Time Banks Founder Edgar S. Cahn ’63 to Discuss Lawyering and System Change Oct. 7

On Thursday, October 7, Edgar S. Cahn ’63, Distinguished Professor of Law, UDC School of Law, and Founder, Time Banks USA, will deliver a Dean’s Lecture at Yale Law School. The lecture is titled, “Co-Producing Justice: Lawyering and System Change.” Cahn will deliver the lecture at 12 noon in Room 120. Those planning to attend should RSVP to carolyn.poole@yale.edu.

Edgar Cahn is regarded as a founder of poverty law and a pioneer in creating clinical legal education. He is founder/co-founder of several programs, including the National Legal Services program as part of the War on Poverty, the Antioch School of Law (now the UDC School of Law); TimeBanks USA; the Time Dollar Youth Court; and CareBanks.

Cahn created Time Dollars, the only tax-exempt local currency now spread to 40 states and 32 nations. He has designed and launched TimeBanking pilots that have effectively addressed virtually every major social problem. His system, Co-Production, calling for the transformation of clients from passive consumers to active co-producers of outcomes, is emerging as the leading framework for system change. In 2008, he was chosen as an Ashoka Fellow to pioneer an adaptation of TimeBanking that would enable older adults and their families to pay for a form of long term care insurance with Time Dollars earned helping others. Montpelier, Vermont, just received a $1 million grant to pilot Carebanks for older adults in rural Vermont. In 2008, he also partnered with Phelps Stokes, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association and former inmates to develop the Homecomers’ Academy, a new vision of reentry that would enable those returning home to define themselves as community builders on a journey of service and learning.

Now, at age 75, Cahn remains active as Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of the District of Columbia School of Law. In 2008, his new Racial Justice Initiative has unveiled a breakthrough legal theory with potential to dismantle structural racism in juvenile justice and child welfare.

Cahn’s works include: Hunger U.S.A.; Our Brothers Keeper: The Indian in White America; Time Dollars; No More Throw-Away People; and Priceless Money.