221.74 sec. 001 - Movement Lawyering from the Inside Out (Fall 2020)
Instructor: Savala Nolan (view instructor's teaching evaluations - degree students only)
Instructor: Seema N. Patel
View all teaching evaluations for this course - degree students only
Units: 1
Grading Designation: Credit Only
Due to COVID-19, this class is remote for Fall 2020.
Mode of Instruction: Remote Instruction
Meeting:
Tu 3:35 PM - 5:25 PM
Location: Internet/Online
From August 18, 2020
To September 29, 2020
Course End: September 29, 2020
Class Number (1Ls): 34352
Enrollment info:
Enrolled: 11
Waitlisted: 0
Enroll Limit: 11
As of: 12/07 09:41 AM
Berkeley Law students can meet this incredibly challenging moment in U.S. history with skill and heart. The police killings of Black and brown people; environmental racism, vigilante violence against transgender people, threats to reproductive justice, economic injustice, and many other issues call on lawyers to support the resistance movements already happening in communities around the country. This is “movement lawyering”-- a modern way of lawyering that purposefully places attorneys in service of the grassroots communities already doing the work. Movement lawyering rejects the “top-down” approach that has historically put attorneys in leadership positions and ignored the knowledge, desires, and work of the people most impacted by an issue.
Successful movement lawyering is personal: it requires us to think critically about our identities so that we can connect with and be led by the communities we hope to serve. It requires that we examine how our privileges may bias us against these same communities, and how our identities can also be deep sources of empathy and kindness This process often means identifying and beginning to unravel some of the “isms” we’ve internalized (racism, ableism, etc.). In this class, we’ll talk about race, class, nationality, (dis)ability, and more. We’ll meet prominent movement lawyers and activists and learn how they’ve explored, unpacked, challenged, and liberated themselves in order to help the communities they serve self-liberate, too. This course includes short readings, guest speakers, written reflections and discussion, and a 5-8 page final reflection paper.
This class is among the special Fall 2020 1L elective seminars designed to give entering 1Ls an extra opportunity to form connections despite our remote form of interaction. In light of that goal, these classes will expect real-time attendance and may not be recorded. These classes will all be graded on a Credit/No Credit basis and total written work requirement will be no more than 8 double-spaced pages.
Real-time attendance at the first Zoom class is mandatory for all currently enrolled and waitlisted students; any currently enrolled or waitlisted students who are not present on the first day of class (without prior permission of the instructor) will be dropped. The instructor will continue to take attendance throughout the add/drop period and anyone who moves off the waitlist into the class must continue to attend or have prior permission of the instructor in order not to be dropped.
Prerequisites:
This course is only open to 1Ls.
Exam Notes: (P) Final paper
Course Category: Social Justice and Public Interest
This course is listed in the following sub-categories:
First Year Courses
If you are the instructor or their FSU, you may add a file like a syllabus or a first assignment to this page.
Readers:
No reader.
Books:
Instructor has indicated that no books will be assigned.