1.5 CLE Hours for General (Topical content, skills training, law practice management) through the State Bar of CA (a certificate will be emailed after completion)
Sponsors: NLG Housing Committee, NLG-Philly, NLG-LA, East Bay Community Law Center
As COVID emergency protections for tenants and the unhoused expire the real impact of the economic/housing crisis the pandemic generated are felt all over the world. In the last 20 years we have seen an unprecedented housing crisis. Organizers and activists have met this crisis with action. Following the model of legal observing, several chapters are developing eviction defense support including legal observers, hotline workers and demonstration attorneys with training in eviction defense and tenant/homeless rights. We are joined by NLG attorneys from the SF Bay Area, Philadelphia, and LA to discuss how chapters are supporting eviction defense as well as frontline organizers and activists representing local and internationally connected struggles of anti-displacement and housing.
Panelists:
Scott Johnson (NLG-LA Legal Observer) is a criminal defense attorney as well as a civil and international human rights activist. He has taught at law schools in Los Angeles, published articles, and spoken in the U.S. and Europe about the rights of the accused in both domestic and international criminal law contexts. He is a member of bars of New York and California (state and federal courts) as well as various international criminal tribunals including the International Criminal Court as well as the U.S. Department of Defense Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. An active member of the National Lawyers Guild chapters while a student (Buffalo) as well as an attorney (New York City and Los Angeles), Scott has been active in mass defense committee work since the late 1990s.
Martha Escudero (El Sereno Home Reclaimer) is a mother of 2 daughters. Homeschooling Educator, and Maternal Mental Health Advocate. Strong believer of housing as a human right and building a world that sustains all life. Has been an activist in food justice and prison abolition work. Lived 2 years among Mapuche people in a rural community in Wallmapu AKA Chile. Currently lives in Oshunga known as El Sereno, California, where she reclaimed a once state owned home through grassroots organization Reclaiming Our Homes. In her fun days you will find her gardening.
EmilyRose Johns (NLG-SFBA supervising/on-call attorney for Demonstrations and Right to Shelter Committee) is a Senior Associate with Oakland-based civil rights firm Siegel, Yee, Brunner & Mehta. She specializes in prisoners’ rights, police misconduct, and the rights of individuals experiencing homelessness. She is currently in litigation against the City of Oakland, the City of Emeryville, and the State of California over policies and practices that harm individuals experiencing homelessness. EmilyRose is an active member of the National Lawyers Guild and serves on several local committees, including the demonstrations committee and the right to shelter committee. She received her law degree in 2013 from American University, Washington College of Law and is the 2013 recipient of the Peter M. Cicchino Award for outstanding Advocacy in the Public Interest. In her free time, she volunteers with the Berkeley needle exchange and plays soccer.
Anita De Asis Miralle, better known as Needa Bee, is a Filipina, single mother, entrepreneur, educator, artist, activist and organizer. She is a co-founder and interim Executive Director of The Village in Oakland - a grassroots organization providing direct services and support, opportunities for media and policy advocacy, education programs, and arts programs by and for unhoused residents of Oakland, Berkeley & San Francisco. The Village in Oakland has been providing know your rights trainings, eviction defense, and adverse possession to unhoused Oakland residents since 2017. In Spring 2017, to help document the conditions and government interventions (or lack of) in shanty towns, favelas, and slums around the world, The Village in Oakland co-hosted the United Nations Rapporteur on Adequate Housing. In the final UN report, Oakland and San Francisco were named the top two cities in the world where the Special Rapporteur documented the most human rights violations of unhoused residents.
Stephanie Sena is the inaugural Anti-Poverty Fellow and leads the Initiative to End Poverty and Inequality, an interdisciplinary enterprise housed in the Charles Widger School of Law. Sena is also the founder and executive director of the Student-Run Emergency Housing Unit of Philadelphia (SREHUP), a non-profit community and rehousing center, operating since 2011. Sena is part of a working group of lawyers across the country who litigate to protect the unhoused and tent encampment occupants from homeless encampment evictions, also known as “sweeps.” In protecting the civil rights of the unhoused, Sena calls attention to the need for suitable and accessible housing, social services and living wage policy. Sena advocates for housing as a human right. A sought-after speaker, she has given talks at universities, schools and religious institutions across the country as well as at the 3rd Annual Peaceable Kingdom Conference and TEDxPhiladelphia.
Delaney Keefe, Law StudentE Conner (NLG SFBA Program Coordinator) is a Texas transplant who has called Oakland her home for over a decade. E came to the NLG through community with many fellow activists involved. E brings to the NLG her experience interning at Freedom Archives to document the work of both resistance and the history and ongoing struggles against repression. E also brings her activism as a tenant organizer and skills as a community-based bike mechanic. E enjoys her paperback collection, obscure music and walking her dog.
CLE Materials Attached Below.
Open Zoom
