#DisO2020 Webinars: Movement Lawyering with the NLG & How to Stay Radical in Law School

At the beginning of each academic year, many NLG student chapters organize “DisOrientation” events to introduce the wider student body to the NLG and “people’s lawyering” in general. For more info on DisOrientation, visit nlg.org/disorientation!

NOTE: Due to the COVID pandemic, the NLG National Office has decided to not print DisOrientation Manual this year and asks students to share our virtual resources such as the digital Disorientation Manual, Radical Law Student ManualKnow Your Rights ResourcesNLG ReviewNLG ScholarsNLG Webinars, and more available on the website. Please also check out the many resources posted on our social media accounts (InstagramTwitterNLG National and NLG Students Facebook pages) and use the hashtag #DisO2020.

Movement Lawyering with the NLG

Wednesday, September 2 @ 4pm ET/1 pm PT

Register: bit.ly/MovementLawyering (URL is case sensitive)

Description: Join NLG legal practitioners and educators for a webinar on movement lawyering and how to use the law to support social movements! These skills are often not taught in law schools, so Guild members will offer an overview of what it means to be a movement lawyer and examples of careers that are in line with these principles. 

Speakers:

  • Cait De Mott Grady (she/her) [Moderator] is the outgoing NLG Student National Vice President who works as a public defender in Detroit and loves growing giant sunflowers. Cait’s movement lawyering framework and experience are grounded in her lifetime of involvement in the Catholic Worker movement and the anti-war and anti-nuclear movement.
  • Azadeh Shahshahani (she/her) is Legal & Advocacy Director at Project South and a past president of the NLG. Azadeh has worked for 15 years in the U.S. South to protect & defend the human rights of immigrants and Muslim, Middle Eastern, and South Asian communities.
  • Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan (she/her) is Senior Counsel at LatinoJustice PRLDEF, a national racial justice and immigrants’ rights organization, and is past President of the National Lawyers Guild.
  • Elena L. Cohen (she/her) is the current president of the NLG, and a partner at a small firm focusing on the needs of LGBTQ people and people who have experienced police misconduct. 
  • Sarah David Heydemann (she/her) is an organizer turned lawyer who has worked in workers’ rights for many years, in labor unions, worker centers, civil rights non-profits and firms. She is currently Senior Counsel at the National Women’s Law Center, focusing on workplace justice issues. 

Staying Radical in Law School

Thursday, September 3 @ 4pm ET / 1pm PT

Register: bit.ly/StayingRadical (URL is case sensitive)

Description: While many people are drawn to law school initially to further social justice, law students encounter intense pressure to choose careers that have little potential to serve these ideals. The combination of student debt, the culture and pedagogy of legal education, and the discouragement of political analyses in law school undermine student goals of becoming movement lawyers. This webinar will feature NLG members who explore the practices and culture of law school to help new (and current) law students navigate a path that allows them to stay radical throughout the course of their legal education and beyond!

Speakers:

  • Luna Martinez (she/her) [Moderator]: NLG National Student Vice President
  • Pooja Gehi (she/her): NLG Executive Director. Pooja graduated from American University’s Washington College, where she chaired her law school’s NLG chapter.
  • Ray Rojas (he/him): Attorney in private practice and NLG Texoma Regional Vice-President.
  • Natsu Saito (she/her): Law professor, activist, author of Settler Colonialism, Race and the Law: Why Structural Racism Persists
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