Law Foundation's Favorites of 2019

Whether it's by reading, listening, or watching, there are many ways to stay informed and engaged with the issues that shape our society. Each week in December, we’re sharing our "Favorites of 2019" with you — a gift from us, for everything you've done to support the Law Foundation this year.

We hope that this list is a starting point to spark larger conversations with friends, family, and colleagues, and that it inspires you to be more involved in our community (and with us!). You can help us by donating to the Law Foundation today. All gifts are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated. We can't do our work without you. Thank you, in advance, for your commitment to justice.

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HOUSING

The Arc of Justice: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of a Beloved Community

Arc of Justice traces the remarkable journey of New Communities, Inc. in southwest Georgia, a story of racial justice, community organizing, and perseverance in the face of enormous obstacles. The Law Foundation co-sponsored a community screening of the film with the newly-incorporated South Bay Community Land Trust earlier this year. Watch the trailer & learn more.

“Race for Profit” by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Recent U.S. census data reveals the homeownership rate for African Americans has fallen to its lowest level since before the civil rights movement. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s new book, “Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Home Ownership,” examines the roots of this crisis. Watch a clip & learn more.

"The Color of Law" by Richard Rothstein

The history of residential segregation in the United States is long and disturbing, and the government, at all levels, has created and perpetuated this ongoing segregation that still defines our neighborhoods and communities. Through a historical analysis, Rothstein makes a case for the United States and its government having a constitutional obligation to remedy segregation in housing. Learn more.

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CHILDREN & YOUTH

"Congratulations, You're On Your Own: Life After Foster Care" - Documentary

When young people "age out" of the foster care system (they reach 21 years old, the maximum age requirement needed for their caregiver to receive financial support), they are often forced to leave their guardian's home and figure out life on their own. These real-life stories remind us of our own clients who face the same hardships. Nearly every foster care youth in Santa Clara County is assigned a Law Foundation attorney and we work tirelessly to ensure their safety and security. Watch here.

The Problem We All Live With

So many people are trying to rethink and reinvent education, to get low-income, underrepresented students performing as well as white students. But there's one thing nobody tries anymore, despite lots of evidence that it works: desegregation. Nikole Hannah-Jones looks at a district that, not long ago, accidentally launched a desegregation program. Listen here.

Unbelievable

A story about doubt: how it germinated, spread, and eventually took hold of an entire community, with terrible consequences. Young women ages 16-19 are four times more likely than the general population to experience rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault. Read the Pulitzer Prize-winning ProPublica/Marshall Project story that inspired the Netflix series or listen to this podcast.

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HEALTH

55 Steps

Based on a true story, this film explores an uphill legal fight for a patient's rights that led to Riese v. St. Mary's Hospital and Medical Care Center. In this case, the California State Court of Appeals declared that patients in involuntary mental health treatment have the right to exercise informed consent in most cases regarding the use of antipsychotic drugs. This case still governs the hearings conducted by the Law Foundation's Patients' Rights Unit and established a legal standard for determining capacity to refuse psychiatric medications that are used nationally and around the world. Watch here.

The Problem with Race-Based Medicine

Social justice advocate and law scholar Dorothy Roberts has a precise and powerful message: Race-based medicine is bad medicine. Even today, many doctors still use race as a medical shortcut. They make important decisions about things like pain tolerance based on a patient's skin color instead of medical observation and measurement. In this talk, Roberts lays out the lingering traces of race-based medicine — and invites us to be a part of ending it.  Watch here.

‘What The Health?’: All About Medicaid

Medicaid, the joint federal-state health program for people with low incomes, serves more than 70 million people, covers 1 in every 5 births in the U.S., and foots more than half the nation’s bill for long-term care. Understanding Medicaid isn’t easy, but with plans to overhaul the health system back in the news, it’s critical. Listen here.

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RACE EQUITY SPOTLIGHT

As social justice lawyers and advocates, we must understand the complex challenges our clients experience every day and challenge and navigate systemic inequalities that pervade through policies, practices, and cultural messages.

"So You Want to Talk About Race" by Ijeoma Oluo

Race and racism can be difficult topics to talk about if they're not part of someone's daily life experience, but this book is for everyone. Oluo takes an accessible and approachable avenue to address the most sensitive and charged issues in the United States regarding racial disparities and oppression by being straightforward and funny. From white privilege to police brutality, this New York Times bestseller breaks down the systems of power, how they work to perpetuate and uphold racial oppression, and how each of us can do our part to help dismantle them. Learn more & watch here.

“There There” by Tommy Orange

This creative and colorful novel follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize. This novel interweaves history, intergenerational trauma, and systemized oppression, while bringing characters to life. Learn more. 

The 400 Year Legacy with Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ibram X. Kendi

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the architect behind The 1619 Project, and Ibram Kendi, author of “How To Be an Antiracist”, join Chris Hayes to examine the 400 year legacy of slavery in America. Together they examine the sinister discrepancy between the history of this nation as it was and the history of this nation as we are taught it, and discuss what that history then demands from us in this moment. Listen here.

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We hope you enjoyed the recommendations from our board, attorneys, staff, and volunteers! To create a more equitable community and society, we all must do our part to stay informed and engaged. We also hope that you will take this moment as an opportunity to become involved with the Law Foundation and our mission to increase access to justice by providing free legal services to low-income and underrepresented communities.

Former AG Holder, Zynga GC & LF Boardmember Phillips Talk Collaboration in Diversity

Originally posted: Checks and Balances: Former AG Holder, Zynga GC Phillips Talk Collaboration in Diversity (Law.com)

While Big Law has a long way to go toward truly diversifying their lawyer ranks at all levels, diverse young attorneys entering the pipeline certainly have some role models in high places within the legal community.

On Wednesday, two diverse leaders in law, Covington & Burling’s Eric Holder and Zynga general counsel Phuong Phillips, came together at Zynga’s headquarters in San Francisco to share their experiences as minority lawyers.

Holder, the nation’s first black attorney general, rejoined Covington as a white-collar partner in 2015 after serving for six years at the U.S. Department of Justice. Last year he led Uber’s internal investigation into workplace harassment and discrimination, producing a lengthy report and recommendations for the ride-hailing business. The outspoken former U.S. attorney general also penned a new op-ed in The Washington Post late Wednesday, calling Attorney General William Barr an unfit successor due to “nakedly partisan” actions and loyalty to President Donald Trump.

Tesla Inc. alum Phuong Phillips took over the role of chief legal officer at Zynga in 2017. As one of the few female leaders in tech law, Phillips has been an advocate for increasing diversity in her industry, and in the legal field.

Following a fireside chat at Zynga, The Recorder caught up with Holder and Phillips to further discuss how outside counsel and in-house departments can work together to push for a more diverse profession.

What is the status of diversity and inclusion in the legal industry? What can we do to improve that?

Phillips: When you think about diversity and inclusion in the legal field, it is still in progress, and it will be in progress for quite some time. But it is the responsibility of the in-house counsel to make the changes, both internally as well as externally in terms of hiring outside counsel. So it’s very important for me to make sure that when I interview … that I list the importance of diversity on the legal team that’s going to be representing us. I’m not sure if you’re aware but Zynga actually has a very diverse team—75% of our team happens to be women, and 50% are people of color, and every lawyer who reports directly to me is a person of color. So it really starts with us to make sure that we give diversity and inclusion a voice.

Holder: Our profession is not yet where it needs to be. Law firms are trying to do a better job, certainly working with our partners, our clients who require more diversity. At Covington, we look at our last partner class, we had 14 people who made partner this year, nine were women, and six are [from] ethnically diverse backgrounds. That’s an indication of where our firm is and the importance that we place on diversity. But as I always say … there is not a tension between diversity and excellence. The people in that partner class from this year are great lawyers, every one of them. One of the things that we have to try to do at firms is to make sure that as we are recruiting at the summer associate level, we’re cognizant of who’s in the class [and] what the diversity of the class looks like. Because it’s from those summer classes that we ultimately get the vast majority of the people who turn out to be the young lawyers and ultimately the partners in our firm.

It sounds like firms and their clients almost act as checks and balances on each other. How can the two parties work together to improve diversity?

Holder: I worked on the Uber matter when I was in Covington, and we made a list of these 42 recommendations. [They included] ways in which people of color [and] women would get opportunities at the company that they were not getting [before the report]. There was a need to increase sensitivity and also to put in place mechanisms. The Rooney Rule is something that we use, and I know that Phuong uses it as well, where you require that there’s a promotional opportunity—a diverse slate of candidates has to be put together. And then from that slate, let me pick who the best person is. And I think what you’ve seen through the use of the Rooney Rule is that selections become more diverse. You have more people of color, more women who get opportunities that they otherwise might not have had the chance to get.

Phillips: The key is to increase the funnel and make sure that the funnel incorporates people that you typically won’t consider. I think a lot of it comes from job specs, where you see something and typically there are 10 things that you have to follow in order to apply for a job. There is this philosophy that men and women are a little different when you’re looking at a job spec, and that men will say: “Yeah, I hit it, I can totally apply because I hit two out of ten.” When a woman would say: “Man, I only got eight out of 10; maybe I shouldn’t apply.” So, I think for us, in-house, we are trying to getting rid of that type of description where it feels like it’s male-centric or female-centric. That’s what we’re working toward in order to be more successful in terms of recruiting.

Holder: [You want to] have people like Phuong who are in these really important general counsel positions, who not only have the capacity to have an impact on her company, but—because of her interactions with law firms—can influence how law firms hire. If she’s true to her word and she is—that I’m going to look more favorably upon firms that present to diverse teams to work on the issues that we have—that forces law firms to do things in a certain way.

How do you ensure that fulfilling diversity requirements does not just become a numbers game?

Phillips: One thing that frustrates me is that people presume that if you bring along a diverse candidate, and just use that person as sort of the figure, that’s enough. And that’s not enough! What’s enough is I need to know that this person is working on [the matter, and] I’m talking to this person. It’s not just a person, I want a diverse group, so I want the whole group to be very thoughtful. … I want to hire the strongest team, but I want to make sure that you understand how important my initiative and platform are in increasing diversity and inclusion. Don’t bring in somebody just to sit there and smile at me because that’s not going to work either.

Holder: We’re talking about diversity and inclusion. Inclusion really means giving people of color [and] women real opportunities, the chance to shine, the chance to really be a part of a team and not simply to show up when you’re making a pitch, as outside counsel, but to actually be involved in the solution of the issue that you’ve been hired to do. You have to have both diversity and inclusion and they are different.

What has been working? What else can be done?

Phillips: As you said, it’s a check and balance, we have to have communication and what I’ve found to be really helpful is having conversations with this senior partner on the account saying, “Hey, you must know how important this is to me.” I want to make sure that whoever is working on my account [is someone to whom I have access]. I want to make sure that this person also has access to me. That’s a little bit more difficult because many times senior partners are like, “Oh no, you’re the general counsel so I just want to talk to you.” It’s like no, I want to talk to the people who are actually working on this. And if it’s a diverse person, I want to be able to be in that person’s life [and] maybe, eventually, be a mentor.

Holder: I think what Phuong just described is extremely important. I think the role that she plays as a prominent GC on a macro level can have an impact on the profession. It’s not just a question of what a company is doing [or] what a law firm is doing, [but] what the legal profession is going to look like. When you have successful women as GCs, [or] former attorneys general of color at law firms, being successful at what they do, that’s an indication that, again, there’s not that tension there, [which] too many people think still exists between diversity and excellence. It also shows young people, young lawyers, that if you work hard, and if opportunities are given to you, that you can succeed.

Thankful for what we accomplish together. (Read our latest Annual Report)

Dear Friend of the Law Foundation,

The difference you made this year for thousands of people and families in Silicon Valley is immeasurable. With your help, we served more than 11,000 people and impacted 800,000 people as part of our systems change work.

But the people we serve are not just numbers. They’re our neighbors and fellow community members who call this region home. And everyone deserves to feel safe, stable, and secure—whether it relates to housing, education, or health care.

When you choose to support the Law Foundation, you support our mission of ensuring everyone in Silicon Valley has access to justice, regardless of socioeconomic status. This is why your support is critical. When our community members are facing the toughest challenges of their lives, the Law Foundation and its supporters are there to empower them.

Learn more about our work and accomplishments in our 2018-2019 Annual Report.

Thank you for your ongoing commitment and I hope to continue to count on your support.

Here are some of the highlights:

• In 2018-2019, the Law Foundation reached over 11,000 people and impacted 800,000 people with our systems change efforts.

• Last year marked a 115% increase in the number of people impacted by our Housing program.

• Our social workers and attorneys represent 90% of foster youth in Santa Clara County.

• The Law Foundation secured $546,000 in financial benefits - for basic necessities like food, medicine, and housing - for clients living with a physical or mental health disability.

We are grateful for all you do to support the Law Foundation as we work to advance justice. Together, we are creating long-lasting change for individuals and families in our community and a stronger Silicon­ Valley.

P.S. Support the Law Foundation this upcoming #GivingTuesday! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to hear directly from some of our clients and about why we work every day to ensure our community has access to justice.

With gratitude,

Alison Brunner, Esq.
CEO