Rebellious Lawyering Conference to Feature Speakers on Social Justice

The 19th annual Rebellious Lawyering Conference (RebLaw) will be held on Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, and Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013 at Yale Law School. RebLaw is the largest student-run public interest conference and brings together practitioners, law students, and community advocates from around the country to discuss innovative, progressive approaches to law and social change.

Sessions throughout the weekend will cover such topics as immigration reform, criminal justice reform, reproductive rights, voting rights and collective action, among others.

This year’s keynote speaker will be Bryan Stevenson, the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative. Mr. Stevenson is also a professor at New York University School of Law, and has gained national acclaim for his work challenging bias against the poor and people of color in the criminal justice system. Most recently, he successfully litigated a groundbreaking Supreme Court case that struck down mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles as unconstitutional.

Benita Veliz, a DREAM Act activist and the first undocumented person to have addressed a political party national convention, will be the endnote speaker. As a child, Ms. Veliz was brought to Texas from Mexico on a tourist visa. She remained after her visa expired and grew up in the United States. She now has temporary residential status under President Obama’s policy directive granting a deportation reprieve to promising young individuals who were brought to the U.S. before their sixteenth birthday without the required proper documentation.

For complete details about the conference, as well as online registration, visit the RebLaw website. Registration is free for members of Yale University as well as the University of Connecticut, University of New Haven, Quinnipiac, and the surrounding New Haven communities. The registration fee is $30 for others.