Legal Methods II: Building Legal Change: Moving Advocacy Outside of Court

Lawyers are operators, navigators, and architects of the legal system. How do we think about and operationalize changing the legal system, in addition to or instead of operating within it? This course engages students in the core questions and modalities of lawyers advocating for systemic change, drawing on examples including advocacy against mass incarceration.

The course will use case studies, simulations, and the participation of advocates and activists in addition to traditional readings and discussion. The course will be co-taught by Scott Hechinger (a public defender, activist, and media advocacy expert); Alejo Rodriguez (a poet and social justice scholar with direct experience in the criminal justice system), and Colleen Shanahan (a Columbia Law School faculty member). We will also hear from guests, including affected individuals and advocates.

Our weekly sessions will address:
--The underlying questions, the intellectual frameworks, and the skills needed for building multidimensional advocacy campaigns. This includes how to think about your own role as a lawyer in community organizing, social movements, litigation, legislative advocacy, policy advocacy, court reform, and informal government advocacy.
--Working in collaboration with communities, including what it means to work for and with affected individuals and communities for legal change, including how to identify key allies and build trust to fight together.
--Using narrative and storytelling for systemic advocacy, including how to approach communications and messaging consistently and thoughtfully and how to communicate experiences and language for maximum impact.
--Media advocacy, including how to work with journalists, how to use social media to raise awareness and drive action, and how to propel advocacy with video, web, data, technology and artistic storytelling.
--Developing and presenting an advocacy campaign plan, including how to choose among advocacy strategies, how to engage with questions of ethics and values, and how to develop your own role as an advocate for legal change.

Class will meet on Friday from 10:50-2:40 and will be held remotely. Class time will be used for a mix of large group and small group sessions. If there is sufficient student interest, some of the small group sessions may be held in person.

There will be readings and assignments to be completed between class sessions. There will be a final presentation accompanied by a short, final reflection assignment. Evaluation will be credit-fail and will be based on engagement with readings and activities during class and in assignments.

For more on this course, watch this video: https://vimeo.com/473030745