Conference Plenary

Unfinished Arcs: Ferguson and Beyond

Thursday, May 2 | 1 – 2:45 pm  

Kayla Reed, Co-founder and Executive Director, Action St. Louis

Blake Strobe, Executive Director, ArchCity Defenders

With a speaker from PROMO Missouri

Moderated by Brendan Roediger, Director of the Civil Advocacy Clinic at Saint Louis University School of Law

The opening plenary will explore the role of resistance and resilience in achieving change in the face of backlash and retrenchment. The session honors St. Louis’s rich history of people who have fought for change in the face of discrimination, injustice, and great personal risk.

With the rollback of rights nationally and the spread of new restrictive laws and policies targeting vulnerable groups at the state and local level, moderator Brendan Roediger of St. Louis School of Law will explore these themes with advocates pushing for change on the front lines in Missouri. Panelists include Kayla Reed, Co-founder and Executive Director, Action St. Louis, a grassroots racial justice organization born out of the Ferguson Uprisings that seeks to build political power for Black communities in the St. Louis region; Blake Strobe, Executive Director, ArchCity Defenders, a holistic legal advocacy organization that combats the criminalization of poverty and state violence, especially in communities of color; and an advocate from PROMO Missouri, an organization that confronts systemic inequities to liberate the full spectrum of the LGBTQ+ community from discrimination and oppression.

The panel will examine what lessons can be drawn from the Ferguson Uprising and other continued efforts to advance and protect the rights of marginalized communities in the face of backlash and retrenchment. It will consider the skills, strategies, and theories of change, particularly regarding social movements and the role of lawyers, that we must impart to our students.  

Awards Luncheon

There will be one luncheon on Friday, May 3 from 12 – 1:45 pm. The Section on Clinical Legal Education M. Shanara Gilbert Award, Ellmann Memorial Clinical Scholarship Award, William Pincus Award, and CLEA Award Presentations will be presented and we will honor new clinicians.

Community Gatherings

Informal gatherings were added to conference programming in recent years. The planning committee is pleased to include this new session format in person this year. Community Gatherings are an expansion of the working group sessions but are not limited to any specific topic areas. For example, gatherings may be organized by:

  • Career phase (mid-level, late-career, administrators)
  • State or region
  • Affinity groups
  • Community service project
  • Just for fun
  • Another theme of your choice

We hope that these gatherings, scheduled for Saturday, May 4 from 4:30 – 6 pm, will provide a way for our community to reunite in person.