Summary Prepared by Mary Helen McNeal, University of Montana

The Arkansas Colloquium went very well. Attendance was approximately 30-35 people. Everyone who was there actively and enthusiastically participated, and people attended from a variety of schools in the area. There was much good discussion, and a list of ideas for promoting equal justice was generated. One of the highlights was the final talk by Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Wendall Griffin. (See more below.)

The morning began with a welcome by the Dean Bob Moberly of the U. of Arkansas, Fayetteville. (Dean Moberly, incidentally, stayed for the entire program.) There was a morning keynote by Deborah Rhode on “Equal Justice Under Law,” in which she addressed conceptual failures, judicial failures, and the profession’s failures in taking equal justice seriously. Her draft piece on the same topic was circulated and will be published in an upcoming law review symposium there on equal justice issues.

I then moderated a panel on the needs in the community. There were two presenters, Rod Uphoff of the University of Oklahoma on criminal justice issues and Frank Head of the Catholic Immigration Services of Northwest Arkansas on the legal needs of the area’s growing immigrant community. Rod highlighted, among other things, the disparities in indigent defense representation from state to state. Frank addressed the impact of the lack of legal services for the immigrant community in the region.

The final morning presenter was Grif Stockley, a long time legal services lawyer and advocate. He provided a nice history of legal services, from its early days to its current restricted status. He described the limited focus of current programs, and suggested that the academy could assist in analyzing delivery systems.

Lunchtime offered a panel discussing equal justice issues in teaching, scholarship and service. Tom Sullivan of UALR discussed the role of service to the profession, the legal community, and the law. He encouraged us to work to educate the bar and to take on legal work. Tom acknowledged that there will be tough calls, and said that if “academic freedom means anything ...we must accept the fact that service is going to be controversial.” His comments were peppered with stories from his own work handling death penalty matters and criminal defense cases. He also suggested that we should work toward changes in the law. He highlighted UALR’s Journal of Appellate Practice and Procedure, which is mailed to every appellate judge in the country, as an example of a creative faculty project that can be influential.

Bob Lawrence of U. Arkansas Fayetteville talked about equal justice issues in our teaching. He focused primarily on his work teaching Bankruptcy, Contracts, and Debtor/Creditors Rights.

John DiPippa of UALR filled in for Rod Smith, of Memphis, whose plane was canceled. Reading Rod’s remarks and ad-libbing, John emphasized the need to have a pervasive service ethic through which all work, including clinical work, is evaluated. He recommended that every legal project be subjected to an internal service standard. He encouraged scholarship that is more than self-referential “academic poetry” and suggested an “impact requirement” for scholarship. There was an interesting question and answer session following these presentations, much of which focused on what kind of work we reward within the law school institutional setting and how that might be changed.

Although the original plan was to have break-out groups in the afternoon, we decided to keep the group together. Tom Sullivan launched the discussion with a film clip from “Just Cause,” where the grandmother of a man on death row pleads with a law professor to take her grandson’s case. The professor has just finished presenting a lecture on these issues, but initially tells the woman he is a teacher, not a lawyer, and cannot help. It was a very moving scene and a great jumping off point. We then brainstormed more specific ways we can more effectively address equal justice issues in our teaching, scholarship, and service, and within our institutions themselves.

The final speaker of the program was outstanding. Judge Wendall Griffin of the Arkansas Supreme Court, who is also a Baptist minister, opened by saying that this conference was the first effort of its kind in Arkansas, and one that has long been needed. He had three major exhortations: 1) To agitate - within the bar, among public policy makers, and the general public; 2) To be sophisticated about access to justice, and creative and innovative about responses to retrenchment. Do not expect to be politically rewarded for your work in the trenches; and 3) To be resilient. This inspirational message was a wonderful and motivating end, and one that I think inspired all of us to continue our work and to involve others in equal justice issues.

For further information, you may contact one of the local planners listed below:

Michael W. Mullane
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Leflar Law Center
Waterman Hall, Fayetteville, AR 72701
(501) 575-3056
mullane@comp.uark.edu