NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD New York City News NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD – NYC CHAPTER WINTER 2020 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: MASS DEFENSE COMMITTEE PAGE 2: RESPONDS TO FLOYD PROTESTS PRESIDENT’S COLUMN BY: MARTY STOLAR District Attorneys quietly dismissing most By Andy Izenson The protests following the death of George Criminal Court misdemeanor charges. Only Floyd rocked the nation and had a major pres- a few “egregious” (DA definition) looting ence in New York City. Daily protests, marches charges remain. PAGE 3: and rallies in almost every borough brought Part of this success may be attributed to the preparation the MDC did, conducting HENRY DI SUVERO, NATIONAL hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers into two well-attended Webinars for arrestees and NLG PRESIDENT, SHAPED BY NYC the streets and into confrontations with the sponsoring an amazingly well-attended CLE: LEGAL ACTIVISM NYPD. Given that the major subject matter of the protests were police brutality and systemic “Defending Protesters in Summons Court.” by Franklin Siegel racism in law enforcement, it is not surprising Our Legal Observers were targeted by that the police responded with violence and the NYPD, with 12 of them being detained PAGE 4: brutality: in a space of about two weeks, more in the Bronx on June 4, an incident which than 2,800 people were arrested at over 40 sparked numerous investigations by the DREAMS, EVEN NIGHTMARES, separate locations in the City. NY State Attorney General and the CCRB. CAN COME TRUE The City Chapter’s Mass Defense Chapter Vice-President Alek Felstiner was by Emily Jane Goodman Committee began acting immediately, deploy- ing Legal Observers to over 100 protests and PAGE 5: providing jail support and lawyers for those arrested. Curfew violations accounted for MARY METLAY KAUFMAN ‘37 AND THE about approximately 1,350 and alleged viola- SEEDS OF HER RADICAL ADVOCACY tors were issued summonses for that Class By Jay Hedges, St. John’s University B misdemeanor. Thousands of others were School Of Law ‘21 also issued summonses for the usual protest charges of disorderly conduct, inciting a riot, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental PAGE 6: administration, trespassing and walking in GOT A PROGRAM-BUILDING IDEA? the roadway. JOIN A COMMITTEE OR PROJECT From the outset, the Guild spearheaded an AND APPLY FOR A NLG-NYC CHAPTER unprecedented coalition with public defender FOUNDATION GRANT! organizations in New York: The Legal Aid Society, Neighborhood Defender Service of also arrested while Legal Observing and, for- Harlem, The Bronx Defenders, New York tunately, his case was one of those dismissed. PAGE 7: County Defender Services and the Brooklyn Chapter members who participated in the efforts described above include: Miles GUILD IN ACTION Defender Services. Weekly meeting of the coalition resulted in an extraordinary joint Ashton, Elena Cohen, Eric Eingold, Rebecca letter to the City’s District https://nlgnyc. Heinegg, Susan Howard, Andy Izenson, PAGE 8: org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/NLGNYC. Erica Johnson, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, Ben MESSAGE TO MEMBERS AND FRIENDS Defender-Letter-to-DAs-re_-Protest-Cases. Meyers, Paul Mills, Bindu Nair, Christine pdf to drop all of the charges from the pro- O’Heron, Gideon Orion Oliver, Robert Perry, tests, including so-called “looting” charges. Alex Petkanas, Micah Prussack, Dave Rankin, PAGE 13: Notwithstanding the DA’s tepid public Andrew Sawtelle, Kais Shah, Marty Stolar, MEMBER NEWS response, the coalition achieved amazing John Upton, Jonathan Wallace, and all of the results with the Summons Court dismissing amazing Legal Observers who provided front- all of the over 5000 separate charges and the line legal support. NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD President’s Column, Winter 2020 New York City News BY ANDY IZENSON EDITORIAL BOARD Erica Johnson the Southeast Asian Community from ICE’s Michael Fahey Deportation Machine, and a two-part series Elba Galvan on Radical Litigation in collaboration with Susan C. Howard Law4Black Lives! Ann M. Schneider We spent a lot of this year in uncertainty. Graphic Design: Judith Rew Every day we woke up to news of escalation of the ongoing crises that global fascism, climate CHAPTER OFFICERS change, and white supremacist capitalism pose President to our collective existence. Every day we lost Andy Izenson members of our communities to violence, gov- VICE PRESIDENTS ernment neglect, and mass incarceration. Every Tamara Bedić day the federal administration took steps to con- Alek Felstiner solidate power and stoked the worst elements of TREASURER a country already rife with historical and ongo- Andrew Sawtelle ing horror. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE And at the same time, every day, members of Miles Ashton Andy Izenson the legal community decided that now was the Elena Cohen time to start using their education, privilege, and Dear NLG-NYC, Aaron Frishberg expertise for the common good. Our chapter’s Elba Galvan Well, 2020 is almost over and so it’s time for membership has blossomed this year as more Valeria Gheorghiu the December installment of Pep Talks For Sad and more legal workers, law students, jailhouse Joel R. Kupferman Lawyers With Your Buddy Andy. lawyers, and attorneys saw something in the Matthew Main It feels like every day this year has been some world that inspired them to step up and get into Daniel L. Meyers new crisis, which means that every day has been the work. Milad Momeni an opportunity to marvel in the resiliency and Rebecca Solnit says that “Hope locates itself Alex Petkanas creativity of humans responding to crises. in the premises that we don’t know what will Micah Prussack When we look ahead and try to integrate the Collin Poirot happen and that in the spaciousness of uncer- frightening truth that many of the crises that tainty is room to act. When you recognize Marc Ramirez we’ve been coping with aren’t dissipating and Andrew Sawtelle uncertainty, you recognize that you may be able aren’t going to dissipate, where can we turn to Ann M. Schneider to influence the outcomes — you alone or you in for hope? Dan Shockley concert with a few dozen or several million oth- Franklin Siegel In the NLG-NYC office this year, we’ve been ers. Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the Martin R. Stolar staying focused. The tides of the movement unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of Representatives from New York ebb and flow around us; organizations coalesce both optimists and pessimists. Optimists think City Law Schools and fold, connections strengthen and wane, the it will all be fine without our involvement; pes- political landscape is always shifting under our EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR simists take the opposite position; both excuse Susan C. Howard feet. Through all of that, as the NLG-NYC has themselves from acting. It’s the belief that what been doing for decades, we are doing our work. we do matters even though how and when it COMMITTEE CONTACTS This year, our work has meant more move- may matter, who and what it may impact, are Animal Rights Committee ment support and legal education than ever. Our Tamara Bedi not things we can know beforehand.” ć Mass Defense program has sent teams of Legal Environmental Committee I don’t know what’s going to happen next, Joel Kupferman Observers to more than 200 demonstrations – and neither does anyone else. But in that spa- Labor and Employment and the Legal Observer team itself has grown Committee ciousness, I am comforted to know that the Alek Felstiner by more than 600 new members hitting the Guild has a long history of doing necessary work Mass Defense Committee streets. We’ve done webinars for protest arrestees in frightening times. This is what we know how Erica Johnson and provided legal and mass defense support to do. Being on this team gives me hope, and I’m Meg Maurus to thousands of protestors. We’ve done dozens Newsletter Committee so glad you’re here with us. Susan C. Howard of trainings and CLE’s, including trainings in Next Generation Committee how to defend protestors in summons court, Mir veln zey iberlebn, Pooja Patel webinars on confronting and dismantling white En la lucha, Restorative Justice Committee supremacy in the workplace, sesions on the Valeria Gheorghiu In solidarity, Andy Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act and Defending 2 • NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD-NYC NEWS • WWW.NLGNYC.ORG WINTER 2020 Henry di Suvero, National NLG President Shaped by NYC Legal Activism BY FRANKLIN SIEGEL of Law in San Francisco, and was an inspiration Henry (Hank) di Suvero, a peripatetic for the mission of CUNY School of Law which activist lawyer who served as national presi- opened in 1983. dent of the NLG from 1977 to 1979, died on “We’re trying to turn out fully trained July 3, 2020 in New South Wales, Australia, people’s lawyers”, di Suvero told the Times as where he was a law professor and practitioner PCL began its second year, “lawyers who will for the last three decades. go back to their communities to practice.” The Hank was a chapter lawyer from the Times also reported that John Garfinkel, chair mid-1960’s until 1972, working at the New of the ABA’s committee on standards, who York Civil Liberties Union and as Executive was critical of many of California’s unaccred- Director of the Emergency Civil Liberties ited law schools, had much praise for PCL, Committee-ECLC (a national civil rights liti- observing “They’re idealists, I think they’re gating organization formed by NLG founder trying to do a good job.” Victor Rabinowitz, Leonard Boudin and Hank was elected national president of Edith Tiger). Gerald Lefcourt, later the lead the NLG at its 40th Anniversary Convention counsel for the NY Panther 21, worked for in Seattle in 1977, opening an era of pro- Hank at ECLC in late 1968 and remembers grammatic vitality following several years of Hank “was a very fine lawyer and demand- Henry di Suvero attending a workshop at the February, contentious and harsh political in-fighting ing as a boss.” Hank was part of a noted New 1979 NLG Convention in San Francisco.