NLG Sustainer Profile – Jeff Feuer: Defender of Dissent

His law partner Lee Goldstein came up with their firm’s slogan, but it aptly describes Jeff Feuer’s life work: “We fight evil.  Always have, always will.”   Often unpaid but always ready for the struggle, Jeff has been at the forefront of the Massachusetts Chapter’s defense of protest and protesters .  He’s had a great impact on our legal and political landscape.

His training began in the womb – “my family’s always been progressive,” he says – and by the time he finished high school he had committed civil disobedience.  During college he went to Chicago to organize welfare recipients in the Poor People’s Campaign, and became active in the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).   His first career was in social work, first a drug rehabilitation counselor in New York City and then, for 15 years, with youthful offenders in Watertown.

Anyone who knows this gentle giant of a man can easily imagine him working well with addicts and troubled teens.   And his charms were not lost on Millie Drew, the head nurse of the psychiatric ward where he worked as an aide when the two met in 1971 and fell in love.   (One’s mind reels at the romantic possibilities.  Who will play Jeff in the movie?)  The couple has been together ever since; Drew is now a faculty member and the Director of the Academic Support Program of Northeastern University School of Law.

Eventually Jeff grew dissatisfied with what social work could achieve and entered law school.  “I kept seeing the same problems over and over again and I thought law would give me some additional tools to help bring about systemic change,” he says.  Plus, he admits, “I like arguing.”  Though an idealist, Jeff had a good business plan to finance law school.  He and a partner opened Rockit Records in Saugus in 1980.  The plan paid off and also satisfied Jeff’s passion for music, which is still manifested through his periodic peddling of Springsteen tickets to friends and associates.

Early in his legal career, Jeff represented children poisoned by lead paint and helped extend the protection of state lead paint laws to poor people living in federally subsidized housing.  This was Jeff’s first appellate case, and he admits to being “nervous at hell” at his first Supreme Judicial Court argument, where he prevailed.    He then continued his lead paint cases at Stern and Shapiro (as it was then called), but grew tired of litigating “the same cases over and over again” and in 1995 teamed up with Lee Goldstein to form a political law partnership that’s still going.   Goldstein & Feuer earn their bread and butter helping non-profits with incorporation, governance and taxes, and with landlord –tenant, employment discrimination and wrongful termination cases.  This finances their legal activism, most notably the defense of protesters committing civil disobedience.

Think of any time a group in the Boston area has protested to demand change, and Jeff has been present.  Before the 2004 Democratic National Convention, he was part of the NLG team who negotiated permits and parade routs for demonstrators.  When protests were confined to a small caged-in area, he was on the NLG legal team suing (unsuccessfully) to allow demonstrators within sight and sound of conventioneers.   He coordinated legal support for those arrested in the 2005 Justice for Janitors campaign and did the same for climate change activists who last year set up camp on the Boston Common.  He also continues to defend protesters blocking evictions under the auspices of City Life / Vida Urbana.

His seat at the front lines has given Jeff an interesting perspective on how the Boston Police Department treats protesters.   He believes the Quinn bill, which rewards officers for pursuing higher education, combined with a strong union presence in Boston, has created a climate of relative police tolerance, so that the kinds of beatings and mass arrests of protesters we have seen elsewhere in the country haven’t happened here.   He recalls that the police were “incredibly supportive” of the Justice for Janitors protesters; when they issued citations, police were careful to note, “these people were sitting down and blocking traffic in order to obtain better working conditions and higher wages for janitors.”  These words ensured that the charges would all be thrown out at arraignment, since a “disorderly conduct” conviction requires that there be “no legitimate purpose” to a defendant’s actions.   When 200 climate change activists slept on the Boston Common for 30 days last year, the police came only on five occasions — and they issued summonses rather than making a single arrest.   Jeff notes a similar dynamic with eviction blockades. “They hate arresting people, and they’re apologetic about it.”

Hobnobbing with protesters is all very fun, but Jeff also puts in many hours behind the scenes to strengthen the Massachusetts Chapter and advance its programs.  He has been on the Board of Directors for over 15 years, active on the Finance and Personnel committees.  He is very active in the Street Law clinics, training lawyers and students and offering clinics himself at community organizations on topics such as landlord-tenant law, legal observing of demonstrations, and civil disobedience.  He trained the Boston Commons protesters and is a leader of the Foreclosure Prevention Task Force.   Jeff’s work is a model for private lawyers who want to make a difference.

-      Bonnie Tenneriello      -