Peter Joy, Washington University [See "Political Interference with Clinical Legal Education: Denying Access to Justice," 74 Tul. L. Rev. 235 (1999)]
Speakers: K.T. Albiston, Ph.D. Candidate, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California
Frances Lee Ansley, University of Tennessee
Elizabeth M. Iglesias, University of Miami
Lisa Jordan, Esquire, New Orleans, Louisiana
Patricia Malancon, Convent, Louisiana
William P. Quigley, Loyola University, New Orleans
Until 1998, the Tulane University Law School Environmental Clinic ("the Clinic") experienced a string of successes in blocking construction of chemical plants in low-income, largely African American communities that already bear a disproportionate burden of environmental harm in the region. In response to the Clinic's successful litigation strategy, the business community mobilized and succeeded in convincing the legislature and courts, including the Louisiana Supreme Court, to limit the student practice rule in the state, effectively barring the Clinic from future representation in similar actions.
We have chosen the experience of the Tulane Clinic as the vehicle through which we can explore the theme of our program: is litigation an effective means of achieving justice? We will begin with video excerpts from a recent PBS FRONTLINE show that tells the story of the Tulane experience. Immediately thereafter, a clinical law professor and a former client of the Clinic will discuss the question of whether the underlying litigation, which resulted in a positive ruling but which precipitated the restrictions on the Clinic's practice, ultimately was experienced as a victory for the litigants.
In the second part of our program, three commentators will explore what it means to try to use litigation to achieve justice, using the Tulane case study as an example, and making reference to other contexts where the poor and powerless have been restrained from using litigation as a primary means of seeking redress, such as the Legal Services restrictions. Our panelists will discuss how communities can respond when faced with restrictions on their access to justice, including developing new means of trying to achieve their goals, and will examine the role of settlements in creating lost opportunities for creating good law.
The third part of the program will involve the audience in seeking creative alternative methods to achieving justice when the litigation option is unavailable, undesirable, or insufficient in and of itself. We will break up into small groups, asking each group to respond to a number of questions, encouraging active and meaningful brainstorming to respond to specific social justice issues where the traditional use of litigation may not be an effective or available means of achieving justice. Finally, the group will report back to the plenary the mechanisms they have identified to achieve their goals.
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