The overall Colloquium was introduced by Karen Tokarz, Director of the clinical program at Washington University, and the lead planner for the event. She discussed the litany of legal needs in Missouri and surrounding areas and welcomed the 217 participants at the Colloquium. In attendance were 40 faculty and staff from Missouri and law schools in surrounding states, 50 legal services lawyers, 25 public defenders, 40 government and public interest lawyers 20 people from area community organizations, 15 judges, and 25 Clinic students. Karen noted that the Colloquium was designed to highlight existing legal needs, to document equal justice work, and to strategize about and develop new collaborations to build on the arrangements that have already been forged between law schools and the area equal justice communities.

The first session, Challenges to Achieving Equal Justice, led off with a talk by Mike Wolff, a Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court. He emphasized the power of the legal profession as an entree to economic and social justice and discussed the early history of federally funded legal services. He noted that a formative goal was to place the best students in the field for a period of time and then expect them to take the ideals and values that they forged doing legal services work into the private law firm sector.

Sandra Moore of Urban Strategies followed. A former legal services lawyer, Sandra discussed the work of her firm in urban development and affordable housing. She highlighted the myriad of access to justice issues in her work. She detailed the host of "justice" issues that inhere in her work (e.g., issues concerning putative fathers, the drug-addicted elderly, etc.), and urged that these issues can only be addressed effectively through creative collaborations among lawyers, community people, university people, and others. She noted the limited value of litigation ("it's too slow") in resolving these systemic concerns.

Dan Gralike, the State's Deputy Public Defender spoke next. He elaborated on the various meaning of "justice" and concluded that it's how we apply justice, not define it, that counts. "It's how we practice what we know" that makes the largest difference. He lamented the significant differential in salaries paid today by private law firms compared to what his office is able to pay young lawyers (and old) lawyers.

Dionne Miller, the Director of Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, called the Colloquium "an important conference. Although many at the Colloquium have "practiced" networking for quite some time, it has never been enough to meet the pressing needs of clients. Welcoming the "historic" opportunity to cross-fertilize, Dionne stressed that state studies have shown that 80% of the legal needs of the poor in Missouri are not met. She said that the organized opposition from the right--the Farm Bureau, etc.--do not understand the mediating role that law plays in our society and the importance of according poor people equal rights in the legal system.

The final speaker was Greg Casey, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Missouri. He is engaged in a project to evaluate the effectiveness of the delivery of civil legal services in Missouri. He lamented the fact that there is a "complete void" in the academic literature on issues of delivery of legal services. He strongly recommended that the academics in the room collaborate on interdisciplinary projects on the multitude of issues around the delivery of legal services.

The second plenary session was entitled "Envisioning a Future With Equal Justice." Ed Roth, a lawyer who is the President of the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners, led by deconstructing the various definitions of justice: decisional, transactional, and organizational. He focused on the lawyer, talking about the various qualities that lawyers must possess to work for justice, qualities like discipline, patience, understanding, collegiality, etc. He recounted what Jerry Brown, the Mayor of Oakland, said in a recent speech on "Equal Access to Justice": the key to equal justice is everyone doing what is within their grasp.

The next speaker was Jacqueline Kutnik of the Childrens' Legal Alliance, a legal services project for children and families. She discussed the "holistic' model of representation that her project follows in providing educational advocacy. She discussed the systemic issues of housing and jobs that affect education, and the persistence of mental health issues afflicting many school children. She discussed her collaborative work with the Youth Advocacy Unit of the Public Defenders Office, her training with the juvenile court, and her supervision of JD-MSW students who engage in research designed to support impact litigation. She particularly emphasized the need for more legal and other players in this critically dynamic field.

Michael Duffy of the Community Economic Development Unit of Legal Aid of Kansas City discussed his lawyering work in inner city KC. He recounted the time he spent visiting people in their homes and talking. What emerged from this work was an emphasis on education and housing. To empower clients, he discussed strengthening existing community organizations (e.g., churches and economic justice groups), building consumer power (e.g., building access to credit and combatting predatory lending), forging political power, and cultivating media power.

Rudy Nickens, the VP of St. Louis 2004, a broad-based community organization, discussed "proactive collaboration." In St. Louis, his group is seeking to identify priorities for change to be incorporated into an Action Plan embodying various systemic initiatives, e.g., fighting youth and gang violence, improving minority hiring, etc. He explained an initiative coordinated by the U.S. Attorney's Office that organized government agencies, clergy, schools, courts, etc. in an effort to combat youth violence by removing guns from the community, providing a range of opportunities for youth, etc.

Finally, Pete Salsich of St. Louis University Law School talked about a collaborative of lawyers, architects, social workers, accountants, and others to develop affordable housing in the St. Louis area. He described an interdisciplinary course that he teaches in which students from these disciplines work with community groups to develop housing opportunities. He stressed the value of students doing "fieldwork" in teams, of talking across disciplines (even when the disciplines clash), of confronting the importance of overcoming "professional arrogance, and the signal value of "engagement" in the projects that the course tackles.

During lunch, the Colloquia participants broke up into a variety of interest groups covering the range of civil and criminal work that was represented at the conference. The groups were charged with coming up with ideas on how law schools can enhance the on-going efforts that currently exist in collaborating around equal justice issues. Karen Tokarz has agreed to share these lists in time.

There were two afternoon sessions. The first focused on technology and the opportunities available on the web for researching equal justice issues. This presentation, which was done by several members of the Wash. U. faculty, took the audience on a guided excursion through the extraordinary range of material now available for free on the web. Michael Ruiz of Southern Illinois University Law School also presented a web-based look at the Self Help Legal Center that he directs at SIU: see www.law.siu.edu/selfhelp. The purpose of this unique project is to provide a range of information to people with the goal of assisting them in the resolution of their legal disputes. Law student work at the Self Help Center by fielding an array of questions from individuals who call in for assistance. Among many benefits, Mike noted that the students become teachers in the course of their advice-giving. The Project is funded by the Illinois Equal Justice Commission and SIU Law School.

The concluding session was called "Celebrating Steps Toward Access to Equal Justice." The former U.S. Attorney based in St. Louis, Audrey Fleissig, began by listing the achievements accomplished by her office in areas such a hate crimes, violence against women, removing guns from the streets, and bringing services to inner city neighborhoods through community policing, the creation of safe havens, etc.

Dimitri Gay of the St. Louis Municipal Courts followed with a presentation about the City's neighborhood justice system. This system is composed of several specialized courts. These include a female drug court, a mental health court, and a "quality of life" court. The projects' work concentrated on restoring neighborhoods through creative judicial intervention (e.g., orders of supervision). He also discussed the relationships that the project has developed with the two law schools in St. Louis.

Barbara Glesner-Fine of UMKC Law School, a self-defined classroom teacher of subjects such as family law and professional responsibility, movingly discussed her work with other academics around the state on domestic violence issues, including a Clemency Project for women. Barbara noted that every law school in the state became involved in this single project, and its results were outstanding. Growing out of her work with the Clemency Project, Barbara helped to create a Project on Battered Immigrant Women, which brings together family violence advocates and lawyers, immigration lawyers, and others. Barbara listed six lessons that she learned in the collaborative work that she has engaged in. They are:

1. People should not hesitate to ask law school faculty members (particularly nonclinicians) to get involved. If they agree to, they will bring student resources to bear on the project.
2. Think beyond the borders in addressing the underlying issues--holistic and interdisciplinary boundaries should be expanded.
3. Build in a spiritual reserve--opportunities for reinvigorating one's commitment. This bolstering can come from the relationships established while working on an equal justice project.
4. Be patient with collaboration--it is often messy. We should "let it happen" and provide leadership when appropriate.
5. Look for related collaborations--use your knowledge to consult with others.
6. Learn from your clients.

The final speaker of the session was Susan Rosenberg, who had just been released by President Clinton after serving a 16-year federal sentence as a political prisoner. Susan glowingly talked about the assistance--legal and otherwise-- that she had received from Jane Aiken of the Wash. U. faculty and Jane's students. She described her struggle for justice while in prison, a living, breathing existence. She urged law schools to reestablish prisoners’ rights clinics, emphasizing that prisoners, like few other groups of people, talk passionately and intelligently about social justice.

Karen Tokarz concluded the Colloquium by noting the "countless unfinished conversations" generated during the day. She promised to help coordinate future efforts (but not too soon!). I received a letter following the Colloquium from Susan Frelich Appleton, Wash. University's Associate Dean. She said: "The number of participants, the quality of the exchanges, and the enthusiasm of those present all exceeded our expectations. We are proud to have been part of this AALS initiative, and we hope the collaborations forged on Friday improve access to justice in Missouri."

You may view a pdf version of the colloquium brochure. To view the colloquium brochure you must have the Adobe Reader program, which may already be on your computer. If not, you can download it for free from Adobe.

You may also contact the local planner listed below:

Karen L. Tokarz
Washington University School of Law
One Brookings Drive, Campus Box 1120-Anheuser-Busch Hall
St. Louis, MO 63130
(314) 935-6414
tokarz@wulaw.wustl.edu