Law Clinics and Racial Capitalism – LPE Project

Where the Law Falls Short: The Value of an Interdisciplinary Approach to Problem Solving

James Brandt — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 11:00:00 +0000

Many of us went to law school in the hopes of acquiring the tools necessary to contest and overhaul systems of oppression that have harmed our families and communities. The law, as we saw it, was the means or site of resolution. Yet for the increasingly complex and interconnected social problems that face our communities, traditional means of lawyering through direct services and litigation are often insufficient and ill-fitting. By taking an interdisciplinary approach, Berkeley's Policy Advocacy Clinic is able to locate creative, non-litigation strategies to address systemic racial, economic, and social injustice.

Designing an Emancipatory Clinic

James Brandt — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 11:00:00 +0000

This post is part of a symposium that highlights how law school clinics can disrupt the infrastructure of racial capitalism. Read the rest of the posts here. *** The law enshrines the power structure of our racial capitalist system. Nevertheless, law school clinics can serve as important sites of critical pedagogy, helping students, partner organizations, and clients build towards an abolition...

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Reaching Beyond the Binary to Find Humanity

James Brandt — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 11:00:00 +0000

This post is part of a symposium that highlights how law school clinics can disrupt the infrastructure of racial capitalism. Read the rest of the posts here. *** Teaching an experiential course focused on criminal defense often makes it difficult to stretch students beyond a traditional, binary way of thinking about and practicing law. The criminal legal system functions by separating acts of harm...

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Leveraging Law School Clinics Against Family Policing

James Brandt — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 11:00:00 +0000

Every year, the American family policing system separates roughly half a million children from their parents. This system, though long overlooked, is increasingly being recognized for what it is: a way to control and terrorize politically marginalized communities. To date, however, challenges to family policing have largely focused on state agencies as the primary actors in this system, and courtrooms as the primary battleground, while paying less attention to other driving forces like capitalism, public-private relationships, and the powerful investigative and administrative structures in which the judicial venue is nested. Taking the lead from abolitionist’s broader work that seeks to fundamentally re-draw relationships and the distribution of resources, law school clinics should similarly expand their advocacy beyond now well-trod legal paths.

Law Clinics and Racial Capitalism

James Brandt — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 11:00:00 +0000

This post kicks off a symposium that will highlight how law school clinics can disrupt the infrastructure of racial capitalism. Read the rest of the posts here. *** Law schools are disorienting spaces, particularly for those who arrive seeking tools for justice and transformation. The basic 1L curriculum is steeped in our country’s history of settler colonialism and slavery, and the law taught in...

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