Left of Law School

On the season finale of Left of Law School, I review the highlights of the previous nine episodes and start to pull together a legal education reform agenda. To close out the episode, I tell my own story of how I reset my life and found meaning by following through on the small signs and emotions leading me to become an aspiring public interest lawyer. Keep up with Left of Law School on our website, leftoflawschool.com, through the LLS newsletter, and on Twitter @leftoflawschool. Thanks for listening and being a part of this community! Bonus episodes, a legal education reform agenda, and more to come.

Once you receive your first “professionalism” sermon from your law school career office or faculty member, it becomes obvious that being a law student comes with a certain set of expectations. We're taught to be civil, respectful, polite, traditionally suited-up, and clean-cut, supposedly because that's the image that law firms and judges buy when they look to hire associates and clerks. This culture of embracing conformity and adhering to traditional standards of lawyer-look and lawyer-speak tells students who don't fit the mold: “change or be left behind.” On this episode of LLS, we break that mold and talk about how we can instead teach and embrace “professionalism” as a culture of care about our clients, co-workers, and ourselves. Deeper than doctrine this week features an important blog post by Kendra Albert (@KendraSerra) deconstructing the traditional view of professionalism as “respect” and injecting some humanity into career coaching. Also, recent law grad Erick (@thepupusaplant) and rising 3L Hope Moreland (@Hope_Moreland) join me on this week's community conversation to talk about their experiences with race, sexuality, and identity in law school.

Like many of my peers, I would describe myself as interested in “civil rights work” after completing my first year of law school. But there's no 1L core curriculum around the concept of “civil rights.” What that means to us depends on our influences, neighbors, mentors, and what sort of issues and systems we are paying attention to in the news and in academia. Understanding modern civil rights work requires listening to people in need and de-centering lawyers' ideas and priors about what sort of lawsuits and changes oppressed people need. This week, with two leaders of the National Police Accountability Project, I discuss the different forms that modern civil rights work can take and the shifting targets of impact litigation and policy reform. Rachel Pickens, NPAP's Executive Director, and Lauren Bonds, NPAP's Legal Director, emphasize the need to challenge entire systems like policing, immigration detention, and the non-profit industrial complex.

Community is vital for progressive law students to make it through law school while keeping their sights set on the values that brought them there in the first place. Figuring out how to combine your values with your legal career is a difficult process, especially in a field that historically has served to hoard wealth, power, and status among the privileged. So what student groups and progressive legal networks are connecting and supporting law students on their path toward public interest careers? While there is no true progressive counterweight to the conservative Federalist Society, the American Constitution Society is at least trying. On this episode of LLS, we talk through ACS's work and shortcomings and alternative community and solidarity groups for progressive law students and new lawyers. One such alternative gaining attention, membership, and influence is the People's Parity Project. It was a pleasure speaking with Tristin Brown, PPP's Policy and Program Director, for this episode.

Many law students pursue a legal career because they want to wield, or at least understand, the power of the law to influence, control, protect, and endanger people. The challenges faced by law students that we're highlighting on this podcast provide ample opportunity for future lawyers to practice their skills in influencing people in power by pushing for a more inclusive, fair, and welcoming legal education environment. At law school campuses across the country, students are organizing against predatory conditional scholarships, racism on campus, police violence, and more. On the deeper than doctrine segment this week, I cover two examples of law student activism happening at Seattle University School of Law and Harvard Law School. I also tee up a discussion on a recent action for police accountability held by law students at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Two students who participated in that action, Jakini Ingram and Kendall Beard, join me for a law student community conversation about student activism and their time in law school more broadly.

Ableism manifests in both individual and systemic ways in legal education. In addition to the financial and cultural barriers we talked about last week on LLS, law schools often fail students with disabilities by not having a dedicated disability advocate or coordinator to ensure equity of opportunity and treatment. On top of that, the grading and ranking system fails both to recognize how students learn in many different ways and to acknowledge that people attend law school in pursuit of many different types of legal work, not just Biglaw and clerkships. This week, Kira Sharp and Erin Brind'Amour join me to talk through some of these issues in our law student community conversation. Then, I speak with AJ Link (@knilirabaj), co-president of the National Disabled Law Students Association, about his advocacy and experience in support of disability rights in law school. AJ also provided many of the resources listed below. Special thanks to Chloe Palmer for providing articles to help develop the episode.

The bar exam was established in an effort to “purify” the profession and to counter an “overcrowding” of lawyers in the early 20th Century. The modern bar exam is little more than an educational redundancy and a barrier keeping less wealthy people from entering the profession. In deeper than doctrine this week, we cover how law school and the legal profession erect elitist barriers before, during, and after law school. Then, I'm joined by law students Maddie Newingham and Eleni Christofides to discuss their personal experiences with the gatekeeping and elitist elements of law school. Finally, I interview Octavia Carson (@OctaviaViento), founder of the Community Fund for Black Bar Applicants. We talk about Octavia's law school experience and their work to diversify the legal profession by directly funding Black bar applicants. To learn more about the fund, or to donate funds or apply for funds, check out blackbarapplicantfund.com.

Many law students who care about serving historically marginalized and oppressed groups of people consider public defense work at some point while pursuing their JD. Jonathan Rapping, founder of Gideon's Promise, says public defenders are carrying out modern civil rights work. On this episode of LLS, we explore the appeal and the challenge of public defender careers. I talk with two law students, Flannery Mack and Jessica Akerman, about their interest in becoming public defenders. I also interview Rhiannon (@Aywarhiannon) from the 5-4 podcast about her work as a public defender and her time as a progressive law student. Featured resource: Gideon's Army (documentary)

This week I'm joined by Amna Akbar, professor of law at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, to talk about the past and future of critical legal education. I also speak with law students Joey Oteng (@drjotengii and host of the How We Feel Podcast) and Morgan Mackay (@usermorgan324) who share their thoughts on learning about prison and police abolition and being radicalized by the law school experience. In this week's Deeper than Doctrine segment, I share some thoughts from Danielle Sered on the violence of the carceral system and explore how law schools could incorporate more critical ideas about the legal system into students' required coursework and experiential learning. Check out leftoflawschool.com for links to all the resources mentioned on the show. Featured resource: Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair by Danielle Sered

Our first episode is all about the progressive student community. We talk about the reasons why people with progressive values come to law school and how the experience can be isolating and radicalizing. Check out leftoflawschool.com for links to all the resources mentioned on the show. Featured resource: For Those Considering Law School by Dean Spade

Left of Law School (LLS) provides guidance and community for students navigating law school while holding true to their progressive values. Through resource guides, interviews, discussions, and storytelling, the LLS podcast empowers progressive law students with the tools and community needed to survive the conservative formalism of law school and to emerge better prepared to support movements for social justice as lawyers and skeptics of the system.