Sparer Forum Panel Focuses on How Movement Lawyering Builds Community Solidarity

Movement lawyering and the role that legal professionals, public interest organization leaders, and social justice movements play in building community solidarity was the focus of a lively discussion at the annual Sparer Forum that brought a packed room of attendees to the Subotnick Center Wednesday night. 

The panel discussion “Movement Lawyering: Activism Beyond the Legal License,” was organized and moderated by Gabrielle Avellaneda ’25, Caroline Cohen ’25, Marina Khan ’26, and Maryam Salmanova ’27, each of whom are student fellows in the Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Law Fellowship program, which sponsored the event. The approximately 20 to 25 students who graduate from the Sparer program each year are often leaders of other student groups, and after graduation are fully employed in public interest or government agencies,  according to Professor Cynthia Godsoe, who co-directs the program with Professor Vijay Raghavan.  

The fellows posed questions to a variety of advocates and experts in the public interest field, including  Joanne Grell of Community Action for Safe Apartments (CASA); Simmi Kaur, a senior staff attorney at Youth Represent; Joyce McMillan, founder and executive director of Just Making A Change for Families (JMACforFamilies); Sarah Medina Camiscoli, an assistant professor of law at Rutgers Law School and co-founder of the Peer Defense Project; and Samah Sisay, staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights.  

The opening speaker, Professor Aissatou Barry, who is also director of the Brooklyn Law School Housing Justice Clinic, led off the discussion by describing how movement lawyering is especially necessary at this moment in time, because in addition to the regular struggles grassroots movements face there is now a heightened degree of social injustices, threats to democracy and systemic inequality. As demonstrated by the civil rights and labor movements, the fight for women’s rights, and the battle for LGBTQ rights, it takes more than just legal victories such as Brown v. the Board of Education or Roe v. Wade to overcome injustice, Barry said. It also requires mass mobilization and direct action by many people.  

“Tonight, I'm challenging you to decenter the law and center people instead,” Barry said. “When we talk about the history of movement lawyering, we know that social justice movements in this country teach us that legal advocacy alone isn't enough. It's the movement themselves that drive progress.”   

While some of the panelists are attorneys, others, like McMillan are not. But she described how she works closely with attorneys to bring about changes that help families who are negatively impacted by the child welfare system. “When I think of movement lawyering, it is understanding that your responsibility is not just to defend someone against accusations, but also to advocate for change when you see something is wrong,” McMillan said.  

Kaur, whose work as an attorney involves advocating and building opportunities for young people of color, added that movement lawyering demands vigilance and battling the status quo daily.  

“It requires fighting back against typical legal education, which tells us that we are objective, neutral vessels for any argument that needs to be made, that we are hired guns,” Kaur said. “Instead, it requires us to actually be subjective, be who we are, be rooted in community and join the fights and be a part of a community,” Kaur said. 

Another panelist who values having lawyers as partners is Grell, an advocate for tenants’ rights and affordable housing.  

“I define movement lawyering as working in collaboration and working in relationship building, not just that lawyers work for us, but work with us. You work with us to do the things that we all want to see changed and help create the world that we want to see,” Grell said. “In community organizing, we are taught that you should imagine the world you want to see.” 

Samah Sisay, whose work involves fighting against oppressive systems such as the criminal justice system, said she sees the law as a tool to support and work with movements. “As lawyers, we have the tools to really be creative within the law, to not be afraid to bring legal arguments that may not have precedent, to not be afraid to fight for people who may be left behind,” Sisay said.  

Camiscoli, who advocates for young people through the Peer Defense Project legal clinic, noted that law schools are a principal place for bringing about change. “Many of the laws that we see today were very much crafted in part, by the Federalist Society. And I think instead of being afraid of having this conversation, we need to be able to talk about what robust coalition work looks like in partnership with law school organizers and students,” she said.  

The panel discussion and Q&A were followed by a reception. Photos of the event are here.