The Systemic Justice Project (SJP) hosted its third annual public interest oriented conference last weekend. This year, SJP partnered with four other organizations – the [F]law, the Law and Political Economic Project, the Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Journal, and the People’s Party Project – to co-sponsor and co-organize this event.
Over the course of two days, from the morning of January 31st to the evening of February 1st, panelists gathered from various regions, backgrounds, and areas of law to discuss the future of justice-oriented lawyering. The guest list included a number of prominent figures focused on using the law to serve marginalized communities: The cast of the leftist Supreme Court podcast 5-4, former Congresswoman Cori Bush, ACLU Communications Strategist Gillian Branstetter, and a several other professionals and clinicians from Harvard and around the public interest world.
Tragically, one of the speakers, Kiah Duggins, J.D. ‘21, was killed in the Potomac River mid-air collision two days prior. While plans for a tribute were made, out of respect for her family’s wishes, none was held.
The title of the conference this year was “Facing the Future: Organizing and Lawyering for Justice.” In line with this theme of an uncertain future, one central discussion brought up by both panelists and audience members surrounded the rise of authoritarianism and the role of law to combat it. President Trump loomed large, but many of the speakers focused on the effects of the policies on their clients or target populations, and how to best address the resulting danger.
The first day of the conference featured a number of panels focused on specific areas of law. These panels brought together practitioners, activists, and academics to discuss topics such as reproductive and transgender rights, immigration, government lawyering, consumer protection, and labor law.
A common refrain throughout these panels was the critical role of on-the-ground movement lawyering even within specific areas of practice. Tiffany Lieu, a panelist on the Immigration Lawyering event and clinical instructor at the Crimmigration Clinic at Harvard Law School, stated that the work is about “understanding what issues will move people, and what people care about.” Likewise, Vail Kohnert-Yount, a panelist on the Labor Lawyering event, and Assistant Director of United Auto Workers Region 9A, emphasized: “The only way to win justice is through collective action and solidarity.”
Peppered throughout the first day of the conference, and featured centrally in the second day of the conference, were panels regarding broader strategies within and surrounding the legal sphere to combat authoritarianism, as well as ways to reinvigorate such efforts. These strategies included both explicitly legal avenues, as well as avenues via politics, media, and organizing.
“Let yourself be forged in a struggle, let yourself be tried, let yourself face challenges.”
In a panel titled “Re-Empowerment,” Rhiannon Hamam, of the 5-4 Podcast, Molly Coleman, J.D. ‘20, Executive Director of the People’s Parity Project, and Veena Dubal, Professor of Law at University of California Irvine School of Law, discussed ways of reenergizing young lawyers and law students toward public interest, especially during this tumultuous period of history. The panelists described the current atmosphere of the justice-oriented realm as tinged with currents of demoralization and difficulty.
For them, part of that difficulty stems from the law’s complicity, with Coleman acknowledging “the role [lawyers] have played in getting us to this point right now.” They also pointed to the effects of chilled speech, with Dubal recognizing the mounting fear in university students toward speaking out on political issues, stretching from Palestine to climate change to gender justice. She states that during her time at school, there was “no fear that there was going to be a Title XI investigation or that we would be suspended or expelled.”
Nevertheless, the panelists emphasized the purpose within the struggle. Hamam addressed the room by stating: “Let yourself be forged in a struggle, let yourself be tried, let yourself face challenges. A lot of people might have gone to law school to materially make their own lives better, but I imagine most of the people in this room did not go to law school to answer easy questions.”
Similar sentiments of encouragement toward legal work were echoed by former United States Representative Cori Bush. In her panel on Friday, titled “Building Power in an Authoritarian Regime,” Bush provided insight into her time at the House, speaking on the struggles of infighting within congressional blocs and the hesitancy at times of leadership to push a bill through in fear of court challenges or the potential of backfiring. Nevertheless, she saw lawyers as critical to making progress in the legislature. She highlighted how “so many lawyers, probably close to a hundred,” assisted her over the span of two years to introduce her Reparations NOW bill, H.Res.414. She stated: “It is the first of its kind, and now it exists because of the work with the lawyers we did.”
The conference also offered discussion on ways in which students, even prior to attaining a degree, can nevertheless make a difference. The “Unbuilding Walls, Organizing, Solidarity” panel on Saturday discussed the importance of organizing, both on and off campus. One of the panelists, Astra Taylor, emphasized how solidarity and power building is critical to the movement, and how the progressive organizing should aim not to be a “subculture,” but rather a “majoritarian movement.”
Reflecting upon whether the event served its role, Corrinne Shanahan, HLS ‘25, a moderator for the event, stated “as a student organizer at Harvard, this conference was an important reminder of the collective power students share to make change. I especially appreciated the emphasis on radical solidarity, including examples ranging from Stop Cop City to the student movement for Palestine and more.”