We are proud to report on the past year’s activities in this issue.  The Massachusetts Chapter continued to assist communities in need while also strengthening its infrastructure in order to better meet members’ needs. We also paused to celebrate our 40^th anniversary and to salute our founding members.

In March, Nancy Kelly and John Willshire-Carrera again hosted our Mentorship Brunch for law students. The event was well-attended and participants were well-fed.  In a brilliant scheduling ploy, we combined our St. Patrick’s Day festivities with our Annual Meeting, where we elected new board members and heard the insightful Steve Schnapp, United for a Fair Economy, give a leftist analysis of the economic crisis.  In April we honored the chapter’s founders at a 40^th Anniversary Founders Party, hosted by the debonair David Kelston.  Mixing business with pleasure, we pieced together our founders’ recollections to create a more complete chapter history.  Also in April, internationalista Judy Somberg hosted a dinner party for visiting Venezuelan Supreme Court Justice Fernando Vegas, a long-time friend of the Guild.  In May, we gathered to honor students, legal workers and lawyers at our annual Testimonial Dinner. You’ll be glad to know that the 2010 dinner committee is already hard at work, looking for ways to pump up the volume at next year’s dinner.  Our annual retreat was held in August, giving us the opportunity to do long-term planning, as was our first ever Staff Appreciation Reception, which will certainly become a regular event.  In October, the Guild made its second appearance at my favorite, the Honk! Fest, a raucous and entertaining assembly of street bands, where we marched proudly with the Red Bandana Brigade.  Fair warning: we’ll be recruiting more marchers and baton twirlers for next year.  Later that month, a Massachusetts contingent attended the National Convention in Seattle.  Law students Cecilia Candia and Liz Dedrick give us their impressions on page 10.

In terms of our substantive work, we continue to offer a national model for effective representation of the thousands of homeowners and tenants affected by the foreclosure crisis. Jeff Feurer describes the accomplishments of the Foreclosure Prevention Task Force.  In a separate article, Jeff also brings us up to date on the Mass. Defense Committee, which trains and organizes the NLG Legal Observers who respond to requests from community groups (see page 7).  The battle for an effective Civilian Review Board in Boston grinds on, but we’re prepared for the long haul. See page 6.  And as always, there is a growing demand for Street Law Clinics (page 8), which involve both Guild students and lawyers and provide invaluable assistance on an increasing range of subjects.

Other activities were intended to build solidarity within the Guild.  Bonnie Tenneriello describes the more serious version, our Brown Bag Lunch Series, while Ku Yoo reveals his adventures at Happy Hours.   To better serve our members, Laura Alfring and Carl Williams were the tech-heads behind our website upgrade.  Coordinator Sara DeConde reports on the Lawyer Referral Service .

We hope these reports will inspire more of our members to join Guild campaigns, chapter programs and social events.
Barb Dougan, Chapter Co-Chair

In 2009 my consumer rights practice moved into gear.  Filed federal cases under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Truth-in-Lending Act, and Equal Credit Opportunity Act, as well as c. 93A and other cases in state court.  Bankruptcy cases became more challenging, as clients with higher incomes and more assets have seen their solvency deteriorate in the face of the national financial crisis.  This was the year that Neil Berman, Neil Burns and I created a Street Law Clinic curriculum on consumers’ rights and bankruptcy, which we look forward to road-testing in the coming year.  Finally, having assured that my section 8 client would not be evicted from her home, I invested the settlement proceeds in replacing eaves and trim, successfully evicting the squirrels from the attic of my own home. -Deborah Roher

Joined the Board of Directors of the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice.  Was awarded my second Iron Runner Jacket for completing all seven 2009 US Track and Field Championship Races from 5K to Marathon (in cold pouring rain); contributing to Veterans Team that won the Seven Race Combined Championship for 2009 and 2008, and placed in top 10 in one of seven races in each year.  Achievements are that I am still able to walk and am still lawyering in my spare time. -Mark Stern

I headed up a team of five NLG Legal Observers at the Transgender Pride March in Northampton on 10/3/09.  Our team was ably trained by NLG member Jeffrey M. Feurer.  Happily nobody was arrested, but our team did have to brave pouring rain, suspicious conduct by “trench coat man” and “dark glasses guy,” and had to work hard not to cheer (and thereby lose our impartiality), at the incredibly moving and powerful speakers and acts throughout the day.  My fellow team members were law students Lisa Elliott, Gail Hills, and Patrick Greenhalgh of WNEC (see our photo on p. 6), and Allison Cleveland of BC law.  Thanks to NLG, GLAD and MLGBA for their support and encouragement.  Our presence definitely made a difference.  Hooray for NLG! -Cathy Reuben

This fall semester, we have attended Pro Bono Fairs at Boston University School,, Boston College,  Northeastern University, Suffolk University and Harvard University.  At these fairs, we introduced new and returning law students to mission and work of the  National Lawyers Guild. We also recruited students interested in participating in the Street Law Clinic’s and trainings that the clinic’s offer.  At these events, we signed up over 100 interested students!  We also attended at Pro Bono Fair at the Boston Bar Association, and signed up over 20 attorney’s interested in volunteering for the Street Law Clinic program.

Currently, Boston College and Boston University do not have established National Lawyer’s Guild chapters at their schools.  We have been meeting with students and faculty at both of these law schools, and we are getting close to having organized chapters there! This fall, we held a training at Boston University and this Spring, both Boston University and Boston College have agreed to hold trainings at their schools.  In many ways, this has been accomplished through our outreach efforts to faculty involved with public interest advising.  We really appreciate their efforts and are looking forward to strengthening our presence at these schools.

In order to build more cohesion between the various chapters at area law schools, we will be conducting our first student chapter meeting this November 17, 2009.  We are hoping that this monthly meeting between chapter representatives will help the strengthen individual chapters through community and coalition building between all the schools.

Last month we had a wonderful event to welcome new and returning Guild students at Felt on October 27, 2008.  We had members from the Board, and Guild students from Suffolk University, Northeastern University, Boston College, New England School of Law and Boston University attend.  We had a great time getting to know each other and playing pool together!  We are looking forward to getting together again for our student brunch this spring.

by Jeff Feuer

The Chapter’s Foreclosure Prevention Task Force has been extremely active this year in response to the continuing foreclosure and eviction crisis that has enveloped our society and undermined our national economy.  Congressional projections predicted that, by 2009,  Massachusetts households would lose $58.9 billion in household wealth, with more than $2.8 billion lost in property value and a concomitant loss in property taxes.  With approximately 23,000 foreclosure petitions filed in Massachusetts in 2009, more than 32,000 households faced eviction.

The Task Force has fought back against these destructive forces on a variety of levels.  Working as an integral component of the Massachusetts Alliance Against Predatory Lending (MAAPL) coalition, Guild attorney Lee Goldstein has helped to craft and lobby for four pieces of legislation currently pending before the Massachusetts legislature: (1) a six month moratorium on foreclosures, resulting from unfair and predatory subprime loans, of 1-4 family owner-occupied buildings; (2) a requirement that lenders participate in a court supervised mediation program before they can foreclose on a property; (3) the establishment of judicial review of all foreclosures of 1-4 unit owner occupied homes, which, unlike the present foreclosure law, would allow a homeowner to raise defenses against a foreclosing lender in a court proceeding, such as violations of the Truth in Lending Act, the Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act, the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, and the Massachusetts Consumer Protections Act; and (4) a requirement (lasting through 2013) that an institutional foreclosing lender could not evict tenants and former homeowners from a property unless they had good reason to do so, such as non-payment of rent, a purchase and sale agreement with a prospective owner-occupant that required the property to be vacant, etc.

In addition to an intense lobbying effort for these crucial protections, the Task Force has worked closely with Boston City Councillors Chuck Turner and Charles Yancey, City Life/Vida Urbana, Boston Community Capital, the Chelsea Collaborative, the Bank Tenants Association of East Boston and other neighborhood organizations to provide educational community forums/clincs and support for direct action events in opposition to the destructive foreclosure actions of large institutional lenders such as the Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, HSBC Bank, and Wells Fargo.  Guild volunteer attorneys, including Nadine Cohen, Neil Berman, Jeff Feuer, Lee Goldstein, Benjie Hiller and Danny Factor, along with numerous law students, participated in community foreclosure prevention forums and street law clinics, providing information, counseling and referrals to financial counselors and legal services for residents throughout  Greater Boston.  They have also served as legal observers at eviction blockade actions and public demonstrations against various large banks, and the attorneys have provided pro bono representation for demonstrators arrested during some of these events.

The political push-back being exercised by the Guild, MAAPL, City Life/Vida Urbana and other groups has begun to have an effect.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have now instituted temporary moratoriums on their own foreclosure and eviction actions and Bank of America is proposing a 60 day moratorium for its borrowers facing foreclosure.  Bank initiated evictions of tenants have slowed somewhat as tenants have fought back through blockades, demonstrations and winning arguments in court, resulting in increasingly large settlement payments to tenants.  Boston Community Capital, a local investment bank working closely with City Life/Vida Urbana, has received federal money to buy foreclosed properties from banks at their current fair market value and then transfer them back to the former property owner with an affordable mortgage based on that true market value.  The federal Homeowners Assistance Mortgage Program has been expanded, making more homeowners eligible for mortgage loan modifications.

Of course, this problem is far from over and the Task Force expects to be even more active over the next year.  As always, we are looking for more law students and attorneys who would like to volunteer to participate in one or more of the Task Force’s many activities: legislative lobbying, legal observing, conducting community street law clinics, representing arrested demonstrators, and taking foreclosure and/or eviction cases.  If you are interested, please contact Urszula at the Guild office at any time and watch for Guild emails that announce upcoming events.

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This article is from the December 09 issue of Mass Dissent which you can download here.

NEW ENGLAND
Margaret Ciborowski reports:

The New England School of Law NLG Chapter started off 2009 by hosting a great turn out for our Landlord/Tenant Street Clinic, taught by attorney Jeff Feuer. Later on, we co-sponsored an event about the New Bedford Raids with the Immigration Law Society and were very fortunate to have both John Willshire-Carrera and Nancy Kelly speak about their involvement with the raids. Our first event for the 2009-2010 was a Stop and Search Clinic, taught by attorney Andrew Cowan. As for the rest of the year, we plan on holding many more clinics and to hopefully have a panel on Eviction/Foreclosure.

BOSTON UNIVERSITY
Marianne Tassone reports:

Boston University doesn’t have an official NLG branch but there are several students interested in starting up a branch, and even more who would like to get involved in the Street Law Clinics. I and a couple other students have been working with Carolyn Goodwin in the CDO to try to host a handful of trainings here at BU and then start running clinics. As a 1L I have spent the past couple months getting acclimated to law school, but I and another student, Elizabeth Rossi have been talking about holding an informational meeting and getting BU active in the Guild again. We’re anxious for any input or assistance we can get!

SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY
Margaret Aylward reports:

The Suffolk Guild has been working hard to get things moving this semester. We had an excellent turnout at our Club Fair at the beginning of the semester.  We met the incoming 1Ls and collected a lot of new emails from interested students.  We’ve successfully added most of them as Street Law volunteers as well.

Following up on the success of our anti-death penalty events last year, we recently co-sponsored an event with the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy and the Massachusetts Citizens Against the Death Penalty.  We held an awards reception to honor the work done by pro bono attorneys and academics in the field of anti-death penalty work.

We’re working with the Suffolk National Women’s Law Student Association to sponsor a team of students that are running in the Boston Marathon.  We’re raising money for the American Liver Foundation.  In addition to soliciting donations from the Suffolk community, we’re holding bar events and trivia fundraisers to increase our donations.

We’ve also been working to put together a series of debates for Spring semester.  We’re planning to host a model debate, featuring a member of the Suffolk Guild community debating a nominee from the Suffolk Federalist Society.  Using this debate as a model, we will have a second round of debates, featuring students from each group.  As the format is a combination of both debate and mock trial, we feel it will be both informative to the student body as well as good experience for our students.  It will also provide an excellent platform to explain the beliefs and principles of the Guild.

The Suffolk Guild is exciting to keep things moving and continue getting more students involved.  And we’re looking forward to the Holiday Raffle in December!

BOSTON COLLEGE
James Racine reports:

Law school can certainly be an alienating place.  For one, it is often isolating.  Most of my classmates seem to have different values, political orientations, and career goals than me and there is constant pressure to compete with classmates for grades and jobs.  It is also disempowering.  The structure of classrooms is intensely hierarchical and I’m learning a new language that was, at first, incomprehensible and bewildering.  In this environment, it is easy to lapse into self-interested careerism; survival becomes a law student’s main concern, not the pursuit of social justice.

In order to make it through law school without forgetting why I came in the first place, it will help to meet like-minded students and professionals.  Bringing together progressive students can help build solidarity instead of competition and agency rather than passivity.  For these reasons I’m interested in starting a chapter of the National Lawyers Guild at Boston College Law School in 2010.

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
Jillian Tuck reports:

The Northeastern School of Law Chapter of NLG was very active in 2009. In March, NUSL-NLG organized an event series that examine the impact of the presidential election on socially marginalized groups and the implications for social justice movements. Events aimed at laying out the political landscape- post Obama’s election and grappled with such questions as, “Is racism dead?” and analyzed the impact of specific ballot decisions on LGBT, immigrant, and other marginalized communities.

On October 5^th, NUSL-NLG co-sponsored a speaking event, “Why We Refuse: Israeli Conscientious Objectors Speak Out.”  The speakers, Maya Wind and Netta Mishly, both 19, are part of a group of Israeli high school seniors called the Shministim and have been imprisoned for their principled refusal to join the Israeli Army. They spoke of eloquently and passionately of their reasons for refusal to a crowd of about 45 people.

NUSL-NLG held a successful Tenant Rights Training on October 13th, as part of the Street Law Clinic Project.  At least 14 law students participated and became trained to teach clinics throughout the community as part of a movement to empower and educate citizens about their legal rights. A well attended Legal Observer training was held as well. Both trainings were facilitated by Northeastern Faculty and Guild Member, Millie Drew.

On October 16^th, NUSL-NLG hosted an panel event entitled: The Human Right to Health Denied: How Health Reform is Failing Immigrants. The event drew a substantial crowd from immigration law students, medical professional and concerned members from the community. The panel discussed how the current health care reform affects immigrants’ access to healthcare at local and international levels. The panelists included: Toby Guevin, the State Policy Director at the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition; Kathleen Sullivan, a lawyer at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR); and Helen Potts, the Chief Program Officer of Health Programs at PHR. The event allowed for an interesting, lively debate ranging from Massachusetts health insurance reform and recent health care cuts to the international debate surrounding the right to health.

We look forward to 2010!

Barb Dougan

Throughout 2009, the Guild continued its campaign for an effective civilian oversight of the Boston Police Department.  As previously described, in 2007 Boston created a very limited civilian review board.  The three-person Community Ombudsman Oversight Panel (CO-OP) reviews the handling of complaints filed with the police department’s Internal Affairs Division.  Its review is based on IAD’s records; it has no authority to conduct its own investigation.  The Guild has been working with Northeastern University’s Institute on Race & Justice, the Greater Boston Civil Rights Coalition and other allies to improve the current system.

Working with the CO-OP. In March, we met with the CO-OP for a progress report on its upcoming 2009 report and implementation of our prior recommendations.  CO-OP members have come to recognize the Guild’s expertise in police misconduct issues.

Encouraging IAD complaints. A review of IAD investigations is pointless if citizens are unwilling to file IAD complaints in the first place, due to intimidation or mistrust of the police.  The Boston Police Department’s website now allows complaints to be filed online.  In April, IAD trained coalition members on how to assist people who wish to file complaints.  IAD also agreed to implement two of the Guild’s recommendations.  First, signs have been posted at each district station, in both English and Spanish, with instructions on how to file either an IAD complaint or a CO-OP appeal.  Second, by the year’s end the department’s website will list all organizations trained to assist with the filing of complaints.

Lack of appeals studied. In its 2008 report, the CO-OP recommended that the City explore why members of the public were not appealing adverse IAD decisions.  The Kennedy School of Government surveyed those who did not file appeals and issued its report in May.  The majority described negative experiences when they filed their complaints, which led to a lack of faith in the appeals process. As for the CO-OP’s procedures, researchers recommended lengthening the time to file an appeal, currently a mere 14 days after IAD issues its decision.

Need for new ombudsman. In August, ombudsman David Hall, former dean of Northeastern Law School, left the board when he moved out of state.  The Guild nominated two of our members, law professors Karen Blum (Suffolk University) and Margaret Burnham (Northeastern University) to replace him.  The position has yet to be filled.

2009 report. In October, the CO-OP issued its annual report.  The number of complaints filed by civilians continues to drop, as do appeals by those whose complaints are not sustained by IAD.  As in prior years, the two main reasons for IAD complaints from the public are lack of respectful treatment and excessive force. Only 17% of civilian complaints were sustained, compared to 79% of interdepartmental complaints.  As for the CO-OP, the number of cases reviewed is also decreasing, from 19 in 2007, to 14 in 2008, to 5 as of October 1.  Only three people had filed appeals as of October 1.  The quality of IAD decisions has improved, however.  They now contain a summary explanation for the decision and the CO-OP is less likely to send them back for further investigation.

Meeting with Mayor Menino. Thank goodness for re-election campaigns. After years of requests, we were finally able to meet with Mayor Menino himself in October.  Police Commissioner Ed Davis and Superintendent Kenneth Fong also attended.  We discussed how community groups can help with the CO-OP’s outreach efforts so more people are willing to file both IAD complaints and appeals. Commissioner Davis also agreed to monthly meetings with our coalition; the next one is scheduled for November 23.

The Boston Globe said that Kennedy School report describes a civilian review board “languishing in obscurity and falling woefully short of its mission to build trust in the Boston Police Department.”  While this is frustrating, it is certainly not surprising.  The Guild has always understood that we’d need to fight every step of the way for accountability in any police department.  The battle may never be won, but we will keep building on each small victory.

Barb Dougan is co-chair of the Massachusetts chapter and a long-time criminal justice activist.

by Laura Alfring

The NLG’s Website Committee has been working hard to improve our website so we can bring the Guild to the masses through better technology, frequent website updates, and interactive web features.

We are working with Jonathan McIntosh of Rebellious Pixels to do a complete overhaul of the current website.  Jonathan comes with impressive credentials and an extensive background in web design. We hope to have the website up and running within a few weeks.

The new website will include an updated Guild history, complete with links to media articles on significant events and campaigns, such as NLG actions surrounding the Democratic National Convention, FBI investigations of the Guild, our work representing protestors, and our housing advocacy.

Additionally, the new website will incorporate several Web 2.0 features, including Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and YouTube. We will use Flickr (a photo-sharing website) to post photos from protests, rallies, Happy Hour and other events.  We will use YouTube to broadcast videos of Guild events, including our monthly Brown Bag lunch series (see page above).   We will also have an easy-to-read calendar with links to information on Street Law Clinics and other upcoming events.  Mass Dissent will be posted on the website in a user-friendly format that  allows the reader to click on articles of  interest, instead of scrolling through a cumbersome PDF document.

The new website will be much more accessible to the public.  It will provide people with a better way to keep up with the Guild’s activities and allow for more frequent updates about upcoming events.  With interactive features such as video, Facebook, and Flickr, it will allow our members to participate in the Guild in unprecedented ways.

by Bonnie Tenneriello

Many lawyers have told me that they feel badly because they are not more involved with the Guild – yet these same lawyers generally spend their weeks representing immigrants or tenants or victims of police abuse.  This is the work of the Guild.  Our Chapter is made up of hundreds of lawyers, paralegals, students and activists working to achieve justice for the powerless, but much of that work happens in our practices rather than under Guild sponsorship.

In 2009 the Massachusetts Chapter began a monthly “brown bag” lunch series to help our legal community act more like one.  Every month a speaker brings a new topic to the table, allowing interested members to hear and share war stories and advocacy strategies.  Whether it is an issue you are already involved with or one that you are newly learning about, it’s an engaging hour and helps you feel connected.  It is also a chance to forge connections with Guild allies – the lunches are open to all and non-members are encouraged to present and to attend.

Please consider speaking at a lunch program if you are working on a legal case or a political campaign of interest to Guild members and allies.  It will be an excellent opportunity to get feedback and gather support for your work. Or perhaps you know of an organizer or lawyer with something interesting to share.  E-mail your ideas to me at btenneriello@mcls.net.

The 2009 lunch programs have been described in previous issues of Mass Dissent but here is a recap, to give a sense of the range of topics covered.

• Guild practitioner Judy Somberg gave us an object lesson in how an election monitoring delegation can have an impact, as she described how the Guild delegation to El Salvador pressured the U.S. Embassy to refute right-wing propaganda that the U.S. would end aid to the country if the leftist FMLN candidates were elected.
• Past national NLG president Michael Avery gave a behind-the-scenes look at the wrongful conviction suit against the FBI that he has been litigating, describing decades of government misconduct and the plaintiffs’ legal strategies that led to a $103 million judgment.
• Gunner Scott, director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, described the daily struggles faced by transgender people as well as successful efforts to legislate against discrimination in Massachusetts and the U.S.
• As this issue of Mass Dissent went to press, Tom Cincotta, director of the Civil Liberties Project Director at Political Research Associates, was scheduled to speak November 17 on the new domestic security infrastructure, describing efforts by state and federal agencies to coordinate intelligence gathering and the threat this poses to civil liberties.

On January 21, Nadine Cohen, managing attorney of the Consumer Rights Unit at Greater Boston Legal Services, and Guild practitioner Jeff Feuer will discuss how lawyers and activists are responding to the foreclosure crisis through protest and legal representation.

The lunches are usually on the third Thursday of the month, at 12:30 p.m., in the first floor conference room of 14 Beacon Street.  The format is casual and the presentations are lively.  We will send our reminder e-mails before each program.  Please forward them to any colleagues and comrades who might be interested.   Please come, bring a lunch, and bring a friend or two or three.

Bonnie Tenneriello is a Staff Attorney at Prisoners’ Legal Services.

Published in the December 09 issue of Mass Dissent
By Liz Dedrick and Cecilia Candia

In October the National Lawyers Guild took Seattle by storm for its national convention, “Law for the People,” in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Organization protests there.  A strong contingent from the Massachusetts chapter attended the convention. Two Northeastern law students report on their adventures at their first Guild convention.

Wednesday:  We left for the airport straight from our co-ops at the Greater Boston Legal Services.  We were so excited about our first NLG convention that we tried to check in at the wrong airline—multiple times.

Thursday: Cecilia spent all day at the NLG National Immigration Project (NIP) meeting.  As a student, she was a little nervous that she would be out of her league.  Instead she was happy to find that not only could she follow along, but was also able to contribute to the discussion.

After meeting Urszula and Sara for dinner, we all rushed to plenary in time to hear outgoing NLG President Marjorie Cohn and keynote speaker Richard Falk.  That night they went to hear live music at the Can Can Cabaret.  Liz instead went to visit her sister, who gave birth to twins that morning.

Friday: Workshops included The Surveillance State and Domestic Spying in the Obama Era: Tactics to End the Bush Legacy (fascinating, excellent panelists); Effective Strategies for Dealing with Immigration Detainers (challenging but interesting); What Difference Does a Revolution Make in a Global Economic Meltdown? (interesting panel about impact of U.S. economic policies in Latin America); and the  plenary session.  The day ended with a screening of a new documentary about William Kunstler, “Disturbing the Universe.” It is an excellent film about a long-time Guild member and civil rights activist, and we highly recommend it.

Saturday:  Cecilia and Liz attended their favorite workshops.  Cecilia enjoyed Communities of Color: Litigating and Organizing to Fight Back because the panelists were clear with their message and passionate in their beliefs about the importance of community lawyering.  Liz liked Nuts and Bolts of Disability Rights Litigation because it provided a practical and informative explanation of employment discrimination claims brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act. That evening we attended the banquet and met more NLG members, including a Northeastern Law graduate who is practicing in Alaska.

Sunday: On the whole, we are very glad we attended this year’s convention and we’re even more excited for next year’s in New Orleans!

Liz Dedrick and Cecilia Candia are second year students at Northeastern University School of Law. Next year’s national convention will be held September 22 – 26  in New Orleans.  Mark your calendars!

Mass Dissent December 2009
by Koo Yu

A lawyer suggested that I check it out.  I should have known then, especially considering that he had a penchant for wearing three-piece suits.  But what did I know?  I had just recently begun my practice with another lawyer and was eager to meet other practitioners.  Some seven hours later, I found myself on a midnight getaway from disco music in a college friend’s compact sedan.  But still I returned for Happy Hour the following month.  That time, I ended up eating dumplings and fried rice somewhere in Chinatown at 3 a.m. with two other lawyers.

As a networking opportunity, Happy Hour offers more than just fun and games.  As a new lawyer who began a small practice, I met many lawyers, new and experienced, who work on their own or in a small firm.  I met experienced attorneys who encouraged me to continue on the path I have chosen.  There is certain camaraderie among the new lawyers, which is comforting.  During the most difficult times, knowing those lawyers helps me to continue.  And when facing an unfamiliar area of law, I can turn to others within the Guild for help, and the help is very congenial.

But let’s get serious; it is, after all, still called Happy Hour. The benefits continue outside of the Happy Hour setting and even the profession.  I often catch lunch or an after work drink with people I met through the Guild’s Happy Hour.  These meetings are a good way to leave behind the confines of my office and the responsibilities and stresses that come with it.

Of course, the Guild is still a legal organization.  Any time I meet Guild members, whether during Happy Hour or on our own time, we inevitably talk shop.  Sometimes we make other helpful professional connections through the Guild.  It is all in good fun and spirit.  Now, if only I can find a lawyer to make sure that no photos taken from these extended Happy Hours ever see the light of the day…

Ku Yoo is a partner at Chang & Yoo LLP, in Boston.  In light of his request, we used our discretion in the Happy Hour photos accompanying this article.