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In
this clip, my colleague Professor Brian Glick and two students in Fordham's
Community Economic Development Clinic, Diana Adams-Ciardulo and Juan Carlos
Stolberg, talk about their experiences with the founders of the worker owned
restaurant Colors.
Brian
runs our Community Economic Development Clinic, which assisted the group in a
variety of ways, including helping them line up financing and drafting their complicated
operating agreement. Brian's commitment to giving voice to his clients, rather
than dictating outcomes consistent with his own views, is reflected in his use
of the translation metaphor in his comments. Many clinical legal educators will recognize the translation idea from
Clark Cunningham's classic piece, The Lawyer as Translator.
As I listen to Brian's comment about translating across the great gulf of power
and wealth that so often separates Brian's clients from those with whom they
often need to make a deal, I am struck by how hard it is for many of us to
listen well enough to our clients so that we are able to represent them, and not
just our idea of who we might want them to be.
As
Diana and Juan Carlos talk about their work, I think you can get the sense of
how much time they invested in talking through a wide range of complex issues
with this very diverse group of people. My sense is that the diversity of
languages, backgrounds and viewpoints was both a challenge and a source of
strength for the group.
I
think that Brian's strong commitment to a process that both encouraged and
structured broad participation was very important, but I also think that he
would be the first to remind us that as much credit as he and the students
deserve for their thoughtful work, we should remember that Colors is the result
of the vision, talent and hard work of the restaurant workers, not the lawyers.
-- Ian
Weinstein
Fordham, Law School, Clinical Legal Education,
Law Clinic, Pro Bono Work, Legal Education, Legal Pedagogy, Teaching Law, Student Lawyers, Law Student, Windows on the World, Community Economic Development, World Trade Center
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