Beth Lyon, Clinical Professor of Law, Associate Dean for Experiential Education, Clinical Program Director, and Director of the Farmworker Legal Assistance Clinic

One of the important functions of clinical teachers is to manage the docket of their students, so that they can learn how to practice law by “lawyering in slow motion.” This principle is key to allowing students time to plan, do, and reflect, and we try to be transparent about why we’re taking or declining matters, while curating work for our students that best teaches them. In our unequal society, we could triple the number of lawyers and law students serving low income and subordinated people in America and never meet the need.

This spring challenged our gatekeeping as many of our client communities faced a firestorm of government-led demonization and enforcement, and unprecedented attacks unfolded that threaten to significantly undermine our entire legal system and the ability of all people to access justice. I could not be prouder of how the Cornell community is responding.

Led by the Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic, a cross-clinic group of faculty and students built a Rapid Response team, delivering dozens of campus, local, and national “Know your Rights” presentations and doing outreach to longtime, respected community members who suddenly find themselves in prison and detention centers, cut off from families, homes, and jobs. Through an emergency petition in the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, the Transnational Disputes Clinic secured release for more than 100 deportees sent by the United States to a detention center in Panama.

Our students, faculty, and alumni are displaying the strengths of our profession—collaboration, solidarity, and zealous advocacy. Alumni and faculty counseled us and took on pro bono matters. Students and alumni advocated with the administration to protect clinical program funding. Dean Ohlin and numerous faculty colleagues took public stands to protect clinical legal education, the legal profession, and the rule of law.

I encourage you to carve out time for another value that is not as developed in our profession—self-care. Rather than routinely staying home to read the news or work into the night, make a regular effort to connect with other people and give yourself permission to engage in something fun that you’ve been putting off. Resilience is resistance.

As always, please do stop in and see us if you find yourself here “high above Cayuga’s waters.”

Walk gently,

Beth