Lunch and Learn: The Guild’s New Brown Bag Lunch Series

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.