It is with great pleasure that we welcome guest blogger Patricia Hureston Lee, Associate Professor and Director of Saint Louis University School of Law Legal Clinics. Professor Lee has a passion for being a legal educator and has previously taught at West Virginia University College of Law, Northern Illinois University School of Law, DePaul University College of Law, and the University of Chicago Law School, where she founded the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship. As Director of Saint Louis University’s Legal Clinics, Professor Lee works closely with attorneys, social workers, faculty, staff and students to fight injustices that disrupt harmony in our society. Saint Louis University Legal Clinics was recently selected to receive the Excellence in a Public Interest Case or Project. Professor Lee writes about the work that is being done at Saint Louis University and encourages all members of the legal community to stand up against injustice.
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Justice is harmony according to Plato’s theory of justice (book 4, 434c). Through the lens of law clinical faculty that serve underserved populations, we see justice and harmony as virtues that our clients may begin to experience when they are free from a host of injustices they confront in their day to day lives. Examples of injustices that our clients face include excessive policing, excessive incarceration, tear-gassing, racial/ethnic profiling and eminent domain abuse. These matters and others have been at the heart of the public interest work of Saint Louis University School of Law Legal Clinics (SLU LAW Clinics) in recent months.
The Clinical Legal Educational Association’s board of directors recently announced that SLU LAW Clinics won the national CLEA award. The award is to be presented at the annual AALS Clinical Association’s conference on May 6, 2015 in Palm Springs, California, for the clinics’ legal work addressing civil rights and criminal justice abuses highlighted following the death of Michael Brown. Honored, the clinical faculty looks forward to accepting this award. I blog today to share with you some of the backstory of what has been going on in the SLU LAW Clinics and in our community prior to being honored with this award.
For more than forty-one years, the SLU LAW Clinics have provided pro bono legal services to the community and currently provide legal services in six clinical programs (Civil Advocacy, Criminal Defense, Entrepreneurship and Community Development, Externships, Judicial Process Externship and Mediation) that house ten practice areas. The dynamic team of seven clinical attorneys (Professors Amany Hacking, Brendan Roediger, Dana Malkus, John Ammann, Patricia Harrison, Patricia Lee, Susan McGraugh), one social worker (Lauren Choate), Professor of Practice (Steve Hanlon), and two staff members (Greta Henderson and LeAnn Upton) found a variety of ways to engage dedicated students, faculty and the community this current academic year.
Inspired by the social justice mission of the University and long before the tragic events of Ferguson on August 9, 2014, the Legal Clinics previously represented clients in litigation, transactional and regulatory related matters. However, the gravity of the circumstances of Ferguson, called for additional responses that could provide immediate solutions. Some of the solutions included hosting panels and doing community outreach and education for those who might be stopped by law enforcement officers. The Criminal Defense Clinic faculty and students educated members of the public with a “Know Your Rights” initiative. At the same time, the Civil Litigation Clinic took numerous litigation and regulatory steps to represent clients who had been adversely affected by municipal warrants and tear-gassing abuses. Many local and national collaborations took hold in Saint Louis County. Several doctrinal and clinical faculties collaborated to offer a current class called “Ferguson” that provided students a glimpse at the many issues that caused the world to view the injustices noted in Ferguson. Faculty responded to inquiries of the media to inform the public of issues relating to civil rights, constitutional, and criminal law.
Several faculty, including myself, and clinic students provided testimony before the governor-appointed Ferguson Commission, municipal, legislative and the executive branches. When I spoke before the Ferguson Commission at its December 1, 2014 meeting in Ferguson, members of the public passionately told many chilling stories, including stories of excessive detentions, fines and fees. There were other stories told by an entrepreneur whose business had been burned down. While present, I personally reflected on the gravity and breadth of the concerns raised by those testifying from Ferguson and other cities throughout St. Louis County. Very disturbing racial interactions and relations with police, a seismic lack of economic opportunities, educational disparities, historic real property steering, excessive policing, outrageous warrant and fees enforced by municipal courts, were just a few of the issues raised that one day in Ferguson. For me, it was one more exclamation point as to why it is so important that we, as clinical faculty, continue to be a powerful voice for the community.
While the issues raised by Ferguson captured the nation’s imagination, in addition to working on the matters mentioned above, the clinics continued to work with over a hundred students each semester, engage pro-bono clients and develop practice areas relevant to serving the community and advancing the professional skills of law students. We thank Robert Kuehn and other faculty from Washington University Law School for nominating their neighbor, SLU LAW Clinics for the CLEA Excellence Award. We appreciate this honor and hope to continue to address the many glaring injustices that our communities face. Furthermore, we hope to collaborate with the readers of this blog so that we can collectively make our communities a place where justice and harmony are a reality.
Patricia Hureston Lee
Twitter: @SLULegalLee