Stanford Law School - Yearbook (Palo Alto, CA)

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BLACK LAW STUDENTS ASSOCIATION: SEATED - W. S. Stevens CPres.J, J. Griffin, H. McMullen, L. Jones. STANDING - W. J. Ware, C. P. Johnson, W. Crews. BLACK LAW STUDENTS ASSOCIATIO The Black Law Students' Association was formed to meet the needs of not just Black Law Students attending Stanford University, but the needs of all Black Americans. The members of the Black Law Students, Association are dedicated to Eghting the old tradition of Black students receiving degrees and tuming their backs on. the Black community. The members recognize that their first responsilility is to return to the Black community and end the legal exploitation that lies at the very foundation of ghetto unrest. The Black Law Students' Association is dedicated to ending racial discrimination practice by Law Firms and other Govemmental institutions. The Association is dedicated to finding ways and means of bringing into balance the educational scales of the law school. The history of Stanford University shows a catagorical exclusion of Black students from the educational process and the law school. This exclusion has been justified by imposing admission standards which reflect white middle-class intelligence and background. It is the goal of the Association to break this vicious cycle which tends to be self-perpetuating. The Black students have shown that if given the opportunity they are capable of performing as well as other students in the Law School. The first Black student at Stanford Law school was on the Law Review. fSallye Peyton '68J The second student was president of the Law Review. Waughn Williams ,691 The fourth and fifth Black student in the history of Stanford Law school distinguish themselves in moot court fWillard Stevens and James Robinson '70j The third student was instrumental in getting Stanford to recognize the needs of Black America by initiating a recruitment program. This student also worked closely with the Black community during his studies at the law school and remained there after graduation. fLeroy Bobbit '69j The major function of the Black Law Students' Association is to ensure that Black law students are admitted to Stanford Law School, are given all possible assistance in achieving academic excellence, and most importantly, use their education for the benefit of the Black community. fPresently, less than 275 of the Law School is Blackj With the efforts of Assistant Dean Henderson fthe only Black member of the administrationj the Black Law Students hope to increase the number of Black students, who qualify under acceptable academic standards, enrolled in the. Law School. With an increased number of Black professionals, Black problems can be solved by Black leaders, with Black prospectives, but operating within the legal framework of a society that is responsive to the needs of all its people. It is the aim of the Association to fill the power vacuum in the Alglack communities and lead our people out of the land of legal slavery. W. Steve tevens

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F ENVIRONMENTAL LAW SOCIETY: L. to R. - L. Lee, C. Chalmers, T. Springer, J. Rummonds fCo-Chmn.J, J. Heimbigner, W. Condon, D. Jackman CCo-Chmn.J. NVIRO E TAL L W SOCIETY The Environmental Law Society was formed to give respectably radical, but frustrated law students an opportunity to pitch a few snowballs at the avalanche of pollution and similar horrors which have attended Americais most recent gifts to human progress. Noting that it is usually lawyers who are writing and passing the legislation which determines how our land and resources will be used, and that it is always the lawyers who finally drag the polluters into courtg the need for a group of partisan volunteers seemed obvious. Our first major effort was directed at Stanfordls own back yard. With ELS assistance, local citizens groups working with attorneys who were donating their time temporarily halted industrial development in the Coyote Hill region of Stanford lands. President Pitzer was furious, so it seemed like we had it made as a student I Kp at organization. Some of this fair weather enthusiasm waned when requests started to come in for research assistance on the logging suit in San Mateo County, beach access problems, open space legislation, water for Pyramid Lake, and the enforcement of Bay Area pollution controls. The work was accomplished largely by the dedicated few. A willingness to align ourselves against real estate developers, industrial polluters, unresponsive govemment agencies, and politicians preaching the glories of growth and anexpanding tax base practically guarantees our members freedom from the pressure of usual establishment demands for our legal services upon graduation. One of the more successful public relations coups pulled off by the fledgling ELS involved the establishment of the National Environmental Law Society during a conference held at Stanford during the fall. Since the Environmental Law Society was formed at Stanford last sunnner over twenty other law schools have established similar groups. Perhaps a high water mark in the West's capture of professional leadership from the East occurred when Harvard Law School's Conservation Group changed its name to the Harvard Environmental Law Society, thus following the pattern established at Stanford. In addition to the more routine work of assisting attorneys involved in environmental litigation and aiding lobbying groups in studying proposed environmental legislation, several more ambitious projects are being developed. A Nader's Raiders style summer task force is being put together to investigate some lucky state agency, and a summer institute in environmental law is being proposed. Having successfully ousted the Legal Aid Society from its fashionable office at the crossroads of the law school, the ELS is stoically awaiting the change of intellectual fashion which will someday transform this vital and practical organization into another time-honored, traditionencrusted law school student group.

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ii rw-at l H E iii awe l 2 ' at fig . ... V ir..-fa .sm :aw .sw W- 'SWL S55 t V firme- wais 53' Me fit.. 'fra --we W, ...c .Perla ,f.r.fe:f..'f.. .ei '11 . far iiisifltf . j T, Except for American Indians, Chicanos are the most disadvantaged and discriminated against minoiity in Califomia and the Southwest. While the Chicano population in California is only 1276, fully 33.3722 of the inmates at San Quentin are Chicano. California Youth Authority commitments are largely Chicano. Our city and county jails house large numbers of Chicanos for such violations as failure to appear on traffic citations, driving with suspended licenses, and failure to support their children. While such a high percentage of those affected by the judicial system are Chicano and many of them do not speak English, there are very few Chicano or even Spanish speaking lawyers, judges, probation officers, etc. Law schools have only recently begun to actively recruit Chicano students. National programs for disadvantaged minorities still do not affect many Chicano law students. Last year, of the 250 National Reginald Heber Smith Fellows, only one was Chicano. Of the eleven CLEO programs offered across the United States, only three were in the Southwest and in these three programs only 50 of the 120 students enrolled were Chicano. Of the 464 students currently enrolled at Stanford Law School, only six are Chicano. In order to increase the number of Chicano law students and to help create opportunity and bring about needed social change, the Chicano law students at Stanford were instrumental in organizing the Califomia Chicano Law Students' Association and the National Association of Chicano Law Students. In addition to state and national activities, projects at the Stanford Law School have included: an attempt to increase the number of Chicano students CHICAN LAW STUDENTS ASSOCIATIO CHICANO LAW STUDENTS ASSOCIATION: SEATED - A. Marlow,W. Melendres. STANDING - R. Anchondo. MISSING - R. Cancino, R. .Garcia, L. Jaramillo. which Stanford will commit itself to admit under slightly more relaxed standards fresults have been singularly unsuccessfuljg aiding in recruitment, providing feedback which has improved the minority programg and participation in a juvenile delinquency prevention program in the San Jose barrio. In addition, a course is being developed which will permit Stanford students to systematically research the treatment of Chicanos in specific areas such as criminal justice, civil cases, juvenile courts, etc. Particular locations for empirical studies will be chosen, beginning with Palo Alto and San Jose. It is hoped that the data can be published and that small conferences can be held which will bring together the judges, police, prosecutors, probation officers, social workers, and others involved to discuss the data and reevaluate the judicial process. Hopefully they will gain some insight into the problems faced by Chicanos who are confronted with the Anglo legal system. Eventually CLSA will provide a speakers' bureau made up of law students who have assimilated the data and who can be called upon to speak about the Chicano in the legal process to bar associations, judicial conferences, and community meetings. CLSA is also establishing contacts in the Mountain View bariio for a program of community education where law students will serve as resource persons to adult education groups on such topics as the court system and the rights of the individual, the use of the Small Claims Court, debtors' protection against gamishments and attachments, leases and landlord-tenant relationships, insurance, and consumer fraud. Annie G. Marlowe