{"id":28739,"date":"2019-11-22T11:54:22","date_gmt":"2019-11-22T17:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=28739"},"modified":"2019-12-03T11:06:54","modified_gmt":"2019-12-03T17:06:54","slug":"a-community-lawyering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2019\/11\/a-community-lawyering\/","title":{"rendered":"A Community Lawyering"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Gratitude to Rodrigo Sanchez for assistance in compiling data on 53206.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

The Shriver Center in Chicago provides training on a particular model of community-based lawyering<\/a>.\u00a0 They define \u201ccommunity lawyering\u201d<\/a> as \u201cusing legal advocacy to help achieve solutions to community-identified issues in ways that develop local leadership and institutions that can continue to exert power to effect systemic change.\u201d The concept grew out of the older ideas of community organizing generally pioneered by Saul Alinsky<\/a>\u2019s work in 1930s and 40s Chicago, where, broadly speaking, the goal is<\/a> to promote the empowerment of citizens, i.e. members of the community, to address problems and effect change. These ideas were applied to the practice of law at least as far back as 1970 in the form of a Yale Law Journal article<\/a> where Stephen Wexler outlined a number of ways in which effective lawyering in an impoverished community is different from the traditional practice of law.<\/p>\n

Whereas the traditional lawyering model sets up an adversarial dynamic between parties, community lawyering may engage alternative systems of relational power or power sharing aimed at ultimate reconciliation or compromise, founded on a recognition of common interests between parties. \u00a0(See Ross Dolloff & Marc Potvin,\u00a0Community Lawyering\u2014Why Now?<\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>37 Clearinghouse\u00a0Review\u00a0136 (July\u2013Aug. 2003)).\u00a0 Whereas traditional lawyering may entail simply spotting issues that can be resolved through litigation or formal legal recourse, community lawyering can approach citizen-identified problems as opportunities to engage stakeholders<\/a> in a broader conversation in the hope of building authentic, trusting relationships.\u00a0 Whereas the traditional lawyer model is that of a litigator, negotiator of claims, and counselor to the client, the community lawyer\u2019s focus may be to \u201cdevelop inside the client population a sustainable knowledge base that allows the population to build foundations for opportunity from within<\/a>,\u201d to identify and defeat the causes of poverty.\u00a0 Whereas in the traditional lawyering model the attorney is the \u201cvoice\u201d of the client before the court, in a community lawyering model, the strategy and policies are accountable to the voice of the population being served. \u00a0The lawyer assists a community in identifying a structural barrier (access to economic resources, housing, sustainability, stability, employment opportunities, political voice, etc.) and then helps build capacity within the community to take action (through organizing, relationship building, advocacy, policy development, traditional case work, etc.).<\/p>\n

The Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee<\/a> applied for and received a grant funded by the Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation<\/a> to introduce its related but unique approach of embedding lawyers into communities called \u201cneighborhood lawyering<\/a>,\u201d focused on two targeted communities in Milwaukee.\u00a0 The funding is from a settlement<\/a> between the federal government and Bank of America stemming from the selling of toxic mortgage securities during the housing bubble.\u00a0 The Legal Aid Society grant application noted that \u201cthe areas most affected by the foreclosure crisis were concentrated along lines of race and poverty in the very neighborhoods we are proposing to serve,\u201d and that \u201cthe foreclosure crisis in Milwaukee resulted not from speculative investment, but from unregulated predatory lending that targeted vulnerable populations in existing housing stock.\u201d \u00a0The goal is that Legal Aid lawyers become trusted, familiar faces in the neighborhood, available on a host of civil legal issues that aid in community revitalization.<\/p>\n

\"Attorney
Attorney Pedro Hernandez at work as a Neighborhood Lawyer in Milwaukee. Source: Maayan Silver, WUWM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the summer of 2019, Legal Aid assigned me to the neighborhood lawyering project in 53206, with my colleague Pedro Hernandez as the neighborhood lawyer in 53204.\u00a0 In addition to Legal Aid\u2019s traditional civil legal work (landlord\/ tenant disputes, eviction defense, foreclosures, consumer law, bankruptcy, unemployment insurance, and social security matters), the neighborhood lawyering project focuses on partnering with residents via community, social service and religious organizations to identify and evaluate \u00a0community legal issues.\u00a0 Legal Aid convened a Pro Bono Business Panel\u00a0 to assist in the development of successful small business operations in the two neighborhoods. Additionally, the project involves opportunities for staff legal seminar presentations to better address legal challenges and connect with residents and existing neighborhood coalitions.<\/p>\n

So why 53206?\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at the numbers:<\/p>\n