PUBLISHED:January 15, 2007

National Public Interest Leadership with Duke Law Connections at Equal Justice Works

Dear Public Interest Listserv Member,

Equal Justice Works has asked me to pass this announcement on to you, and it seems a good one to send on MLK Day. It serves multiple purposes. For one, it provides those interested with a chance to talk with Jack Greenberg, one of the most prominent civil rights lawyers of the 1950s. He speaks tomorrow on-line (see below for how to register) on the Equal Justice Works E-Guide on the Newsweek website. His speech will be followed on subsequent days by postings of civil rights essays from others - several with a Duke Law connection.

Essay Postings:

* Barbara Arnwine is a 1976 Duke Law graduate, who formerly worked with Legal Services of NC, and is now Director of the Lawyers for Civil Rights in DC. (This organization's Deputy Director and Board Co-Chair will speak at Duke on Feb. 13, encouraging you to apply for post-graduate fellowships generally and with their organization in particular.)

* Two of the speakers are from organizations - the Mississippi Center for Justice and the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama - that have been among our placements for the Duke Law Southern Justice Spring Break Mission Trip.

Another purpose of the speaker and the essays is to bring your attention to a massive effort undertaken by Equal Justice Works these last two years. It has amassed a national law school data base to bring attention to public interest initiatives within law schools. Unlike US News rankings, which use few public interest indicia in comparing schools, the Equal Justice Works E-Guide (posted on Newsweek's website) is all about public interest, pro bono, clinics, etc. This effort has been lead at Equal Justice Works by 1991 Duke Law graduate Cindy Adcock, who also worked at Duke Law for several years as Pro Bono Director and Senior Lecturing Fellow teaching in the Death Penalty Clinic and a Professional Responsibility course. She has received help from 1998 Duke Law graduate Heather Wells Jarvis, the Equal Justice Works Program Manager for Law School Advocacy. If you have not done so already, check out the E-Guide to see their product and to see what law schools are doing in public interest across the country.

Thanks, and have a good MLK holiday!

Carol Spruill


ON THE BRINK OF U.S. SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON SCHOOL DESEGREGATION: LIVE TALK WITH CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER


Jack Greenberg, Columbia law school professor and civil rights expert, will answer your questions about more than 50 years of school desegregation efforts on Tuesday, Jan. 16 at 1 p.m., EST.


Few lawyers are more knowledgeable on the topic than Jack Greenberg, who served as Thurgood Marshall's co-counsel in the 1954 landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, which declared "separate but equal" unconstitutional. Now he speaks out on the U.S. Supreme Court cases argued last month that will determine the future of school desegregation efforts for decades to come.


Greenberg, who succeeded Marshall in 1961 as the director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, will take your questions about his career, civil rights in general and the dream for equal educational opportunity past, present and future. His talk, offered in connection with The E-Guide to Public Service at America's Law Schools, commemorates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.


To submit a question in advance or to participate in the live talk, visit The E-Guide at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16546703/site/newsweek/


Also watch for essays posted daily the week of Jan. 15 from leading civil rights lawyers offering their dreams for 2007 on some of the burning issues of the day:


Martha Bergmark, Mississippi Center for Justice, on promoting racial and economic justice after Katrina


Jamienne Studley, Public Advocates, on fighting for education justice


Barbara Arnwine, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, on dissolving obstacles to the ballot box


Bryan Stevenson, Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama, on abolition of the death penalty


Stewart Kwoh, Asian Pacific American Legal Center, on removing language barriers to justice

Posted: January 15, 2007