Last week, Oren Nimni of the nonprofit civil rights firm Rights Behind Bars (RBB) spoke to a packed room of students at the lunch event “How to Build Power and Challenge Systemic Injustice.” The event, which took place on September 8th, explored three core elements of systemic change: storytelling, organizing, and movement lawyering.
Nimni spoke of his work at RBB and elaborated on the three elements, asserting that “law doesn’t actually make change, social movements make change.” He rejected the theory that change stems from bringing forth the ideal test case to the Supreme Court. Instead, he posited that real change happens from building social solidarity and taking a public stand on those issues which matter most to us.
Rights Behind Bars uses this theory of change by working with the organizers of social movements prior to initiating litigation, and “launching targeted litigation to highlight the issues organizers are working on.”
“coals for a bonfire of student activism”
Nimni grounded the discussion in an ongoing case he filed alongside Blake Strode of Arch City Defenders against the City Justice Center, alleging that the St.Louis jail subjected incarcerated people to excessive macing. Strode was also slated to speak at the lunch event, but could not attend due to illness.
Several students reacted positively to the event, Jack Haney HLS ‘26, called the talk “brilliant” and expressed gratitude towards Oren for “taking the time” and discussing “a parallel way to learn the doctrine, and learn about these theoretical and practical approaches and putting them to good use.”
Undergraduates from nearby Northeastern attended the event and felt similarly about its substance. Cynthia El Choueiri stated that she “learned a lot” and was “motivating to think more about what [she] wanted to do in law school.” Keneya Onuaguluchi reflected on the event: “I always wanted to be a civil rights attorney, and this talk helped me think about furthering movements rather than just litigating cases.” Sarah Wang, a co-founder of Northwestern’s Critical Corporate Theory Lab noted that events like this “are the coals for a bonfire” of student activism, the likes of which the Lab is meant to stir.
When asked what advice he might have for law students, Nimni counseled, “Try to be the same person after law school as you were before – just with a little more knowledge of this specific area.”
“Law doesn’t actually make change, social movements make change”
The event is part of an ongoing series of teach-in events from the Systemic Justice Project, and was co-sponsored by the Bernard Koteen Office of Public Interest Advising. Professor Jon Hanson, who launched the teach-ins, explained the motivation behind the events: “There is a tendency to not talk about justice in legal education.”
Further topics for the teach-ins will include storytelling on the East Palestine train derailment, taking place on September 23rd, and organizing around Stop Cop City, tentatively taking place on October 21st.