City News NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD – NYC CHAPTER Summer 2014 Mass Incarceration Launches Parole Preparation Project The NLG-NYC Mass Incarceration six to nine months. date to look at risk, rehabilitation, readiness Committee (MIC) has had an exciting sum- Volunteers will collaborate with parole for release, and an array of other factors mer! On June 11th, we held a training for applicants to gather necessary documentation when determining an individual’s eligibility volunteers interested in participating in for upcoming parole hearings, and work with for release, disproportionately emphasizing the Parole Preparation Project. The Project them on practicing for the actual interview. the seriousness of an individual’s crime of aims to pair volunteers (law students, social Volunteers will also support volunteers in conviction. The results are both unlawful workers, family and friends of incarcerated soliciting meaningful letters of support from and unethical. This flawed system weakens persons among others) with individuals who friends, family, co-workers, and the Project morale among those who have worked hard face long prison sentences and have been will write letters of support as well. to rehabilitate themselves only to find their repeatedly denied parole. Approximately 40 The Project exists in response to our efforts go unrewarded as they are repeatedly people attended the training, most commit- broken New York State parole system. The denied release. ting to working on the project over the next Board of Parole routinely violates its man- In addition, in part because of parole denials, nearly 9,000 elderly persons remain incarcerated throughout New York. Though these individuals recidivate at the low rate INSIDE THIS ISSUE: of approximately 3%, and many suffer from COMMITTEE UPDATES...... 2 serious, life-threatening health issues, the Animal Rights Committee Update Cookbook Board of Parole has repeatedly shown a lack Labor and Employment Provides Programs for Workers Advocates of common sense and human decency by SPRING FLING 2014...... 3-5 refusing to grant their release. The members of the NLG-NYC Mass GUILD IN ACTION...... 6 Incarceration Committee are dedicated to fight- MEMBER NEWS...... 7 ing these inhumane Parole Board practices. Not In MemoriAm: Allan Botshon...... 8 only does the Parole Preparation Project aim to enable more individuals to be released, we hope A Note of Appreciation to the NLG Membership to galvanize more individuals to participate in By Heidi Boghosian For Its Tradition of Service to the People...... 9 the fight against mass incarceration. CONGRATULATIONS LAW SCHOOL GRADUATES!...... 9 To increase our capacity to move this work forward, the Committee has enlisted the help of two summer volunteers, Claude Heffron and Cristina Lee. Both are commit- ted to social justice and are working hard to coordinate volunteers and parole applicants in addition to preparing materials to simplify the parole preparation process. On another front, the Mass Incarceration Committee participated in the Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC)’s Lobby Day for their HALT Solitary Confinement Act, A.8588A / S.6466A. More than 140 people attended with CAIC, meet- ing with 70 legislators and participating in a statewide Rally Against Prison Injustice Please consider joining us in support of the HALT Solitary Confinement Bill and our effort to assist individuals seeking parole. For more information about meetings, becoming a part of the NLG-NYC Mass Incarceration Jan Susler, Hillary Exter, Daniel Meyers, Ellen Friedland, Kafahni Nkrumah, and Natasha Bannan Committee, or volunteering with the Parole march in the Puerto Rican Day Parade (see Guild in Action). Preparation Project, please contact Nora at [email protected]. NATIONAL COMMITTEES UPDATE LAWYERS GUILD New York City News Editorial Board Bruce K. Bentley Michael Fahey Animal Rights Activism Committee Susan C. Howard Ben Meyers Paul Mills Completes Social Justice Cookbook Ann M. Schneider Graphic Design: Judith Rew In the 1970’s, the National Lawyers Guild com- Chapter Officers piled members’ favorite recipes and published the President Guild’s first-ever Social Justice Cookbook. The SOCIAL Elena L. Cohen last copy was sold at the 2013 Spring Fling. Now, Vice Presidents the NYC Chapter of the NLG Animal Rights JUSTICE Yetta G. Kurland Activism Committee is thrilled to announce the Mark Taylor completion of an updated edition of this radical COOKBOOK Treasurer cookbook, highlighting how today’s struggles Carl Lipscombe against oppression and inequality are directly EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE related to what we eat. Beena Ahmad Bina Ahmad The personal is political. Each time we sit Susan Barrie down to eat, we make not solely a personal Bruce K. Bentley choice, but also a political one. This second edi- Robert J. Boyle tion of the Social Justice Cookbook addresses a Hillary Exter Cristina Gallo variety of food justice issues, including environ- Lauren Gazzola mental issues, sustainability, affordable access to Emily Hoffman healthy food as a right and not a privilege, and Susan C. Howard Joel R. Kupferman animal liberation. Rose Regina Lawrence As with other food justice and social justice Devin McDougall issues, eating animals is no more a personal choice Sally Mendola than oppressing other humans is a personal Ben Meyers Daniel L. Meyers “choice”. This cookbook aims to show animals as Ann M. Schneider living, loving, and loved individuals, rather than national lawyers guild Geoff Schotter as meals. On a broader scale, we hope this cook- Heidi J. Siegfried Marc Alain Steier book begins to make long-overdue connections Martin R. Stolar between the radical Left and animal liberation. scientific torture/experimentation. We hope that, Susan C. Howard If we are truly an anti-oppression movement, next time you sit down to eat, you make compas- Executive Director then we stand in solidarity with all beings sub- sionate choices—and we hope that this cookbook jected to violence and oppression worldwide: the COMMITTEE CONTACTS helps you do that. undocumented, the incarcerated, communities of Anti-Racism Committee Garrett Wright color, the occupied, political dissidents, and those Copies will be available for purchase at the National whose bodies are treated merely as reproductive Convention, or e-mail us at [email protected] to Animal Rights Committee animalrights at nlg.org machines, fabric, entertainment, food, and for pre-order your copy today! Environmental Committee Joel Kupferman Feminist Caucus feministcaucus at nlgnyc.org Labor and Employment Committee Housing Committee Steven Dobkin Labor and Employment Committee Offers Programs for Workers Advocates Cristina Gallo This summer the Labor & State, the limits on concerted campaigns, and the scope of the Mass Defense Committee Employment Committee (LEC) activity under the Taylor Law protection of this activity under Bruce Bentley, Ben Meyers continued to provide educational and the impact of those lim- OSHA and the NLRA. Mass Incarceration Committee programs for workers’ rights its, and current issues regarding Building the Guild was on Nora Carroll advocates in the New York City whether charter school teachers the LEC’s agenda, too. On May Military Law Committee area. On June 18, the LEC and are covered under federal or state 22, the LEC hosted a happy hour Aaron Frishberg the Cardozo School of Law Labor labor law. to congratulate our members in Muslim Defense Project Bina Ahmad and Beena Ahmad & Employment Society co-spon- Then on July 22, the LEC the graduating class of 2014. sored a CLE at CWA Local 1180 organized Workers’ Rights on The LEC also gathered current Newsletter Committee Susan Howard entitled Organizing the Public the Job: Safety and Health Issues, law students, LEC members, Next Generation Committee Sector: Recent Developments hosted by Outten & Golden LLP. and others in the workers’ nextgen at nlgnyc.org and Future Challenges. The The session focused on the criti- rights community for its annual Street Law Team panelists covered the history of cal relationship between OSHA Labor & Employment Intern Hannah Mercuris public sector bargaining and and the NLRA, the practical Reception at Outten & Golden organizing in New York City and use of health and safety law in LLP on June 12.

2 • National Lawyers Guild-NYC News • www.nlgnyc.org Summer 2014 spring fling 2014 President’s Welcome These are the welcoming remarks by chapter president Elena L. Cohen at this year’s Spring Fling on May 9th at Riverside Church.

Welcome to the National Lawyers Guild-NYC Chapter’s Guild’s struggle for social justice, both in New York City and 2014 Spring Fling! This year, we are delighted to honor the well past our borders. Center for Constitutional Rights’ Floyd v. City of New York I am also extremely proud of the New York City Chapter for team, Jonathan Moore, and law student Alex Gorman. As beginning to discuss how animal issues fit within the Guild’s you will read in the articles that follow, the work of the CCR struggle against all forms of oppression, no matter how soci- Stop and Frisk team, along with the community organizing etally entrenched. Tonight’s vegetarian meal is a meaningful and involvement so crucial to their success, has been monu- and concrete reflection of these efforts, and reflects the Guild’s mentally inspiring and has already had a profoundly positive historic place on the cutting edge of social justice. I am honored impact on over-policed communities in New York City. So, to be the President of this organization as it works through how too, has activist and law student Alex Gorman’s work with we can recognize and work to end all exercises of power backed the Street Law team empowered marginalized youth to exer- by violence. cise their rights in the face of aggressive policing inside and I am further overjoyed that tonight we can celebrate the vic- outside of their schools. tory of our long battles to free Lynne Stewart, Eddie Conway It is also my pleasure to reflect upon the amazing work and Jerry Koch. The Guild fought for fellow member and of our committees. Within the past year, the Chapter’s Mass radical defense attorney Lynne Stewart, pushing against the Defense Committee has provided volunteer legal observers at government’s attempt to silence Lynne and isolate her case more than 100 demonstrations and coordinated over a dozen from public discourse. While the government attempted to Guild attorneys who have represented defendants in more than use her case to instill fear in others who defend the oppressed 600 court appearances. The Anti-Racism Committee presented and advocate for dignity and human rights, Lynne stood her a CLE on community land trusts, while the Environmental ground, just as she stood her ground defending those the rest of Justice Committee filed a lawsuit against the NYCHA infill plan the world had long abandoned: Muslims, people of color, and and successfully worked to stop the open-air burning of Sandy those the government labeled “terrorists.” We further applaud harbor debris at Floyd Bennett Field. The Muslim Defense and celebrate the work of member Bob Boyle in the release of Project provided legal and activist support for Muslim and COINTELPRO target and ex-Black Panther Marshall “Eddie” Palestinian human rights activists facing government persecu- Conway after 44 years behind bars, as well as the work of Moira tion in the courts, in addition providing defense to a Muslim Meltzer-Cohen, Susan Tipograph, Gráinne O’Neill and David civil rights activist in a defamation case designed to chill the Rankin in securing the release of environmental activist and speech of the community. The Street Law Team conducted anarchist Jerry Koch who was imprisoned for over 8 months Know Your Rights trainings throughout the city, focusing without being charged with a crime, after his refusal to be particularly on youth, people of color, and residents of over- coerced into cooperating with a federal grand jury subpoena. policed neighborhoods. The Mass Incarceration Committee To this joyous list of releases we must note the sobering convic- held a training on parole preparation and launched a Parole tion and sentencing of Jeremy Hammond to 10 years in federal Preparation Project to assist people seeking parole release prison for leaking information that revealed that a private in New York State. The Next Generation Committee held intelligence firm had been spying on human rights activists at another successful City-wide Disorientation, and the Labor the behest of the U.S. government. We also honor the memory and Employment Committee presented CLEs on organizing of labor lawyer and former NYC Chapter President Ralph and lawyering for fast-food workers and on the constitutional, Shapiro. civil and labor rights under siege in Detroit. The Animal Rights Lastly, and certainly not least, I would like to thank the Activism Committee, the Chapter’s newest committee, held members of the Spring Fling committee for the immense panels in NYC, Boston and at Yale’s RebLaw conference, amount of work they have put into planning tonight’s gather- co-sponsored an event on the practicalities of making FOIA ing, Susan Howard for securing an alternate space for this event and FOIL requests, and is completing an updated NLG Social at such short notice, and to the Riverside Church for hosting Justice Cookbook. These are but a few examples of the ways in us. Enjoy tonight’s celebration, and I look forward to Building which the Chapter’s committees work everyday to continue the the Guild with all of you, for years to come.

Summer 2014 National Lawyers Guild-NYC News • www.nlgnyc.org • 3 Photos by Jonathan Lantz Delaney, Madison, Jonathan Mooreand Carol Sharpe. Radhika SainathandSureshNaidu Ralph PoynterandLynneStewart Michael Krinsky,Jim ReifandAnnSchneider 4 • 4 Nation al Center for Constitutional Rights Team: Baher Azmy • Darius Charney • Ian Head • Sunita Patel • Chauniqua Young; Chauniqua • Patel Sunita • Head Ian • Charney Darius • Azmy Baher Team: Rights Constitutional for Center Spring Flingsuccessfulandinspiring C News • News Guild-NYC Lawyers Thanks formakingthisyear’s Ian Head Vince Warren,BaherAzmy,SunitaPatel,ChauniquaYoung,DariusCharneyand Alex Gormanatthepodium Honoring theFloydStop&FriskTeam:JonathanMoore; www.nlgnyc.org spring fling2014 Mark Taylor,DaveRankinandGarrettKaske Samantha Godwin, DianaMarino,andDanielGross Shane Kadidal,Gowri Krishna,MichaelHaber, Law StudentHonoree:AlexGorman

Carl Lipscombe Martin Stolar,Eric Poulis,rear,andAlanD.Levine Dawson Marc Steier,DawnKellyandRena Joan ReinmuthandStevenSandler Summer 2014 Moira Meltzer-Cohen, DanShockley,andMollyKnefel Robinson andRoseReginaLawrence Andy Izenson,ErickSutterlund,MoiraMeltzer-Cohen,Abigail and DannyGreenberg Danny Alterman,SamHimmelstein,CraigKaplan Goodman Myron Beldock,JonathanMoore,andBill Beena AhmadandHeidiSiegfried Summer 2014 Chauniqua Young Lauren Gazzola,MeejinRichart,SunitaPatel,BinaAhmad,and spring fling2014 RogerWarehamandfriendwithRobertBoyle with RayBerti,Emily Brouwer,andJonMoore,right. Josh Moskovitz center, Michael Leonard in background, Evelyn andMichaelTarifWarren Paul KeefeandAmandaJack Nation al C News • News Guild-NYC Lawyers Elena Cohenopeningremarks Frank HandelmanandDavidLewis Frank andJeannie Mirer Rossein Deborah Rand,AlanD.Levine,andRick Martin StolarandBenMeyers www.nlgnyc.org • 5

Photos by Jonathan Lantz guild in action

Chapter treasurer Carl Lipscombe con- vened the NYC Chapter’s first everS trategic Campaign Committee on August 6 at NYU’s Furman Hall. The committee will seek to FIGHTING EVICTIONS implement the set of programmatic goals adopted earlier this year by the Executive Nearly 30,000 families were evicted in New York City last year. Two-thirds of them Committee. The plan is to identify local cam- had annual incomes below $25,000, and two-thirds live with children under 18. Last paigns for the chapter to engage as a coalition year 250,000 New Yorkers were served with eviction papers, and 99% of them faced partner. their housing court case without an attorney. The NLG-NYC Housing Committee, chaired by Steve Dobkin of Collins, Dobkin & Miller, has signed on as a member The Labor & Employment Committee of the Coalition to Bring Justice to Housing Court which supports New York City presented a speakers panel and Q&A on Council Intro-214, which would provide legal counsel for low-income tenants who are Workers’ Rights on the Job: Safety and Health subject to eviction, ejectment or foreclosure proceedings. Issues on July 22. The event was hosted by The Housing Committee is also a member of the Real Affordability For All (RAFA) employee-side labor firm Outten & Golden, coalition which insists that housing policy should not be controlled by the 1%, and and focused on the affirmative use of health calls for a comprehensive program to preserve and produce affordable housing: non- and safety laws in organizing and campaign profit initiatives; rent stabilization; Home Rule; Mitchell-Lama; Section 8; public efforts: “Workers and their representatives housing; code enforcement; developer restrictions and incentives; Hurricane Sandy have extensive rights to participate in the recovery programs; and progressive finance, zoning, tax, and land use strategies. enforcement of job safety and health laws. Read the RAFA platform here: http://coalhome.3cdn.net/1b1d743c30b064ba1a_ But few workers exercise those rights – even y7m6bnd7e.pdf. in unionized settings. This session will explore the critical role that workers and their repre- sentatives play during Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspections and 12. The event, hosted by Outten & Golden, training/workshop for new volunteers at related enforcement proceedings, and the allowed interns working for unions, union NYU School of Law on June 11. ways that such participation can support and employee-side firms, workers’ rights efforts to fully secure workers’ rights under organizations, and labor and employment- A contingent from the chapter marched on the National Labor Relations Act and other related government agencies to meet other Fifth Avenue in the Puerto Rican Day Parade laws prohibiting retaliation for safety-related students working in the New York City area, on June 8. The theme was Un Pueblo, Muchas activities.” and to learn about job opportunities in the Voces/One People, Many Voices, and the parade labor and employment fields. organizers called for the release of long-time On July 10, the chapter signed on to the political prisoner, Oscar López Rivera, who amicus brief filed by the Asian American Legal The NLG-NYC Mass Incarceration was arrested in 1981 in the course of the Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) in Committee was part of a statewide coalition struggle for the independence of Puerto Rico. Hassan v. NYC, the lawsuit against the NYPD of groups which organized a demonstra- Representing the chapter were Beena Ahmad, for its indiscriminate surveillance of Muslims tion and lobby day, Convergence on Prison Stephan Ali, Hillary Exter, Ellen Friedland, in New Jersey. Plaintiffs include a decorated Injustice in Albany on May 5: “Stop Solitary Danny Meyers, Hoda Mitwally, Kafahni Iraq war veteran, Rutgers University students, Confinement, Reform Parole, Release Elders, Nkrumah, Vanessa Ramos, and Marty Stolar. the Muslim Student Association of Rutgers, a Create a Truth/Justice Commission”. Cornel coalition of New Jersey mosques, and a grade- West was the keynote speaker, and the pri- The chapter co-sponsored 50 Years of Radical school for Muslim girls. Plaintiffs are seeking mary focus was lobbying for passage of HALT, Lawyering since Freedom Summer, a confer- an order terminating the surveillance, destroy- the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term ence organized by the Bertha Justice Institute ing any records, and awarding damages. Solitary Confinement Act, sponsored by of the Center for Constitutional Rights. The Assembly member Jeffrion Aubry and Senator conference, held at CUNY School of Law Susan Barrie will represent the chapter on the Bill Perkins. on June 6, celebrated the 50th anniversary 2014 Independent Judicial Screening Panel of Freedom Summer by profiling global and for candidates for the NY Supreme Court. The NLG-NYC Mass Incarceration domestic models of “movement lawyering”. Committee (MIC) is hiring a second summer Freedom Summer was a campaign to register On June 18 the Labor & Employment intern to work on its Parole Preparation African-American voters in Mississippi in Committee and the Cardozo School of Law Project, which is greatly expanding. The 1964. The Bertha Justice Institute’s mission Labor & Employment Society presented a project works with long-termers in New is “to build a new generation of lawyers and CLE: Organizing the Public Sector: Recent York State prisons who are re-applying after legal workers that have the vision, expertise Developments and Future Challenges. It was have previously been denied parole. It gath- and determination to create social change”. held at the Communications Workers of ers documents and letters in support of the NLG-NYC Executive Director Susan Howard America, Local 1180 on Harrison Street in applicant, and counsels the individual for his and NLG Student Organizer Traci Yoder Manhattan, and was the ninth seminar in a or her appearance before the Parole Board. tabled at the event. series aimed at developing closer relationships MIC is part of a large coalition support- among workers’ rights advocates in NYC. ing parole reform in New York State. The The NLG-NYC Mass Defense Committee project also welcomes volunteers, especially held a Legal Observer Training and Skills The Labor & Employment Committee held law students, who are frequently eligible to Brush-up on April 30 at the Community its annual legal intern reception on June receive course credit. MIC held a Parole Prep Service Society.

6 • National Lawyers Guild-NYC News • www.nlgnyc.org Summer 2014 member news

On August 7, several tablesful of legal observ- ers gathered in the back yard of DBA on the Lower East Side to socialize and enjoy each others’ company at the Mass Defense Committee’s third annual Legal Observer Appreciation Night. No TARU footage of the occasion was produced.

Jordan Winquist and Joel Kupferman are working with NLG lawyers from the Sugar Law Center in Detroit on the water shut-off issue. The city has been cutting off citizens’ water supply at a rate of 6,000 per month. In the past ten years Detroit residents’ water rates have risen by over 100 percent, and the city council approved an 8.7 percent rate increase in June. The United Nations has issued a state- ment saying that the city’s plan “constitutes a violation of the human right to water.” Emily Jane Goodman (second from right) and NYC Public Advocate Letitia James (right) at the College Women’s Activism Project on March 24, celebrating a new biography of Shirley Chisholm, the first The chapter gained a new member when Heidi African American woman elected to Congress. Boghosian stepped down after 15 years as Executive Director of the NLG national office On July 2 a federal jury in Manhattan but the true significance of the verdict was an to accept a similar position at the A.J. Muste awarded $185,000 to four demonstrators who award of $25,000 in punitive damages against Memorial Institute in NYC. A farewell party had been wrongfully arrested at the 2004 NYPD Chief Terrance Monahan who, as head was held on August 1 at Mona’s on Ave B. Republican National Convention in NYC. of the Mobile Field Forces during the RNC, was Judge Richard Sullivan had previously granted primarily responsible for all of the convention Jeanne and Frank Mirer held a fundraiser summary judgment on the unlawfulness of arrests. The plaintiffs’ legal team consisted of at their home on July 17 following a benefit the arrests, and the trial was for damages NLG lawyers Michael Spiegel, Alan H. Levine, showing of the film “The Hand that Feeds”, only. Approximately 1800 other demonstra- Martin R. Stolar, Susan Douglas Taylor, and the story of the successful unionization strug- tors arrested during the RNC had settled their Rick Best. One of the plaintiffs was Andrew gle of workers at the Hot and Crusty bakery on cases in December, 2013 for a record-breaking St. Laurent who had been working as an NLG the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Proceeds $18 million, but these four rejected the settle- Mass Defense Committee legal observer when went to support the Laundry Workers Center ment and insisted on a trial. Each plaintiff was he was arrested. which helped organize the workers. awarded $40,000 in compensatory damages Continued on page 8

Reichbach Would Find No Comfort Under Marijuana Law We’re by Emily Jane Goodman, ered “courageous.” For him the benefit moving! New York Law Journal was in the marijuana he smoked, and not The Law Journal’s coverage of New in other forms prescribed by physicians, York’s medical marijuana statute in the including pills and liquids. Yet under the As of July 1, 2014, News in Brief on June 23, “Pilot Medical new law, just as before, the judge would Alterman & Boop will be sharing Marijuana Program Passes in Albany,” be committing a crime, since, at the gov- an office suite with refers to the role of the late Justice Gustin ernor’s insistence, sick and ailing adults Reichbach in advancing the dialogue and may have access to vapors, but will still be Neufeld, Scheck & Brustin, LLP the legislation. prohibited from smoking marijuana. Shortly before his death from pancre- There had been some discussion of call- Our new address will be: atic cancer, Justice Reichbach made a plea ing the bill, “Gus’s Law.” However, having 99 Hudson Street, 8th Floor for the availability and legality of mari- spent countless hours with Gus during the juana for suffering patients like himself. years of his illness, I can tell you that while New York, NY 10013 He revealed that he had personally smoked others may, he would find no courage, marijuana to help him sleep, eat, and pro- comfort or relief in the incoming law. The rest of our contact vide some relief from grueling pain. He did so in a New York Times opinion piece, Emily Jane Goodman is a retired New information will stay the same which the Law Journal noted was consid- York Supreme Court justice

Summer 2014 National Lawyers Guild-NYC News • www.nlgnyc.org • 7 member news

Continued from previous page On June 25 Brandworkers released Feeding New York: Challenges and Opportunities for Workers in New York City’s Food Manufacturing In Memoriam: Allan Botshon Industry at CUNY’s Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies on West We are deeply saddened by the passing of 43rd Street. 150 people participated in a com- Guild stalwart Allan Botshon. munity discussion of the first-ever report on Born on the fourth of July, 1926 in Pt. NYC’s food manufacturing industry through Richmond, S.I., Allan left Dartmouth at 17 the eyes of workers. Download the report here to enlist in the army and serve in WWII at http://www.brandworkers.org/news/feed- as an administrator in the medical battal- ing-new-york. Daniel Gross is Brandworkers’ ion. Earning accolades and a Victory Medal, co-founder and Executive Director. Allan was honorably discharged at the end of 1946 and shortly afterwards entered Yale Law. On June 11, featured After graduation, Allan started a storefront law the story of Deborah McIntyre who was office on the Lower East Side, taking all clients, recently fired from her job at the Shubert including Lynne Stewart’s former husband Organization’s Barrymore Theater. Ms. in their divorce proceeding. Allan, Lynne, McIntyre has worked as an usher in Broadway and new partner Ralph Poynter soon became theaters since 1975 when she was a teen. fast friends. Allan went on to start a practice She was an usher for “A Raisin in the Sun” with Maria Liz in Chelsea, focusing primar- with Denzel Washington, but April 11 when ily in immigration law within the Dominican President and Mrs. Obama were coming to Community. Allan was a great supporter of see the play was her night off. So she stood the chapter, as well as Jews for Racial and in the mezzanine that night with the per- Economic Justice, the Rosenberg Fund for Children, and the Abraham Lincoln mission of the house manager. A few days Brigade, among others. Allan loved classical musical, traveling, cherrystone oysters later she was called in and fired by a Shubert and gin with two olives. He loved the chapter and the Guild for its outspoken com- vice president: “You didn’t have a ticket and mitment to social struggle and the practice of people’s law. Allan, and the Guild you breached security. What gives you this comrades of his generation who have passed, will be forever missed. right? We’re going to have to terminate you.” Ms. McIntyre is African-American. “To see Barack and Michelle, watching a black cast led by Denzel? Oh. My. God. A suspension of a month, or two or three, perhaps. But to on May 15 in the SDNY case Georges v. United be banned?” Ms. McIntyre has hired Daniel Nations, a class action representing 8,500 Alterman to represent her. Haitians killed and 700,000 sickened by the cholera epidemic that followed the earthquake Hindsight is 20:20—Organizing Lessons there in 2010. The suit alleges that cholera was Learned from Occupy Wall Street was the introduced to Haiti by the recklessly unhy- subject of a panel at Organizing 2.0’s confer- gienic practices of the UN peacekeepers. The Keep the ence for organizers, techies, and activists held brief argues that the court should balance the at CUNY’S Murphy Institute on June 6 & 7. UN’s general immunity against the plaintiffs’ Chapter “If OWS started again, what would we do rights to a remedy, and find “reasonable alter- differently? Organizers rarely have a chance native means” to provide a remedy to people Rolling to repeat history. But that doesn’t mean they who are harmed by UN operations. Joel is shouldn’t conduct serious evaluation and chair of the NLG’s Environmental Justice Over the understand which mistakes were made, and Committee and Environmental Human what it would look like to avoid repeating Rights Sub-Committee. them. In what areas can we come up with Summer specific, actionable and politically consistent Joel Kupferman was a panelist at Turning Make a commitment to ‘fixes’ to future mass protest movements?” Vacant Acres into Community Resources: A Yetta Kurland was one of the panelists. Conversation among Community Land Access renew your membership and Facilitators on April 22-23 at The New School. get active in the Guild! Yetta Kurland celebrated the official launch of The event explored best practices for pro- the Kurland Group’s new Lower Broadway moting community access to land in New You can now pay location with a reception on May 29. Yetta has York City and in cities around the world. your dues or make a contribution made her new office available to the chapter Panels included: “Identifying Opportunities online by going to as the site of recent Executive Committee & Facilitating Transformations: Creating meetings. Oases in All Our New Yorks”; “Protecting www.nlgnyc.org/how-to-join Community Access to Land, Keeping Our On behalf of the Environmental Justice Greens”; and “Establishing Long Term Initiative for Haiti and several European legal Management: Developing Models for scholars, Joel Kupferman filed an amicus brief Predictable Land Tenure”.

8 • National Lawyers Guild-NYC News • www.nlgnyc.org Summer 2014 A Note of Appreciation to the NLG Membership For Its Tradition of Service to the People We are reprinting Heidi Boghosian’s farewell remarks from Guild of Color Caucus (TUPOCC) Notes. have brought to our national conventions: believe in my By Heidi Boghosian goodness, but challenge me to Arthur Kinoy onnece said that the test for a people’s lawyer, legal be my better self. TUPOCC worker and student is not the technical winning or losing of formal has effectively done this for the proceedings. The real test is the impact of legal activities on the morale NLG for a decade. of the people involved in the struggle. No matter how experienced or Increasingly, we are sup- clever a legal practitioner may be, the most important element in the porting the work of our process is the informed support and participation of the people. students and NextGen mem- As a group, Guild members have dedicated their lives to serving, bers. They actively shape our and taking their lead from, the many social movements and people response to the encroaching directly involved in fighting for social change. Not until I began work- power and abuses of govern- ing here did I fully appreciate the true meaning of the word “guild,” ment and multi-national a like-minded community that nurtures its members and emboldens corporations. In 2006, for them to take risks that other bar associations and political organizations example, two New York City shy away from. In the past 20 years, from being a law student to a staff members were concerned member, I too have been mentored and supported. You have shaped about FBI targeting of animal my life immutably. rights and environmental activ- Fifteen years ago, when I reported for my first day of work at Heidi Boghosian ists; their apprehension was the the Guild offices I was thrilled at the prospect of serving the unique impetus for our national Green organization that I had joined in law school. Kevi Brannelly and Sarah Scare Hotline. At the Austin convention that same year, another Hogarth gave me a thoughtful orientation to the inner workings of the NextGen member met with Starbucks workers to talk about union NLG, and my introduction to the membership a few weeks later at the organizing in the Radisson Hotel where we were staying. When San Francisco Convention was a preview of how a real “guild” operates. Suffolk University invited Armenian genocide denier Abe Foxman The Guild tradition is a legacy of support. From defending our to deliver their 2014 commencement, one NLG student organized a own members Mumia Abu-Jamal, Lynne Stewart, to the defense well-publicized campaign to draw attention to Foxman’s record of of Occupy protesters in parks and streets across the country, to the hypocrisy. These members, and so many more, serve as inspiration to well-orchestrated 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 RNC and DNC defense others in the Guild and remind us daily of the value in learning from efforts, it has been an honor to work with, and ultimately to serve, each other’s endeavors. the very best and most committed practitioners in the field of radical Thank you all for upholding the values inherent in the notion of law. In addition to working on behalf of others, we are also commit- peoples lawyering, a practice that began in 1937 and that is alive and ted to improving how we work and treat one another. To paraphrase well today in the remarkable NLG. I am so grateful to all of you for the Tema Okun from Dismantling Racism Works, one of the impactful work you’ve done in the past, and I very much look forward to con- trainers that the Anti Racism Committee and The United People tinuing that work in the future as a fellow Guild member.

Congratulations to Our 2014 Law Graduates! Brooklyn: Columbia: Fordham: Stas Muroz Setenay Akdag Johanna Hudgens Lucy Benz-Rogers Jessica Rofé Christina Bernardo CUNY: Beth Gavin Geoffrey Wertime Mary Bruch Lindsay Adams Michelle Gonzalez Pace: Alexander Goldman Thomas Brown David Harvey Rocky Boussias Melissa Lee Celina Caban Rosalie Sewell Meaghan A. Colligan Adam Lynn Cristina Castro Laura Winocur Nicole Sasaki Michael Benjamin Ward Kirby Einhorn Hofstra: Sarah DeVita Rutgers-Newark: Natalie Gonchorov Geoff Kagan-Trenchard Victor Monterrosa, Jr. Cardozo: Em Lawler NYLS Amy Travis Jonathan Barbur John McDonald Megan Wilder Seton Hall: Rebecca Blatt Sarena S. Melchert Alexandria Pappas Marco Conner Tamra Otten Stephanie Kozic Mallory Harwood Darlene Sevilla NYU: Jason L. Stern Eric Hassell Morwenna Steinersen Shira Burton Annie Collart Emily Hoffman Shelby Sullivan-Bennis Alex Gorman Jeremy Dack Adam Lange Amy Vogltanz Tom Gottheil Touro: Miguel Medrano Sean McMahon Deborah Lolai Karla Ostolaza

Summer 2014 National Lawyers Guild-NYC News • www.nlgnyc.org • 9 NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD – NYC CHAPTER 113 University Place, 8th floor New York, NY 10003 phone 212-679-6018 fax 212-679-6178 email: [email protected]

National Lawyers Guild New York City News Summer 2014