The Colloquium was held on Saturday, November 11. The event, which was attended by up to 30 people, including faculty from the 4 Louisiana law schools (a first I was told), began with a panel called "Toward Increased Collaboration among Law Schools and the Practicing Bar." This panel consisted of key players in Louisiana’s equal justice community, including legal services people, pro bono providers, and lawyers for the ACLU and ACORN (a national group devoted to community organizing). The discussion centered around legal needs in the state and how the groups represented by these lawyers have been responding.

The second panel, which was entitled "Expanding Collaboration: Universities, Community Organizations, and Law Schools," consisted of the very community-oriented director of the Loyola Clinic, a faculty member from Dillard University, and the head of New Orleans Community Labor United, an umbrella community reform organization. The sophisticated discussion here centered on the role of Universities in responding to communities and the complex theories and strategies that are required.

The keynote speaker at lunch was Gerald Lopez, now at NYU. Gerry gave a powerful talk on the need for and meaning of collaboration among faculty, institutions, and communities if equal justice and social reform is to be furthered. Gerry spoke highly of our Project, saying that he thought what we were up to was as "real" as anything he'd seen coming from the AALS. He complimented Elliott and our steering committee for taking the directions we did in the Colloquia Series.

The first afternoon panel, "Mainstreaming Law Courses and Community Involvement," consisted of faculty from 3 of the 4 Louisiana law schools. These faculty talked about the clinical work that each school did (or did not do) and classroom work on equal justice issues. The final panel, "Scholarship on Underserved Populations," featured faculty from all 4 LA law schools and a faculty member from Syracuse. Each member of the panel addressed the hard issues of legitimacy of such scholarship and gave examples of the difference that such scholarship can make. both for the individual and the outside world.

All told, the Colloquium opened up avenues for new collaboration among the 4 law schools and constituencies who had not been involved much with the law schools. For example, several members of a community organization from a rural area outside of New Orleans attended and spoke of their disappointing experiences with lawyers who had represented their community in an environmental contamination case. On the downside, the Colloquium unfortunately lacked much student attendance. Also, there was only one representative from a law school outside of Louisiana (from Texas).

Terry O'Neill will submit a more detailed report and she'll also talk about the follow-up efforts that were discussed at the Colloquium.

For further information, you may contact the local planner listed below:

Terry A. O'Neill
Tulane University School of Law
John Giffen Weinmann Hall
6329 Freret Street, New Orleans, LA 70118-5670
(504) 865-5963
toneill@law.tulane.edu