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UB offers summer course on lawyers
as agents of social change

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    A UB summer course will explore the role of lawyers as counselors and agents of social change. Watch a video.

By CHARLES ANZALONE
Published: July 5, 2012

High school students and undergraduates dedicated to changing the world will have the chance to see how a legal degree and legal expertise can lead to meaningful social change through a new UB interdisciplinary summer program to be held at the Chautauqua Institution.

The seminar, “Lawyers as Agents for Social Change,” To be held Aug. 22-26, brings UB faculty together with other distinguished speakers to explore the role lawyers can have on changing policy and stepping into the role of agents of social change in today’s society.

“In this course, part of the university’s Extension Learning Experience, students will learn how lawyers, jurists and legislators use the law as a tool to implement social change,” says Monica Piga Wallace, co-lead faculty member and lecturer at the UB Law School. “We will examine how desired outcomes can be achieved using legislation, litigation and negotiation.”

A small number of students—enrollment is limited to 12—will visit the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown. There they will examine the impact Jackson had on American law as attorney general, justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and as chief prosecutor for the U.S. during the historic Nuremberg Trials (1945-49).

As part of the program, students will reside at one of America’s cultural jewels, the Chautauqua Institution outside Mayville near Jamestown.

The cost to participate is $1,400, and includes transportation, lodging, meals and admission fees to the Chautauqua Institution. The deadline to register is July 20.

The first-time summer seminar targets high school students and college undergraduates considering a law career or others interested in how legal training can bring about meaningful change in society and government, says Hadar Borden, administrative director of the UB Undergraduate Academies, whose organization was instrumental in establishing the Extension Learning Experience. The summer program is a coordinated effort between the Undergraduate Academies and the UB Law School.

“Students are fascinated by human rights issues and social justice,” Borden says. “This experience allows students to explore how lawyers serve as guardians of human rights and how lawyers use the law as a tool to implement social change. Students will learn how a career in law can equip them to effect social change at the local, national and international levels.”

“This opportunity allows students to explore the law as a vehicle for social change from many perspectives and to explore relationships between lawyers, jurists, citizens and the community,” says Bernadette Gargano, co-lead faculty member and lecturer at the UB Law School. “This extended learning experience will be particularly special because we will explore the interrelationships among local, national and global legal systems, which are, in the end, meant to positively influence the rights of those governed by them, the people."

Among the highlights of the program:

  • Students will have the chance to engage with distinguished professors who share their social change interest in a small, personal setting.
  • The course focuses on one-on-one opportunities to study the ways lawyers have triggered social change and explore the paths students can aim for this service.
  • The program provides an excellent background to enroll in this fall’s Discovery Seminar, in which students will explore the role of lawyers as agents of social change in the Civil Rights Movement.
  • The course includes a tour of the Chautauqua County Courthouse, where those in the class will watch a state Supreme Court proceeding, interact with judges and court personnel, and discuss roles and duties with court officials.
  • Several guests lectures, including Douglas Neckers, scholar and scientist who has studied the Nuremberg Trials, and John Q. Barrett, a legal historian, biographer of Justice Robert H. Jackson and professor of law at St. John’s University School of Law.
  • Staying at the Chautauqua Institution also gives students access to the center’s full program of lectures and exhibits. The institution also has swimming, sailing, golf, tennis, kayaking, hiking, a fitness center and a full compliment of theatrical and music shows, making it what visitors have called a “full-service vacation stop for body, mind and spirit.”

“We are bringing a profession to life,” Borden says. “This can be a game-changer for students. We encourage students to develop a competitive profile so that they have a story to share in personal statements and interviews.

“This will be a story, the inspiring moment when it all clicked. I think we all can identify a time in our undergraduate experience when it all finally clicked—the ‘ah ha’ moment.”