Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Faculty Engagement

In 2020, many Maine Law faculty incorporated social justice themes, including issues of race, in particular, into their assigned readings and class discussions.  The following examples highlight some of the issues raised in select courses.

• Cannabis Law.  Professor Bloomberg focused numerous class discussions on racial inequities in cannabis law, and dedicated separate classes to impacts of the war on drugs on communities of color and to building social equity in the cannabis industry.
• Contracts.  Professor Feinberg incorporated readings/discussions that address diversity-related concerns, particularly in the context of the doctrine of unconscionability and in determinations of how the “reasonable person” would view a given situation.
• Employment Law.  Vice Dean Bam required students to read an article about the “Me Too” movement when discussing sex discrimination in the workplace.
• Juvenile Law.  Professor Northrop and Associate Dean Wilshusen incorporated DEI and anti-racism more broadly throughout the course as a critical consideration for system-involved youth.
• Privacy Law.  Professor Bloomberg focused numerous class discussions on how privacy law has historically prejudiced women, minorities, and other disfavored groups.  He also assigned group projects on facial recognition software and e-carceration.
• Tax Law.  Professor Maine highlighted and discussed several racial disparities in the Internal Revenue Code.

Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic

The Maine Law clinics continued to engage in important DEI work, including impactful DEI training of students:

General Practice Clinic

• In the Clinic Seminar, a 90-minute class is devoted to Cultural Humility.
• Professor Smith taught a 90 minute class for Clinic summer interns and fellows on Evidence and Race.
• Clinic faculty have incorporated more explicit references to and discussion of the potential benefits of mindfulness training in addressing bias and racism in mindfulness teaching of law students, such as bringing in the work of Rhonda Magee.

Refugee & Human Rights Clinic (RHRC) 

• In 2019, the RHRC filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to USCIS Asylum Offices trying to get at the root of asylum denials.
• In 2020, the RHRC filed a complaint in federal court seeking to compel production related to the FOIA request.
• Also in 2020, the RHRC filed a complaint in federal court seeking to end unethical transfers of ICE detainees from CCJ to areas down south.
• Professor Welch assigns to RHRC students various readings on race and immigration law (e.g., Ahmad’s article on the Ethics of Narrative as well as Srikantiah’s piece on immigration law and white supremacy), accompanied by a class (and multiple case rounds) on racial injustice in immigration law.

	Professor Bordelon was a panelist on the Hot Topics Panel on Serving Students in Serious Financial Situations at the AALS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. He discussed the disproportionate impact of bar application character and fitness questions related to finances on minority bar applicants.
	Professor Feinberg presented her article, “After Marriage Equality: Dual Fatherhood for Married Male Same-Sex Couples,” which focuses on parentage rights for LGBTQ individuals, at two conferences in the summer 2020 (Law & Society and SEALS). She also served as a discussion facilitator for Pay Equity in the Legal Profession, which was sponsored by the Women’s Initiative of the Association of Corporate Counsel (Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, September 2019).
	Professor Northrop was a panelist on Racial Injustice: Reimagining Policy and Public Safety (June 19, 2020). He hosted a talk by Prof. Kris Henning (Director of Georgetown Law’s JJ Clinic and Racial Justice Initiative) as part of Maine Law’s “Lunch with a Side of Revolution” series (August 4, 2020). He also served on the Development Committee and Conference Faculty for Every Student, All Day, Every Day: Legal Strategies to Keep Maine Kids in School, KIDS Legal, Disability Rights Center of Maine, Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic Education Law Conference, Augusta, Maine (November 2019).
	Professor Thaler worked with Maine Law’s Energy and Environmental Law Society to host:  Environmental & Climate Justice:  Anti-Racist Movements and Principles for Practice (October 2020). He also participated in a webinar of the American College of Environmental Lawyers on Environmental Justice.
	Professor Welch was a panelist on the Maine Law panel on Law as a Tool of Oppression (April 2019).  Her focus was on immigration law. She was also a presenter at the MDI Racial Equity Working Group, “Immigration Law in these Challenging Times,” Bar Harbor, ME (February 2020).
	Professor Wriggins presented for the Northern District of California Judicial Conference on Race, Racism and Civil Justice (October 2020). In fall 2020, she also made numerous presentations at leading law schools – Duke Law School, Michigan Law School, Yale Law School, and Harvard Law School – on race and the torts curriculum.

Professors Bam, Bloomberg, Norchi, Thaler, and Welch participated in a joint course with the University of Maine Graduate and Professional Center, the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine, and Maine Law.  The course, titled “Understanding the COVID-19 Pandemic,” touched on disparate impacts of the pandemic.