2011 Annual Dinner & Other Guild News

NLG 30th Testimonial Dinner
BREAKING NEWS — Attempted FBI Infiltration of 2011 Testimonial Dinner
By Friedrich Snietzsche

On May 13, 2011, 22:00 hours, NLG Massachusetts staff apprehended a suspicious dinner guest and learned once again—through enhanced interrogation methods (thanks, Dick)—of the Congressional Committee on Un-American Activities’ interest in the NLG as a bulwark of the Communist Party. Luckily, NLG staff thwarted the Committee’s plan to infiltrate the Dinner and seized the FBI informant’s notes. Here are the goods:

NLG 2011 Honorees (l.-r.): Karen Blum, Liz Dedrick, Chip Berlet, and Emily Yozell. Dinner Photos by Josh Raisler Cohn

20:15 hours: “Now that Obama joined the Tea Party, And put Osama in the Arabian Sea, The future looks bright with Homeland Security,” NLG troubadours sang, surprising a banquet room of 200 people at the unionized Colonnade Hotel in Boston; all gathered to celebrate the work of Karen Blum and Emily Yozell (Lawyer Award), Chip Berlet (Legal Worker Award), and Liz Dedrick (Student Award). Master of Ceremonies Astrid af Klinteberg and Howard Cooper hosted the evening’s program, complete with live and silent auction and array of speeches. Highlights include: a tribute to Larry Shubow by Martin Kantrovitz (well-known name in our archives) and David Matz, and subsequent call for new Guild cadres due to the aging and dying off of core Guild members, learning of Liz Dedrick’s urban bee-keeping aspirations (obvious code language!), Chip Berlet reminiscing about writing liberal mumbo-jumbo in library corners (admitted secret plotting!), Mike Avery’s inspirational introduction of lawyer awardees incited riot on the dance floor.

NLG Troubadours rehearsing (l.-r.): Laura Alfirng, Urszula Masny-Latos, Stephanie Young, Jonathan Messinger, Sara DeConde, Daniel Werner, Phil Kassel. Photo by Barb Dougan.

20:33 hours: Unusual, repeated theme throughout the night: Do not pick up the phone when one fearless leader “Urszula” calls. Would write more but her file is already too thick.

Conclusion: NLG presents growing threat to grand ol’ American values.

Classy and stylish registration table volunteers (l.-r.): Jesse White, Sara DeConde, Amada Reynolds, and Daniel Werner

Riots on the dance floor after the conclusion of the dinner program.

Frederic Snietzsche is an FBI Informant apprehended by the NLG Staff in women’s bathroom at the Colonnade Hotel after the NLG Annual Dinner.

GUILD NEWS
NLG Happy Hour: The Massachusetts Chapter’s “NLG Presents…” and Happy Hour takes place on the 2nd Wednesday of every month, 5:30-7:30pm, at Kennedy’s Midtown Pub, 44 Province St., 2nd Fl., Boston.  This month’s event will be held on Wednesday, June 8.  Please join us!  (See below.)
Report From Tunisia: On Monday, June 20, 12:30 pm, 14 Beacon St., Conference Rm, 1st Fl., we will host a brown bag lunch discussion with NLG Executive Vice Pressident Azadeh Shahshahani on a recent international delegation to Tunisia and the delegation’s report titled “Hands Off the Tunisian Revolution”.

NLG Presents…
JUDY SOMBERG, JUDITH LIBEN, BEN EVANS
What’s Happening in Cuba?
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
5:30 pm
Kennedy’s Midtown Pub
44 Province St., 2nd Fl., Boston
The speakers will have just returned from an NLG legal research trip to Cuba.  They will give us their impressions of the changes going on after the April 2011 party congress where broad economic changes were enacted and also tell us about gender and environmental law in Cuba.

Street Law Clinic Report
The following clinics and trainings were conducted for members of Boston area community organizations and agencies:
March 19:   Know Your Rights  workshop for activists in the Rhode Island Mobilization Committee, by Ben Evans.
April 8:   Stop &Search clinic for Youth Build participants in Brockton, by BU student Matthew Schultz and Ben Evans.
April 24:   Know Your Rights workshop for Boston BDS Campaign, by Myong Joun.
April 28:   Legal Observering at a forum on Secure Communities in Chelsea, by Carl Williams.
May 4:   Legal Observer training for Northeastern University Law School students, by Melinda Drew.
May 5:   Stop & Search clinic for Youth Build Boston, by student Stephanie Young of Harvard and James Vita of New England, and Makis Antzoulatos.
May 6:   Stop & Search clinic for Boys & Girls Club of Roxbury, by students Jeremiah Meyer-O’Day and Zachary Lown of Northeastern, Stacey Kennard of Harvard, and Myong Joun.
May 9:   Tenants’ Rights clinic at St. Ambrose Family Shelter, by Northeastern student Sharlyn Grace and Jeff Petrucelly.
May 14:   Legal Observering for a rally against Bank of America, by Northeastern NLG students and Melinda Drew, Jeff Feuer, and Lee Goldstein.
June 2:   Know Your Rights training for Grassroots International, by Myong Joun and Urszula Masny-Latos.

Congratulations!
The following NLG members are the recipients of 2011 Excellence in the Law Awards of Mass. Lawyers Weekly:  Kathryn Hayne Barnwell, Camille Marcos, and Ingrid Nava (Up & Coming Lawyer), Karen Blum (Law Professor of the Year), and Andrew Cornell (Mentor of the Year).  Well-deserved!