CDLC Instructor and LL.M. Fellow Bradford Voegeli, in collaboration with attorneys from the Neighborhood Legal Services Program, convened the "Preserving Deanwood” Vacant Properties Taskforce. The taskforce is a coalition of community leaders, residents, activists, and service providers in Ward 7 neighborhoods, east of the Anacostia River. The taskforce catalogues, surveys, and investigates the ownership status of vacant, blighted, and otherwise distressed homes. After identifying these properties, the taskforce works with city agencies to ensure that they are maintained safely, securely, and in compliance with mandatory standards. In performing this work, the taskforce creates opportunities for residents to participate and share broader concerns about conditions and development in the community. The ultimate goal of the project is to return homes back to productive use and preserve the housing of current residents.

The CDLC looks forward to an eventful summer and expects a successful 2013 Fall Semester. Photos can be viewed on Flickr.

Student Attorney Leslie Valentin '14 worked with an elderly, retired client to have the client’s outstanding tax liability with DC Office of Tax and Revenue resolved. The client’s outstanding liability was $32,748. Leslie was able to negotiate with the DC OTR’s collection unit to completely write off the client’s tax liability.

Student Attorney Carol Chadsey '14 helped a clinic client reduce her tax liability by 57%. The client’s liability was placed into Currently Not Collectible status, which means the IRS will not levy her property. The liability will be paid by offsetting the client’s tax refund for the next two years. This means the client will not have to make any out of pocket payments to pay her tax liability.

Student Attorney Chris Allen '14 helped a client substantiate her filing status, dependency exemptions, and claimed Earned Income Credit. The client is a grandmother, and all three of her grandchildren live with her. She has adopted one of them and has sole custody of the other two. The IRS determined that she owed an additional $7000 of tax. After Chris submitted an amended tax return with the necessary substantiation, the IRS agreed to the changes. The client will now receive a refund of $2009.

Professor Andrew Ferguson and Alhambra Police Chief Mark Yokoyama did an interview with KPCC Southern California Public Radio about PredPol, a tool used by the Los Angeles Police Department to predict and map where crime is likely to happen. Prof. Ferguson recently published a paper on prediction policing and possible 4th amendment issues in the Emory Law Journal, and worries that its use might lead to racial profiling and violations of the 4th Amendment.

Listen to the program at KPCC, "Alhambra Police Department implements 'predictive policing'"

Time banking, created by Professor Edgar Cahn, was featured in the Winnipeg Free Press.

"Time banks have a core principle that all hours are equal, and it gives people who may not be regarded as having marketable skills something to contribute as much as those who do have marketable skills."

Unlike other alternative currencies, time-bank dollars don't mirror market pricing.

"What makes time-banking different is it's not trying to expand the monetary economy in that sense," Cahn says.

Instead, time banks aim to build an economy around community -- families, neighbourhoods and civil society -- where the elderly, children, the disabled and unemployed can contribute.

Time-bankers list their skills -- whether it's shovelling walks, raking leaves, walking dogs or providing care -- and they earn time dollars that can be traded for other services and even goods.

Read more in the Winnipeg Free Press, "Differing dollars"

Congratulations to Professor William L. Robinson, who was awarded the Alumni Medal from his alma mater, Oberlin College. The alumni medal is the highest honor the alumni association bestows. William L. Robinson, the Olie W. Rauh Professor of Law, founding Dean of the District of Columbia School of Law and the University of the District of Columbia School of Law, is an outstanding litigator, teacher, leader of the civil rights bar, and leader in the civil rights movement. Read more at his faculty bio.

Professor Andrew Ferguson published an article in The Atlantic calling on commencement speakers to urge their audience to vote, serve on juries, and run for political office.

Prof. Ferguson wrote, "Civic responsibility is the rub of citizenship. As President Obama candidly acknowledged in his commencement address to Ohio State University this month, borrowing themes from John F. Kennedy's famous inaugural, 'As citizens, we understand that it's not about what America can do for us. It's about what can be done by us, together, through the hard and frustrating but absolutely necessary work of self-government.' It is not about changing the world in a boundless future, but engaging constitutional responsibilities in the grounded present.

The political responsibilities of voting, jury service, and participating in elective office are the basics of our constitutional order. If we are inspired by anything at graduations, we should be inspired to participate in these fundamental, if ordinary, constitutional duties."

Read more in The Atlantic, "What Commencement Speeches Leave Out"

Interim President James E. Lyons, Sr. welcomed the crowd after which Wade Henderson, the Joseph L. Rauh Jr. Professor of Public Interest Law, introduced Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., the U.S. Solicitor General, who served as convocation speaker. General Verrilli reported that he always devoted a significant portion of commencement addresses to imploring graduates to represent poor people and to undertake unpopular causes. He celebrated UDC graduates by saying, "I don’t have to tell UDC that because you get it!” He praised the graduates’ selection of UDC-DCSL as a school that requires 700 hours of pro bono legal services in order to graduate. Mr. Verrilli went on to say, "By the way you chose to live your life, you can make clear that our legal system exists not to serve and protect the elites but to do justice for all.” He also read a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.’s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail” in which he said, "The time is always ripe to do right.” Mr. Verrilli's speech was followed by a rendition of The Beatles' "In My Life," with graduates Jonathan Bogh on vocals and guitar, and Anton Martinez on piano.

Professor John Brittain introduced the Equal Justice Award winner, Kim Keenan, the General Counsel for the NAACP. Dean Broderick introduced the Advocate for Justice Award winner, Sandra Mattavous-Frye '83, the People's Counsel for the District of Columbia. Ms. Mattavous-Frye praised the experiences she had at the university and the preparation this provided for a career in public interest law. Recounting her decision to attend Antioch, Ms. Mattavous-Frye focused on the schools’ public service philosophy which includes a requirement for each student to serve several hundred hours legal services in the School’s legal clinics and was "decidedly different from most "paper chase” legal institutions.”Daniel M. Clark and Ramesh Kasarabada were also recognized by Dean Broderick for completing the LL.M. program in Clinical Education, Social Justice, and Systems Change. Mr. Kasarabada used the opportunity to encourage students to continue working for the public interest.

Elizabeth A. Stinebaugh ’13 presented a 5-minute photo slideshow showing members of the Class of ’13 at work and play, in the District of Columbia and as far away as the Great Wall of China. Dana-Marie Harris was chosen as the 3L speaker and Joshua Bailes was chosen as the 4L speaker. Rachel Huhn presented the Judge Pryor Legacy Award to Louis Frohman. Elizabeth Stinebaugh presented the Edgar Cahn Community Service Award to Megan Challender, and the Unsung Hero Award to Charles Teague, Jr. Amanda Aubrey presented the Evening Division Pioneer Award to Joshua Bailes. The Dean also presented staff awards "For Going The Extra Mile” to Professor John Terzano; Vanita Snow, Assistant Director for Career and Professional Development; Lewis Perry, Network Administrator; and Lachelle Cooper, Technical Support Specialist. Dean Broderick then presented Dean's Awards for outstanding service to Patrick Bateman, Christopher Hekimian, Tyrone Hanley, Robert Green, Megan Challender, Aisha Ching, and Rachel Huhn. She also announced the faculty selection of Krista Kruger as Clinical Legal Education Association awardee and named Patrice Wedderburn, Eva Seidelman and Josh Basile as 2013 Dean’s Book Award Winners.

Professor Lisa M. Geis and Public Outreach Coordinator Max Rodriguez read the names of the Class of 2013. Afterward, Prof. Edgar Cahn closed the ceremony with a reading of the School of Law's credo "This I Believe.”

Read more about U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli's speech in The BLT: The Blog of LegalTimes, "In Commencement Address, Verrilli Offers Lessons Learned"

In a new Room for Debate column published in The New York Times, Professor John Brittain argues that colleges and universities, including graduate and professional schools, should eliminate the over-reliance on standardized aptitude test scores.

Prof. Brittain writes, "Just as universities responded to lack of diversity with affirmative action that will soon run its course, now universities should study alternative pre-admissions practices that identify bright and highly motivated diverse students who are not the highest test takers. By uncoupling the student applicant’s pre-admission emphasis on high test scores and concentrating on applied learning success in the academic discipline, this nation can create equal opportunity in admissions criteria to foster diversity."

Read more in The New York Times, "Don’t Rely on Standardized Test Scores"

Professor John Brittain is working with attorney Johnny Barnes, former Executive Director of the ACLU of the Nation's Capital, in Shannon Smith et. al. v. Kaya Henderson et. al., a case brought by community organization Empower DC to block the closure of 15 DC Public Schools.

Before the hearing Johnny Barnes said, "Because of the participation of Professors Jamin Raskin and John Brittain, this hearing promises to provide a fascinating display of legal argument, the kind of which is rarely witnessed in the courtrooms in Washington, DC."

The school closings plan calls for the closure of 15 DC Public Schools including the city's two schools dedicated to serving students with complex special needs. Over 2,700 students would be displaced, 99.9% of whom are students of color.

Summer session is from May 20-July 26, 2013.  There are two ways to apply for summer classes: as a visiting student or as a non-degree student. 

Visiting Students

Students enrolled at other ABA-accredited law schools may be admitted as visiting students, attend for one or two semesters and take up to 15 credits of study per semester at UDC-DCSL.  Visiting students who wish to take summer courses must complete a Summer Visiting Student Application (.pdf). The 2013 Summer Visiting Student Application is due on May 15, 2013.

Non-Degree Students

Graduates of foreign and state-accredited law schools may apply for admission as non-degree students.  Non-degree applicants who wish to take summer courses must complete a Summer Visiting Student Application, which is due on May 13, 2013. 

Courses Open for Visiting and Non-Degree Students

Civil Rights Seminar (2 credits)

This stimulating seminar, taught by two veteran civil rights professors, will examine the cutting issues in civil rights for the 21^st Century in voting, housing, education, employment, criminal justice, freedom of expression and more.  With a quintet of major decisions in cases scheduled for release by the Supreme Court docket before June 30th, such as affirmative action in university admissions, the constitutionality of parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, marriage equality and proof of citizenship for voting, the seminar will provide an instant analysis.   Co-professors, Wade Henderson, the Joseph Rauh Distinguished Professor at UDC and leading public policy advocate as the President of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and John Brittain, also a senior professor at UDC , former dean and chief counsel of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and civil rights attorney in many significant cases for over three decades will teach the seminar.  In addition, they have invited a list of big name speakers, many of them involved in the current Supreme Court cases.  And finally, the seminar will examine the ever increasing assertion of international human rights law.

Whistleblower Law (3 credits)

This survey course is an introduction to the legal foundation for a social phenomenon known as "whistleblowing” – the exercise of free speech rights to challenge abuses of power that betray the public trust.  Employees exercising freedom of speech this way have made a difference repeatedly in changing the course of history, and their impact is becoming steadily more significant.  The course will be taught by Thomas Devine, Legal Director of the Government Accountability Project and co-author of The Corporate Whistleblower’s Survival Guide: A Handbook for Committing the Truth.  The course will cover the cultural context for blowing the whistle; the extent of an ongoing revolution in whistleblowers’ legal rights; and the tactics for activists to turn whistleblowers’ information into power when challenging abuses of power.  By the end of the class, each student should have a solid understanding of the whistleblower phenomenon, the legal rights available to whistleblowers, and the tactics to minimize their impact by turning truth into power through partnerships between whistleblowers and activists. 

Reproductive Justice: Law, Politics and Organizing (2 credits)

This course will offer students the opportunity to explore a wide spectrum of issues within the framework of Reproductive Justice. Reproductive Justice encompasses the right to have children, the right not to have children, and the right to parent. The course addresses dynamic topics in social justice, human rights, and civil liberties as they intersect with reproductive justice, such as racial and environmental justice; LGBTQ liberation; freedoms of speech, religion, and association; freedom from illegal search and seizure or cruel and unusual punishment; rights to privacy, bodily autonomy, and equality; and birthing, parenting, and family formation rights. The course is taught by Andrea D. Friedman, Director of Reproductive Health Programs at the National Partnership for Women & Families. 

Law Office Management (2 credits)

This seminar will cover the essentials of opening a solo or small practice.  It is taught by Joel Bennett, author of How to Start and Build a Law Practice in the District of Columbia, former Chair of the Law Practice Management Section of the American Bar Association and co-founder and first Chair of the Law Practice Management section of the DC Bar.  The course covers everything from finding office space to setting up a business to compliance with professional ethics obligations.  Students will be required to produce a business plan in lieu of an examination. 

Veterans Law Seminar (2 credits)

This is a survey course on the laws and procedures for helping veterans and their families obtain benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.  It is taught by Kerry Loring, who has been an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for seventeen years. 

 

The World Trademark Review (WTR) is the world's only independent international magazine dedicated exclusively to trademark law and practice. The WTR's 2013 Industry Awards was timed to coincide with the International Trademark Association’s annual meeting and was attended by more than 200 senior in-house counsel from nominated companies and representatives from a number of prominent law firms.

To arrive at the shortlist, WTR conducted in-depth research of in-house counsel worldwide by surveying the global trademark community. Almost 1,500 nominations make the awards unique in clearly identifying those counsel, both teams and individuals, that have excelled in their sector or region. The nomination process was followed by a two-month research process, conducted by the WTR editorial team.

Trevor Little, editor of WTR, said: "Over the past year trademark counsel have continued to grapple with a multitude of brand threats, their efforts complicated by the ever-evolving nature of the challenges they face. Examining the nominations for this year’s WTR Industry Awards, it was clear that all the shortlisted teams and individuals had successfully met these challenges head-on, going above and beyond the call of duty to provide protection and value to their organisations. Judging the awards was therefore a very difficult process and the winners really do represent best practice in the trademark industry, and deserve special recognition for their exceptional achievements.”

Read more about Amber Sterling, 1L, at INTA Bulletin.

Professor Andrew Ferguson published an article in The Atlantic on the California Assembly passing legislation that for the first time would make non-citizens eligible for jury service. If passed by the State Senate, California would be the only state to decouple citizenship and jury duty.

Ferguson writes, "Of course, many non-citizens would make excellent jurors, just as many actual citizens make poor jurors, but the underlying legal relationships would be significantly affected. This change to non-citizens juries may come, as the history of the jury has always evolved with social norms, but such a change would restructure the current balance of rights and responsibilities in a way that Californians and others should weigh very carefully.

Most importantly, the debate over non-citizen jurors has resulted in new awareness that jury service matters. However the California legislature ultimately decides the issue, the controversy has highlighted a deep-felt sense that jury service goes to the heart of what it means to be an American citizen: It is not patriotism alone, but commitment to the participatory values of democracy. Next time you are asked to serve, wear your juror badge proudly."

Read more in The Atlantic, "Why Restrict Jury Duty to Citizens?"

Professor Andrew Ferguson published an article in The Atlantic on the joys of jury duty, adapted from his book "Why Jury Duty Matters."

Prof. Ferguson writes, "The invitation to jury service is thus an invitation to understand our most basic national principles. The simple fact is that jury duty is one of the few constitutional rights that every citizen has the opportunity to experience. It remains an American bond. It connects people across class, national origin, religion, and race. Jury experience exists as one of the remaining connecting threads in a wonderfully diverse United States. It links us to our founding principles and challenges us to live up to them. Every time you serve as a juror, you become closer to this constitutional spirit; and every time you reflect on and appreciate these principles, you strengthen our constitutional character. That is the joy of jury duty."

 Read more in The Atlantic, "The Joy of Jury Duty"

In interviews, more than two dozen USDA inspectors and poultry industry employees described a range of ailments they attributed to chemical exposure, including asthma and other severe respiratory problems, burns, rashes, irritated eyes, and sinus ulcers and other sinus problems.

Amanda Hitt, director of the Food Integrity Campaign with the Government Accountability Project, said her group has been collecting statements for the past two years from inspectors reporting illnesses and injuries due to chemical exposure in poultry plants where slaughter line speeds have increased.

"They are mixing chemicals together in these plants, and it’s making people sick,” Hitt said. "Does it work better at killing off pathogens? Yes, but it also can send someone into respiratory arrest.”

Read the full article in The Washington Post, "At chicken plants, chemicals blamed for health ailments are poised to proliferate"

Professor Andrew Ferguson's new book, "Why Jury Duty Matters," was featured on Fox News host Greta Van Susteren's website.

From Greta Van Susteren's website: "Did you know that nearly 32 million Americans are summoned for jury duty every year? It could happen to you…you’ll want to check out Why Jury Duty Matters: A Citizen’s Guide to Constitutional Action." It’s the first book written for jurors to guide them through the constitutional experience of jury service."

Read more at Greta Van Susteren's website, "Summoned for jury duty? This is the book for you!"

In February 2013, Tayrn Gude wrote an article entitled, "Perspective of an HIV/AIDS Clinic Student.” In the article, Gude discussed her experience as a student attorney with the HIV/AIDS clinic, and representing a father who wanted his four year old daughter’s name changed. She discussed her efforts in pursuing this goal, including attempting to have the father’s paternity adjudicated. Due to the time constraints of the school semester, Gude was unable to complete her representation. My partner and I began where she left off.

Now that same little girl, who recently turned five, is learning to write her name in cursive, and despite the fact that our new client protected, provided, loved, and cared for his daughter, he could not be legally recognized as the father. Whose name should she use as she learns to write her name? Should she use the name of the man who has been there since birth? Does it matter? Should she go her whole life without a legal connection to her father? Will not having her father’s name really serve to alienate them from one another? These are all questions I asked myself before meeting our client.

All these questions fell by the wayside after the first meeting. My partner, Colleen Krisulevicz, and I looked into our client’s eyes as he told his story, giving intimate detail of the three-year battle and the pain it has caused. Strapping ourselves in, my partner and I had less than a month-and-a-half to prepare for the hearing that might finally bring him solace.

First, we had to get the judge to agree to adjudicate paternity during the hearing. The mother of our client’s daughter had refused to sign an acknowledgement of paternity at birth and has since disappeared from their lives, leaving our client to raise their daughter by himself. As a result of her refusal to sign, our client is not listed as the father on his daughter’s birth certificate and his daughter has taken the name of a woman she has never known.

Once paternity was adjudicated, we sought to change his daughter’s name. In order to complete a name change, DC statute requires applicants to publish the change in a newspaper once a week for three consecutive weeks. The purpose of the publication is to make any creditors or other individuals aware of the proposed name change so that they may come forth and advise the court on any claims they may have against the change. That being said, this is a case about a five year- old girl with no creditors, liabilities, or awards of social security. Also, our client is indigent; thus, the cost of publication, roughly $100, would prevent him from changing his daughter’s name.

My partner and I filed a motion with the court to waive publication. Given that this was a case of first impression in the District of Columbia, we turned to Maryland law as persuasive authority. Maryland has long since recognized the burden publication imposed on indigent families, and has changed their requirements from once a week for three consecutive weeks to only once and in some cases waiving publication altogether. We sought to drive the point home by citing the policy behind the District of Columbia’s in forma pauperis statute (or indigency statute), which allows waiver of court costs and fees. The statute was designed to grant District residents the full range of civic remedies. We argued that if the court refused to waive publication, they would effectively bar our client from exercising his rights as a District resident.

At the hearing, the court agreed and granted our motion to adjudicate paternity and waive publication. Just after the judge made her ruling, I felt my client’s husky arms around me and saw tears flow down his cheek. Trying my best to remain composed, at least until we received the judge’s signed order, I comforted him. As we all walked out the courtroom, order in hand, I was the first to extend my hand to our client and say, "Congratulations Dad!”

Professor Andrew Ferguson was interviewed by Mark Levine on Washington-based radio/television talk show The Inside Scoop discussing the 50th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, the 1963 Supreme Court decision that ensures every person charged with a crime is entitled to an attorney even if s/he cannot afford one.

The show also included guests Roopal Patel, Fellow at the Brennan Center’s Justice Program and former attorney with the Department of Justice; Jonathan Rapping, President/Founder of the Southern Public Defender Training Center and Director of Criminal Justice Program at John Marshall Law School; Karen Houppert, Journalist and Author of Chasing Gideon: The Elusive Quest for Poor People’s Justice; David Carroll, Executive Director of the Sixth Amendment Center; and Avis Buchanan, Director of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.

Erika DuPree and Erika White talked about their trip to the Mississippi Delta. Erika White worked with Anton Martinez on education issues since Mississippi has the lowest education level of all the states. Erika DuPree discussed her work on child punishment and designing a pamphlet about juvenile justice.

Candice Tucker and Laura Duncan talked about their trip to Biloxi, MS. The students partnered with 2 other universities and Hope Community Development Agency, a nonprofit organization, to work on environmental legal cases stemming from Hurricane Katrina. Candice Tucker described the trip as a "capstone experience” and said it felt good to work in an under-served area outside of D.C.

Tyrone Hanley and Vanessa Altamirano talked about their trip to the Arizona-Mexico border. Tyrone Hanley said it is important to see social justice issues at the border to see the consequences of border control. Vanessa Altamirano said the trip to Arizona was "life-changing." She talked about being stopped at the border and asked for her passport, seeing the Joe Arpaio detention centers for undocumented immigrants, and the general lack of respect for due process.

After the event Professors Susan Waysdorf, John Brittain, and Kristina Campbell thanked their colleagues and invited students at the School of Law to participate in Service Learning next year. View photos from the trip on Flickr and below..

On Friday, March 29th, the UDC Law Review celebrated this anniversary with its annual symposium titled "Expanding the Civil Right to Counsel: 50 Years After Gideon.” The Supreme Court fundamentally re-shaped the field of criminal law with Gideon, but fifty years later, low-income litigants in civil cases lack a right to counsel, even as they are routinely faced with the jeopardy of their homes, termination of their rights as parents, deportation, or loss of vital government benefits. In some jurisdictions, legislatures or courts have created civil counsel entitlements under state constitutions, through state statutes, or through court rules. The resulting patchwork is hardly adequate to ensure the uniform and fair administration of justice for civil litigants who cannot afford an attorney. At the same time, however, serious questions about the quality of representation that states provide to indigent criminal defendants linger, fifty years after Gideon, and cast doubt on the practical wisdom of a full civil counsel entitlement.

The symposium brought together a national group of experts from a diverse array of backgrounds to discuss the state of access to counsel both nationally and in the District of Columbia fifty years after Gideon. Public Justice Center staff attorney John Pollock, who coordinates the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, presented a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction overview of civil counsel entitlements and access-to-justice issues. Professor Latisha Gotell Faulks of the John Marshall Law School in Atlanta discussed her article on the sometimes fuzzy boundary between criminal appeals, which are within the scope of Gideon’s guarantee of counsel to criminal cases, and post-conviction relief (PCR) applications, which the Court has held is outside the scope of Gideon. Faulks argued that principles of substantive due process require constitutionally effective counsel in PCR applications, a view that recently received support from the Court’s ruling in Martinez v. Schriro (2010)—and which may hold the seeds of doctrinal developments that expand Gideon’s protections into nominally "civil” cases.

Professor Barbara Creel of the University of New Mexico School of Law, a member of the Pueblo of Jemez people, discussed her article on access to counsel for indigent Native Americans facing legal proceedings in tribal courts, which are not bound by Fifth Amendment due process guarantees or Sixth Amendment right to counsel guarantees. Professor Creel noted that notions of tribal sovereignty often manifest as resistance to the imposition of an adversarial legal system—including the use of professional advocates.

The final morning panel surveyed the access-to-counsel work of the UDC-DCSL clinical program. Professor Charles Jeane of the UDC-DCSL Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic and Judge Peter J. Panuthos of the United States Tax Court discussed their joint work on behalf of unrepresented taxpayers in the U.S. Tax Court system, as well as the access-to-counsel implications of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Turner v. Rogers (2011). Professor Dan Clark of the UDC-DCSL Housing and Consumer Law Clinic, who previously directed the D.C. Superior Court’s Landlord Tenant Resource Center, discussed the clinic’s access-to-justice work and the expansion of the clinic into a hybrid model that includes both full representation and court-based "unbundled” services. Professor Clark explained why this model is beneficial both for litigants whom the clinic lacks the capacity to fully represent, has pedagogical benefits for clinical students, and suggests that full representation and brief services models can be complimentary to each other.

The first two afternoon panels focused on access to counsel in immigration proceedings—a key component of the ongoing effort to reform the nation’s immigration system. Professor Mark Noferi of the Brooylyn Law School and Professor Erin Corcoran of the University of New Hampshire School of Law discussed the application of Gideon to immigration cases. Erin Corcoran discussed her work arguing that efforts to create counsel entitlements for defendants in removal proceedings have failed and that advocacy efforts should focus on non-lawyer representatives. Noferi presented his work, which argues for further empirical research to define and test the distinctions between lawyers and non-lawyer immigration advocates. Professor Maurice Hew, who directs Clinical Legal Education at Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston, joined with practitioners Carla Reyes, of Perkins Coie LLP, and Careen Shannon, of Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy LLC, to present their work on access to justice in the immigration context.

Finally, Professor Clare Pastore of the USC Gould School of Law presented her work on the preliminary findings of civil Gideon pilot projects that are currently operating in California, Boston, and elsewhere.

Also during the afternoon sessions, the outgoing editorial board introduced the 2013-2014 UDC Law Review editorial board: Editor in Chief Julia Gagne, Managing Editor Johan Fatemi, Publications Editors Sean Brown and Jamila Shand, Articles Editor Carolyn Singh, Notes Editor Megan Stokesberry, Symposium Editor John Kinney, Section Editor for Online Content Amanda Utterback, Communications Editor Peter Offen, and Harrison Magy, who will oversee the development of a new annual feature on developments in D.C. law.

To view videos of the symposium presentations or the symposium schedule, visit the UDC Law Review website at www.udclawreview.com/symposia. Past law review publications dating back to 1993 are available on our website, including the recently released fall 2012 issue.

Prof. Butler talked about the legal precedent set in Terry v. Ohio (1968), whereby law enforcement was given wide latitude to stop and frisk someone if they had a reasonable suspicion they are involved in a crime. He then compared stop and frisk to torture since it uses the same psychological and physical techniques employed in the "War on Terror." He also likened the policy to sexual harassment, with police participating as voyeurs. Prof. Butler added that the more a person is arrested, the less likely s/he will participate in civil society including voting and serving on a jury.

Prof. Butler concluded by discussing various actions to put an end to stop and frisk. During the height of Occupy Wall Street, there were several actions staged to occupy the police precinct in Harlem. Though all of the current candidates running for Mayor on the Democratic ticket in NYC support doing away with stop and frisk, Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD still support the policy. Prof. Butler said we must ensure police departments understand that the policy is violent.