Professors Cook and Meili to Present at Midwest Clinical Conference

Professors Nancy Cook and Steve Meili will serve as panelists at the Midwest Clinical Conference in Detroit on October 9-11.

The conference is centered around Ohio State University History Professor Kevin Boyle's award-winning book, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age (2004), which recounts the tale of Ossian Sweet, an African American doctor who was prosecuted for murder—and whose defense team included Clarence Darrow—after defending his home against a mob determined to drive him from an all-white, working-class neighborhood on Detroit's east side. Arc of Justice is rich with material for discussion of a variety of compelling issues, including the history of residential segregation in the Midwest, trial testimony of dubious veracity, critical strategic decisions made without client consultation, and the creation of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Professor Meili, who has written extensively on cause lawyering, will discuss how Arc of Justice illustrates the conflict between lawyering for a cause and representing an individual client. Professor Cook's presentation will focus on issues of cultural competence in the development of courtroom strategies and on how such competencies can be taught.

Conference information and registration material is available at http://law.wayne.edu/pdf/onebookonecommunity.pdf