285.45 sec. 001 - Legislative Advocacy for Economic Justice (Fall 2024)
Instructor: Norma P. Garcia
View all teaching evaluations for this course - degree students only
Units: 2
Grading Designation: Graded
Mode of Instruction: In-Person
Meeting:
Tu 3:35 PM - 5:25 PM
Location: Law 111
From August 20, 2024
To November 19, 2024
Course End: November 19, 2024
Class Number: 32604
Enrollment info:
Enrolled: 16
Waitlisted: 7
Enroll Limit: 20
As of: 05/06 11:21 AM
Legislative advocacy is a necessary and potent tool for advancing and safeguarding economic justice. It means working on behalf of others, and often alongside impacted communities. It can mean taking action to affirmatively advance a change in the law or stepping in to stop a harmful proposal in its tracks. From curtailing abusive marketplace practices that siphon economic resources from vulnerable communities to using legislation to establish agencies to protect consumer rights, legislative bodies debate consequential bills that can change the law and significantly impact consumer protections. As future attorneys, law students are uniquely poised to advance economic justice by developing and deploying their professional skills to influence lawmaking at its source, before legislative bodies.
Using the California Legislature as the backdrop, this course will cover the practical components and considerations necessary to successfully advance a bill from an idea to statutory law. Practical skills taught in this course include learning how to articulate the need for legislative action to achieve greater consumer protection and economic justice; identifying the appropriate California Code sections for amendment; drafting bill language; articulating strategies for working with legislators and their staff; identifying the main components of successful lobbying as well as ethical considerations for lawyers engaged in this role; identifying the advantages and challenges of working in coalitions; articulating successful negotiation strategies and how to navigate the interests of varied stakeholders; identifying the interplay of politics and timing; engaging media in amplifying advocacy efforts; and defending victories when success is achieved.
This course will also provide an understanding of how legislative advocacy skills can be applied across multiple subject matter areas and integrated with other essential lawyering skills including investigation, research and writing, legal and policy analysis, statutory drafting, negotiation, and persuasive oral and written advocacy.
Students will meet with legislators and staff as guest speakers, and will either remotely attend a legislative hearing taking place in the State Capitol in Sacramento or watch an archived hearing. Students will also meet with movement-building organizations led by impacted people who are or will be the subject of legislative efforts. For a final project, students will design a legislative advocacy plan and present it to the class.
Instructor:
Norma P. Garcia is an award-winning attorney and public policy expert who worked as a Senior Attorney with Consumers Union (now Consumer Reports) for nearly 25 years. At CU, she led groundbreaking legislative and regulatory campaigns on behalf of low-to-moderate income communities and engaged in complex litigation impacting millions of consumers. She has also served as Policy Counsel and Director of Advocacy for Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA), a trailblazing nonprofit dedicated to building equity by promoting Latino prosperity, community ownership and civic power in San Francisco’s Mission District, her neighborhood of origin. At MEDA, she ran key programmatic and legislative initiatives to strengthen inclusion and social justice for culturally diverse communities driving greater access to affordable housing, healthcare, education, workforce training and small business development.
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Requirements Satisfaction:
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Exam Notes: (T) Course ends in a final practice trial, arguments, or other presentation (e.g. Powerpoint)
Course Category: Consumer Law & Economic Justice
This course is listed in the following sub-categories:
Race and Law
Social Justice and Public Interest
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Readers:
No reader.
Books:
Required Books are in blue
- Advocacy for Public Health Policy Change: An Urgent Imperative
Harry Snyder, Anthony Iton
ISBN: 9780875533131
e-Book Available: unknown
Price: To Be Determined