Welcome.  

The National Lawyers Guild chapter of the University of Michigan Law school is an association dedicated to the need for basic change in the structure of our political and economic system. We seek to unite the lawyers, law students, legal workers and jailhouse lawyers of America in an organization that shall function as an effective political and social force in the service of the people, to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests.

Our aim is to bring together all those who recognize the importance of safeguarding and extending the rights of workers, women, farmers and minority groups, upon whom the welfare of the entire nation depends; who seek actively to eliminate racism; who work to maintain and protect our civil rights and liberties in the face of persistent attacks upon them; and who look upon the law as an instrument for the protection of the people, rather than for their repression.

On April 1st, 2003, the United States Supreme Court heard the consolidated cases of Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger.  The case challenged the Affirmative Action Program at the University of Michigan.  Many commentators claimed it will be the most important civil rights case in a quarter-century.  The National Lawyers Guild was firmly committed to promoting diversity in higher education, and worked to ensure that the University of Michigan Law School prevailed in the Supreme Court, by taking our message right to their doorstep.  The NLG is very happy the Supreme Court AFFIRMED the Law School's admissions policy.

Academic Calendar.  

Every year the Guild has a Disorientation event at the beginning of the year for new students.  At the Disorientation, progressive area attorneys come to school and give new students a pep talk about the struggles they will face in law school as people coming from a left wing perspective submersed in legal system that very often perpetuates a class hegemony.  Some of those attorneys come to Ann Arbor from the National Lawyers Guild's Maurice and Jane Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice in downtown Detroit.  We try to have a Legal Observer Training near the beginning of each school year so that new students will gain the skills they need early, so if the time should arise when legal observers are needed at a demonstration, they will be ready.  In addition, the Guild makes an effort to send representatives from Michigan to the National Lawyers Guild Annual Conventions.

In the second semester of every year, the Guild has a "How to be a Lawyer, Pay your Bills, and NOT Sell Your Soul" Lunch.  It has also become a tradition of the Guild to sponsor a trip to Yale's Rebellious Lawyering Conference every February.  RebLaw is one of the greatest radical lawyering events held every year for law students. 

In addition to these events, the Guild will sponsor or co-sponsor speakers on topical issues through out the year, and participate in many other kinds of community struggles.  If you are a student and would like to get involved, please sign up for our natlawguild discussion list.  It will keep you informed of upcoming events, protests, and general political goings-on in Michigan and in the world at large.

News and Announcements. 

Archive:  2002-2003.

>>>The best source of radical political news in Michigan is @ www.michiganimc.org<<<

This is a very brief list of the things discussed at the meeting today, mostly to provide dates and contact info. If you have any questions about anything on here, or would like to be more involved in any of these events/projects, please email the contact listed, or any of the co-chairs, and we will put you in touch with the right people!

I. Convention recap

-- please join the NLG (national organization) and pay your dues, so you will be

able to vote (our school chapter does not have dues, and the national dues are

only $15!)

II. Military Task Force project

-- for more info or to get involved, email Steve: sblackbu@umich.edu

III. Labor Organizing

-- we are planning a talk open to the entire law school regarding the Borders

strike. we're aiming for next Tuesday, 11/11, at lunch time but will send out

the date and time once we confirm a date with speakers.

-- for more info or to get involved in the GEO issues, email Aaron:

aboros@umich.edu

-- for more info or to get involved in the Borders strike issues, email Tom:

tomgriff@umich.edu

IV. Legal Observing

-- training is scheduled for 11/18, during lunch

V. Detroit NLG Bar Night

-- the Detroit NLG Law Student - Legal Worker bar night is this Thursday,

November 6, from 4-7. it's at The Law Offices of Constitutional Litigation

Associates, 450 W. Fort St., Detroit.

-- some of us will be driving together and have room in our cars. if you'd like

a ride, please email John: jbunyan@umich.edu, or Megan: whyte@umich.edu. some

of us won't be leaving here until 5, so please come even if you can't make it

for the 4 pm start!

VI. Globalization Movie (co-sponsored with BLSA)

-- showing of the movie "Life and Debt"; 11/19, 6 pm

VII. NLG Movie Night

-- showing of the movie "Doing Justice", the story of Arthur Kinoy; 11/11 6:30

pm

VIII. Looking ahead to next semester

-- Rebellious Lawyering Conference (RebLaw) at Yale Law School

-- How to Get a Job, Pay Your Bills, and Not Sell Your Soul lunch

-- Patroit Act talk (with Professor Herzog)

-- Lynne Stewart (hopefully)

Come and learn about the erosion of:

Ø Due process

Ø Probable cause

Ø Right to counsel

Ø Independence of judges