FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Chrissy Holman, CUNY Law
Email: communications@law.cuny.edu
Where will 250 Deans & Professors from NYC Area Law Schools be on Thursday and Friday?
Over 300 legal scholars, deans, faculty, administrators, and select students from NYC area law schools are convening to build a network committed to working together across roles and institutions to create an anti-racist climate in legal education.
On July 9th and 10th, Dean Mary Lu Bilek of CUNY Law and Professor Ellen Yaroshefsky of the Freedman Institute of Hofstra Law are gathering preeminent legal scholars and administrators to exchange resources and develop specific programs, plans, curricula, and ideas to build and implement a shared anti-racist agenda across legal institutions. This network aims to break down silos, deter marginalization, and catalyze real change led by the communities most directly affected by the racism embedded in the law and in legal education.
Dean Bilek remarked: “We think it is important to seize this moment of awareness and focus on the embedded racism in our country to ensure that law schools are admitting and preparing students to use the law in their careers to combat racism, not continue it.”
On day one, leaders will be tasked with defining and analyzing the racial climate of their respective institutions and identifying places where structural racism exists in their schools. Simulations to create an anti-racist campus will be led by Dean Yadira Ramos-Herbert at Columbia Law, Dean Angela Onwauchi- Willig at Boston University Law, Dean Karen Porter, Professor & Dean for Inclusion & Diversity at Brooklyn Law, Professor Darren Rosenblum at Pace Law, and Professor Jeena Shah at CUNY Law. They will be joined by alums Ibrahim Diallo, Columbia Law ’20 and Laisa Pertet, Hofstra Law ’16, and community representative Josmar Trujillo, a writer and organizer around unjust policing.
Day two will consist of breakout groups led by subject experts to explore practical applications of learned lessons in an anti-oppression framework. CUNY Law Senior Associate Dean and Professor Ann Cammett will close the discussion with ways to move forward to create a useful network, resources, and programs to implement change.
Professor Ellen Yaroshefsky is inspired that so many faculty, administrators, and students will convene to undertake the daunting task of proposing concrete action to dismantle institutional racism in our law schools and the legal profession. Faculty and administrators will return to their respective institutions with the beginning of an answer to the question: “What does an anti-racist law school look like?” and will start building a brave new (legal) world where Black Lives Matter. Stay tuned for more news on this movement as it develops.
The two-day event was written up by Karen Sloan, legal education editor at Law.com, in Ahead of the Curve, their weekly look at innovation and notable developments in legal education. An excerpt of the text is shared below, with the full version available to registered Law.com readers.
“I want to extend props to the City University of New York School of Law and the Hofstra University Maurice A. Deane School of Law for spearheading a two-day online conference last week with the goal of creating a cross-campus network of law schools dedicated to ending racism in legal education. The sessions drew 300 law school administrators, faculty, staff and students from New York area law schools. The idea is that schools will share resources and ideas for specific programs, curricula and other means to implement a shared anti-racist agenda. It’s the brainchild of CUNY Law dean Mary Lu Bilek and Hofstra professor Ellen Yoroshesky, who heads up the school’s Freedman Institute.
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“I like the collaborative aspect of the initiative: It doesn’t make sense for individual law schools to be having these discussions in silos when they can be sharing notes and approaches. Plus, I think it adds a level of accountability and added pressure to take meaningful action when schools are being compared to peer institutions. I’m hoping this new initiative has staying power…”