Law students speak to barriers to legal education

Quinn, Spangler, D'Arcangelo, West, and Wood
Presumed ©; used with permission.

A gifted group of law students shared their personal experiences in access to legal education at the National Lawyers Guild "2024 #Law4ThePeople Convention" in Birmingham, Alabama, Friday.

UMass Law NLG chapter members formulated and proposed the program, "Changing The World, One Legal Education At A Time," which was accepted in a competitive selection process. Here is the abstract:

The panel will consist of law students with lived experience addressing the barriers, opportunities, and realities of accessing a legal education as members of underrepresented populations. Framed by issues of persistent inaccessibility, the panel will share the unique challenges they encountered while applying to and attending law school. Furthermore, each panel member will deconstruct how the barriers they’ve encountered influenced their career trajectories following graduation. In addition to their stories, Dean Quinn will share administrator perspectives on outcomes of programs and support for underrepresented populations unique to their school. Finally, the panel will discuss where they see opportunity for improvement.

The panel comprised 3Ls Daniela D'Arcangelo and Liz West, and 2L Rebecca Wood, chapter president. Wood, an alumna of my Torts I & II classes, appeared on The Savory Tort in the summer in recognition of her having won a prestigious Rappaport Fellowship. The panelists were accompanied by 2L Wyatt Spangler (featured), an NLG chapter member who contributed vitally to the program, and Assistant Dean of Public Interest John Quinn, who participated also as a panelist.

Laws suspending driver licenses for fines need reform

Spencer K. Schneider, a 3L at UMass Law and teaching assistant in my Torts I-II classes, has authored an article for the National Lawyers Guild Review.  He examines state systems that suspend driver licenses upon unpaid fines and their perversely circular detrimental impact.  He concludes that constitutional challenges to the systems don't hold water, but that they should be reformed as a matter of sound legislative policy.  Here is the abstract.

Forty-three states have, or previously had, some version of a driver’s license suspension program. These programs are shown to have disastrous financial effects on the lives of those who cannot afford the fines inherent in them. Challenges to such license suspension schemes have been brought throughout the United States but have been largely unsuccessful. Where relief ultimately may be found is in state legislatures or city governments. When those bodies discover that, although these programs are in fact valid and constitutional, many of them have such detrimental and long-term impacts on so many citizens, they ultimately result in more harm than good. This realization has led many states to experiment with changes to, or repeals of, their driver’s license suspension programs with varying success. However, many states still rely on the fines levied by these programs and there is a legitimate argument that the programs are imposed to keep dangerous drivers off the street. Ultimately, this is an issue that arose from legislation and, despite finding its way into the court system, must be solved with legislation.

The article is Spencer K. Schneider, The Wheels on the Bus: The Statutory Schemes that Turn Traffic Tickets into Financial Crises, 77:2 Nat'l Law. Guild Rev. 81 (Summer/Fall 2020).