Visual Legal Advocacy Roundtable

Proceedings of the First Visual Legal Advocacy Roundtable: Visual Legal Advocacy and the Public Interest

Visual Legal Advocacy at Penn Law School-An Introduction

Dean Michael Fitts and Professor Regina Austin provide a summary of the technological changes and social factors that are the impetus for the Roundtable, a brief outline of the issues confronting the public interest visual legal advocate, and an overview of the visual legal advocacy program at Penn Law School and the assistance it can offer to those representing public interest or social justice clients.

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MORNING PANEL

Capturing Victims on Film with Clarity, Honesty, and Dignity

Personal injury lawyers have long produced Day-in-the-Life films which show juries and judges the reality confronting plaintiffs who struggle with and overcome disabilities caused by defendants' tortious behavior. Video diaries shot by clients or members of their families with relatively inexpensive camcorders can accomplish much the same goal for disability claimants, aggrieved tenants living in substandard housing, and victims of social injustice in general. Of course, the public interest attorney should give a client undertaking to make a video diary some guidance about what and how to shot her/his life. Shanin Specter of Kline & Specter illustrates how to capture a victim on film with clarity, honesty, and dignity.

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Tips on Making a Settlement Documentary or Video Case Summary

Video Settlement Documentaries or Brochures are basically filmed summaries of a case that are produced by personal injury lawyers in order to facilitate mediation or arbitration. The documentaries generally deal with issues of both liability and damages. Of course, this form of visual legal advocacy could be useful for advancing other kinds of litigation. If it succinctly and visually summarized a lawsuit advancing a social justice cause, a case documentary could also be used as to garner public support. Martin K. Brigham of Raynes McCarty offers tips on making a settlement documentary on a low budget and with an eye to advancing the public interest.

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The Audience for Visual Legal Advocacy-Views of a Mediator/Arbitrator

Visual legal advocacy must be tailored to the audience. Edward L. Edelstein of ADR Options offers a critical analysis of the Day-in-the-Life footage and clips used by his fellow panelists Specter and Brigham. He offers advice based on his long experience as a defense attorney and mediator/arbitrator.

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AFTERNOON PANEL

Making Criminal Defense Advocacy Videos-Backstories from Off Center Media

Sarah and Emily Kunstler (a/k/a The Kunstler Sisters) are the founders of Off Center Media, a documentary production company that has produced a number of films on behalf of wrongfully accused criminal defendants and persons on death row. The Kunstler Sisters' advocacy films not only humanize their subjects but also explore legal issues like Bateson challenges and the propriety of executing the mentally ill. Their films have been used to inform decision makers, recruit lawyers for deserving claimants, mobilize public protests, and supply the press with facts and footage that it can widely disseminate. Sarah and Emily Kunstler discuss what they have learned, over the past 10 years, about making criminal justice advocacy films.

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Clients As Media Makers and Their Own Visual Legal Advocates

Todd Wolfson, a media activist, is a co-founder of the Media Mobilizing Project and an anthropology graduate student whose thesis is on the role of new media in social movement building. His goal and that of the groups with which he works is to empower communities through building community media infrastructures which will enable people to tell their own stories. Communities need the means to communicate internally, to network and cohere with other groups across different struggles, and to broadcast out to larger audiences-all to break the fragmentation and isolation that impede social movement activity. Todd Wolfson's presentation suggests that there may be resources that will enable clients to do some of their own visual legal advocacy work. Moreover, the public interest bar should be alert to the claim that digital communication is a human right.

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Comments on the Jack Walker Video and More

Senior Lecturer Anne Kringel offered comments from Federal Public Defender Scott Braden about the clemency video for Jack Dale Walker, while others raised questions about making a living as an advocacy filmmaker, broadband internet access, and the use of music in Off Center Media's advocacy films.

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Roundtable Roundup-Meeting the Challenge of Visual Legal Advocacy

Sharon Dietrich of Community Legal Services of Philadelphia considered two questions: What can public interest practitioners as advocates do with digital video technology and what resources will support their use of such digital video technology? She concluded that the potential for visual legal advocacy by public interest lawyers was as great as their imaginations. She offered concrete suggestions of ways they might satisfy the need for money and access to expertise that visual legal advocacy requires. Professor Regina Austin reiterated how the Penn Program on Documentaries & the Law might assist public interest lawyers to engage in visual legal advocacy on behalf of their clients.

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