GN summer fall09 Digital.indd - National Lawyers Guild

Guild Notes ▪ Summer/Fall 2009Southern discomfort: Regional meeting a successby Vanessa Lucas“There are certain things in our nation and in the worldwhich I am proud to be maladjusted.” M.L.K., Jr.There are many issues in the south that cause discomfortfor us as progressive legal workers, lawyers and law students.However, we continue to fight for change and refuse to adjustto the myriad wrongs that exist in our society. Hence thetheme for our annual Southern Regional Conference, held on-March 20 and 21 at the University of North Carolina Schoolof Law in Chapel Hill (UNC). The UNC law students steppedup and volunteered to host our conference with impressiveresults.The conference kicked off with the CLE, EthicallyRepresenting Clients When Conflicting Agendas Arise. Locallawyers Mark Dorosin, Travis Payne and Ken Rose made upthe panel. Mark spoke on strategies for effective lawyering indiverse communities. He challenged us to examine our ideasof culture and to identify in ourselves our biases and stereotypes.Travis shared his experiences of representing largegroups of plaintiffs when a strategic decision has been madenot to proceed as a class.We learned of the ethical responsibilities and the positiveand negative aspects of owing a responsibility to eachindividual client. The day ended with Ken Rose telling thestory of a person incarcerated on death row. Zealous advocacyto keep this man alive led to Ken’s discipline by theNorth Carolina State Bar. He cautioned us with the mistakeshe made and explained what he could have done differently.Enlightened, we gathered at Milltown, a local restaurant, tocatch up with out-of-town friends, meet new faces and sharestories of our struggles.The next morning, we came together for panel discussions.Starting the day was a panel on local law enforcementcooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICE)―a disaster for our immigrants that has been aggressivelygrowing in the south with the use of 287(g) and otherprograms. There was a silver lining in the story of ChathamCounty’s resolution that the Chatham County Board of Commissionersstands in strong opposition to any local governmentagency contracting with ICE for the purpose of enforcingfederal immigration laws.The second panel discussed strengthening communityvitality through land loss prevention and environmentalprotection. Local activists and an attorney from the LandLoss Prevention Project centered a discussion around specificstruggles and history. After lunch, workers led a debate onwhether the Employee Free Choice Act is good or bad forFrom left front row: Kate and Nick Woomer-Deters, ElizabethHaddix, Beckie Moriello, Barb Fedders, Miriam Haskell, CarolineMcCrae, Marty Rosenbluth and Travis Packer. Photo courtesy ofVanessa Lucas.local unions. Our panels closed with a look at using localresolutions to advance human rights and a call to action tobring these ideas to our communities.We then held our regional meeting, which included thenominations for our next Regional Vice President. AzadehShahshahani was nominated. Because she is strengtheningthe Georgia chapter, which will host the Regional Conferencein 2010, she seemed the perfect fit. We recommendedAzadeh to those who were unable to attend and with no opposition,she became our RVP on April 3. Other highlightsfrom the meeting include the support of law school “Disorientation.”The UNC law students held a Disorientation earlyin the year to introduce the NLG to new students. It wasincredibly well-attended and helped strengthen and growtheir chapter. The model can be used by other chapters, andthe UNC students have a packet for anyone interested. Wedecided to further support Disorientation by awarding fundingto a number of chapters through an application process.The regional newsletter will be resurrected in electronicform so that we can share information more than twice ayear.Reinvigorated, we headed to Carrboro for food and festivities.We thank the UNC law students for all their incrediblyhard work in making this year’s Southern Regional sucha success. We missed those of you unable to attend and hopeto see you in Georgia next year. □▪ 24 ▪