine the ways in which intellectual property rights law affects access to medications across the globe. Specifically, the panel will discuss the Indian Novartis case and the practice of patent evergreening. The outcome of this case will have a pivotal impact on not only the availability of medications in India, but also the interpretation of the TRIPS agreement across the world. If the Supreme Court finds that the Indian Patent Act does not violate the TRIPS agreement, the case will provide significant support for the proposition that TRIPS signatories can outlaw the practice of patent evergreening in their countries. The affordability and therefore accessibility of many life-saving medications hinges on the outcome of this case. The panel will also examine how patent quality affects the price and availability of medication in the United States.


Race & Voting: Invented Obstacles to Black Participation


A large number of traditionally vulnerable groups will not have the IDs required by the wave of restrictive Voter ID laws being passed all over the US this year in many state legislatures.  This attempted suppression can be related to other types of Voter Suppression, such as Felon Disenfranchisement, redistricting that disempowers community efficacy (including "prison-gerrymandering" where inmates are counted in the districts where they are incarcerated), and efforts to stifle community organizing around voting mobilization (e.g. Acorn).  We will explore ways in which black and brown voters are systematically frustrated in their attempt to participate in US democracy.


Access to Justice: Understanding the Public Interest Job Market of Today and Envisioning an Alternative for Tomorrow


This session will examine how the public interest job market is currently structured and financed, and will invite all participants to articulate a new vision for ensuring access to justice. We will learn the basics about how this market works, and will hear about the key legal and political struggles to expand job opportunities and access to justice. We will then hear from several public interest lawyers at various stages in their careers, who will talk about how these issues have impacted their professional choices and public interest practice. All are invited to participate, especially to describe how the limited supply of public interest jobs affects students at their schools.


Building the Alternative Public Interest Job Market (Follow-up to Access to Justice) 


We will continue the conversation over lunch and create a network of students across different law schools who want to continue to engage with these issues and push for policies to expand the public interest bar after RebLaw. We will lay the groundwork for ongoing conversations across law schools, in order to address systemic barriers to equal justice.

Prisoner Re-entry and Rebuilding Healthy Communities 

This panel will discuss barriers to successful reentry that are commonly faced after conviction and incarceration, as well as practical and aspirational models for rehabilitative reintegration. In addressing these issues, panelists will describe their efforts within the current system to support those formerly incarcerated as they rebuild their lives through expanding access to housing, educational programs, job training, and community alliances. Panelists will further address how law students can become involved in legal advocacy to minimize the collateral consequences of conviction and imprisonment, reduce recidivism rates, and develop innovative solutions for the many challenges faced upon release.


Wal-Mart v. Dukes and the Future of Aggregate Claims

 The panel will focus on recent changes in the laws governing class actions, including the Wal-Mart v. Dukes decision, and describe how the plaintiff’s bar has responded. The panel will also explore the kinds of substantive claims that can still succeed as class actions, and shed light on alternative methods of aggregation.

Lawyering Across Borders: Transnational Labor in a Globalizing World

Multinational corporations, from Apple to Walmart, have figured out how to move goods and capital around the world, using the forces of globalization and free trade to their advantage. Yet, those fighting with the poor and working classes are only just beginning to figure out how to work together across borders and be more effective in the midst of globalized supply chains, increased migration, and new technologies. Drawing on the experiences of three panelists, from New Orleans, Mexico City, and New Delhi, this panel explores the necessity of cross-border collaboration and how to work effectively across geographic borders to to build a transnational labor movement. (Co-Sponsored by the Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies at the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Areas Studies with funding from the U.S. Department of Education under HEA Title VI for international, area, and foreign language studies.)

The Politics of Truth and Documentation in Transnational Sexual Rights Advocacy

Activists working on LGBT issues globally face intense pressure from journalists, governments, and legal practitioners to produce accurate information about incidents as they occur. This panel will focus on the unique challenges of documenting, verifying, and acting upon information about human rights violations against LGBT people transnationally. Panelists will discuss the pros and cons of fact-finding missions, media monitoring, North-South partnerships, and other tactics being used by activists globally, and what the practical challenges of their work might tell us about human rights documentation more broadly.

Faith & Social Justice

Religious values can be a strong mobilizing force, and countless social justice activists and advocates have drawn from them to motivate, sustain, and guide their work. Drawing upon the experience of a variety of people, including religious and legal professionals and community organizers, this workshop will examine the ways that religion, religious institutions, and people of faith interact with struggles for social justice and the many ways and forms the law inserts itself into that picture.