volume 16, number 1 - UDC Law Review

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\\jciprod01\productn\D\DCR\16-1\DCR106.txt unknown Seq: 6 11-FEB-13 12:316 UNIVERSITY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA LAW REVIEWmittee designates new Bellow Scholars every two years. So far, five cycles haveresulted in eighteen Bellow Scholar projects. 12 The sixth cycle of solicitations wasin the fall of 2012. We introduce new Bellow Scholars at the clinical luncheonduring the AALS annual meeting in January and new and past Bellow Scholarswith active projects convene at the annual spring clinical section conference forsubstantive discussion of works in progress. The section events are always open toanyone attending the clinical conference.In September 2007, Bellow Scholar Brenda Blom organized and hosted a twodayconference at the University of Maryland. Invitees included Bellow Scholars,clinicians interested in empirical research, and social science researchers workingwith Brenda, with other Bellow Scholars, or whose scholarship focused on deliveryof legal services, the legal profession, or social justice lawyering. This interdisciplinaryconference was so successful that we were able to obtain financialsupport from the Clinical Section for a second conference in 2008 hosted by StanfordLaw School. When the University of Pennsylvania proposed to host a conferencein Fall 2009, we realized that we had institutionalized an annual, two-dayfall conference in addition to a two- to three-hour meeting at the annual ClinicalConference.The UDC conference in November 2010 advanced the Bellow Scholar agendain two important ways. First, the hosts and planning committee strengthened inter-disciplinaryparticipation by inviting a senior international legal services researcherfrom the Legal Services Research Centre (the policy research andanalysis division of legal services in England and Wales), the director of the NationalScience Foundation’s Law & Social Sciences Program, and representativesfrom the new Access to Justice Initiative at the Department of Justice. The secondimportant contribution of the UDC conference was the invitation to BellowScholars to submit articles based on their research for publication in this symposiumvolume of the UDC Law Review. This year the University of California atIrvine hosted the fall conference, and, following the structure of the UDC conference,the University of California at Irvine Law Review has invited submission ofpapers by Bellow Scholars for publication.Organizers of the fall 2011 Bellow Scholar Conference decided to meet in NewYork City in conjunction with the annual Clinical Law Review Writer’s Workshop.Going forward, the Bellow Scholar Conference will be held in conjunctionwith the Clinical Law Review Workshop in odd-numbered years (the fall 2013conference will be in New York City), and at host law schools in even-numberedyears (the 2014 conference will be held at the University of Notre Dame LawSchool).12 Mary Spector, From Representation to Research and Back Again: Reflections on Developingan Empirical Project, 16 UDC/DCSL L. REV. 55, 69 n.70 lists all of the Bellow Scholars and theirprojects. There are more than eighteen Bellow Scholars because some projects are partnerships.
\\jciprod01\productn\D\DCR\16-1\DCR106.txt unknown Seq: 7 11-FEB-13 12:31FOREWORD: THE WORK OF THE BELLOW SCHOLARS 7Most conference participants, both clinicians and social scientists, attend regularly,and this continuity promotes deeper understandings of ongoing researchand produces a common knowledge base that grows from year to year. The commoncore of participants also contributes to an atmosphere of familiarity andtrust that is conducive to frank exchange and debate. 13 The social scientists whoattend may be partners in Bellow Scholar Projects or may have scholarly interestsin lawyers, institutions of remedy, or modes of dispute resolution. As a result,participating clinicians (who are not all Bellow Scholars) learn how to work on aninter-disciplinary basis with researchers in sociology, anthropology, economics,and statistics.However, the most remarkable dimension of the Bellow Scholar Program isthat it is sustained by the interest of participants, the quality of the projects, andthe pleasure of working collaboratively across disciplines on issues of consequencefor our clients.III.THE WORK OF TWO BELLOW SCHOLARSThis symposium volume offers two interesting and important papers (a thirdBellow Scholar paper will be published in the next volume of the UDC LawReview). All are products of interdisciplinary empirical research relevant to acorner of the legal system where need or circumstance bring thousands of peopleinto contact with law, its processes, actors, and, ultimately, its outcomes. Bothresearch papers reflect the Bellow Scholar criteria of “important efforts to improvethe quality of justice” in the author’s respective communities. 14The article by Enrique S. Pumar and Faith Mullen concerns the central panelthat adjudicates unemployment insurance (UI) appeals in the District of Columbia.The crux of the underlying problem is that 3000 cases are filed each year, butfree- or low-cost representation is available for fewer than 600 claimants—lessthan twenty percent of the claimants who seek review. 15 This scenario is all toocommon in courts and administrative agencies throughout the country. Demandfor legal assistance far outstrips the supply of free or affordable representation.In such circumstances claimants have no choice but to represent themselves. Theresearchers, with Professor Mullen’s clinical law students, carried out a survey ofself-represented claimants with the goal of learning if unrepresented parties perceivedthat they were at a disadvantage. The interview instrument also includedinquiries about claimants’ understanding of the appeal process and the issues onwhich the administrative law judge would focus. The findings indicate that most13 Id. at 8-70. In part IV of her article in this volume, Mary Spector describes the value ofparticipation in the Bellow Scholar Program to her project.14 Enrique S. Pumar & Faith Mullen, The Plural of Anecdote is Not Data: Teaching Law StudentsBasic Survey Methodology to Improve Access to Justice in Unemployment Insurance Appeals, 16UDC/DCSL L. REV. 17 (2012).15 Id. at 24-25.
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