Conference History
Shaking the Foundations Since 1999
Past Conferences
In 2009, Shaking the Foundations will hold its 11th annual conference on progressive lawyering. Read about our past conferences below.
October 3-4, 2008
Keynote Speaker
- Vince Warren, Executive Director, Center for Constitutional Rights (Bio)
Panels
- Is Democracy Undemocratic? Race and Class Implications of the Primary and Caucus Systems (Description)
- Hot Topics: Protecting High-Risk Communities in The Face of Global Climate Change (Description)
- Sex, Lies, and Economics: The Struggle to End Modern Day Slavery (Description)
- The Poverty Trap of the Subprime Crises: Mechanisms for Depriving Low-Income People of Affordable Housing and Asset Accumulation (Description)
- Mining for Rights: International Human Rights and Corporate Accountability (Description)
- Democracy and Disenfranchisement: Protecting and Restoring Voting Rights in America (Description)
- Covering Crime: How Media Coverage Shapes the Criminal Justice System (Description)
- Discovering the "Public-Private Sector": Beyond the False Choice between Doing Good and Doing Well (Description)
Workshops
- Falling through the Cracks: Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and the Legal System (Description)
- Constructing a Concept: Feminist Lawyering in the 21st Century (Description)
- Kids and Courts: Protecting and Promoting the Rights of Children in the Justice System (Description)
October 5-6, 2007
Keynote Speakers
- Ruth Gilmore, Associate Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity and Geography & Director of the Program in American Studies and Ethnicity, University of Southern California (Bio)
- Patricia Williams, James L. Dohr Professor of Law, Columbia Law School, and author "Diary of a Mad Law Professor", The Nation (Bio)
Panels
- Reproductive Technologies, Eugenics, and Policing of Women of Color (Description)
- Writing for Justice (Description)
- Racial Justice and Hurricane Katrina (Description)
- Future of the Death Penality (Description)
- Preserving Voting Rights for All (Description)
- Queer Youth and Schools (Description)
- Seeds of Justice: Sustainable Agriculture and Food Safety (Description)
- Legal Observer Training (Description)
Workshops
- Community Accountability and Building Alliances: Lawyering Strategies for Working With Communities (Description)
- Alternative Legal Careers Workshop (Description)
- Drug Policy Workshop (Description)
October 27-28, 2006
Keynote Speaker
- Bryan Stevenson, Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative (Bio)
Panels
- Equality Under the Law: The Future of Education Litigation (Description)
- Hurricane Katrina: One Year Later (Description)
- Illness Behind Bars: A Movement to Reform Prison Health Care (Description)
- The Christian Left? How Conservatives Have Co-Opted Christianity and What We Can Do About It (Description)
- Genocide and the Law: Making Human Rights Count (Description)
- Reforming the Legal Profession from the Inside (Description)
- Is the Answer Blowin' in the Wind? Climate Change and the Future of Energy (Description)
- Accessing Justice (Description)
Workshops
- Beyond Deportation: Federal Immigration Crimes and Criminal Defense (Description)
- Corporate Governance and Social Justice (Description)
- Faithful Work (Description)
- The Fundamentals of Fundraising for Public Interest Advocates (Description)
- Media Advocacy: Winning Your Case in the Court of Public Opinion (Description)
- Post-Panel Breakout Session on Education Reform: Organizing to Reform Education (Description)
- Post-Panel Breakout Session on Education Reform: Stopping the "Mississippification" of California's Schools (Description)
- Post-Panel Breakout Session on Hurricane Katrina: Disaster Relief Litigation (Description)
- Protecting Animals Through Legislation (Description)
- Starting and Operating a Nonprofit Organization (Description)
- Transgender Law 101 (Description)
- The Christian Left: Winning Back the Grassroots (Description)
- Doctors and Lawyers: How to Start a Medical-Legal Collaborative to Bring Legal Services Where They're Needed Most (Description)
- Post-Panel Breakout Session on Human Rights: From the Legal Theory to the Real Thing - Advocacy Strategies for Human Rights Lawyers (Description)
- Post-Panel Breakout Session on Human Rights: How Can Lawyers Shape the Future of Responses to Genocide? Prosecutorial, Judicial, and Legislative Roles (Description)
- Post-Panel Breakout Session on Legal Reform: Reforming Legal Life (Description)
- A Poverty Exception to Searches and Seizures?: Race, Class, and the Fourth Amendment (Description)
- Putting Together a Winning Fellowship Application (Description)
- Using Impact Litigation to Bring About Change (Description)
- Working Towards Marriage Equality in California (Description)
November 4-5, 2005
Keynote Speaker
- Anthony Romero, Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union (Bio)
Panels
- Lawyering from a Feminist Perspective: Obstacles and Action Strategies (Description)
- Twelve Steps to Better Drug Laws (Description)
- Workers' Rights in an Increasingly Corporate World (Description)
- Against the Law: Direct Action, Civil Disobedience, and Social Change (Description)
- Gay Rights as Human Rights: An International Perspective (Description)
- Progressive Prosecution (Description)
- The Future of California Prisons (Description)
- Community Lawyering: When Does Leadership Become Paternalism? (Description)
- Growing Change: Agriculture and Environmental Law in the Fields (Description)
- The Slavery of the 21st Century: The Global Trafficking of Women and Girls (Description)
Workshops
- With the Winds of Change at Your Back: Sentencing, Uncertainty, and Opportunity in Criminal Defense Practice
- Sex Crimes and Power: Prosecutorial Decision-Making in the Criminal Courtroom
- Networking - An Essential Tool for Both You AND Your Clients
- Came the Revolution: Rethinking the Charity Model in Legal Services and Community Lawyering
- Starting a Non-Profit Organization: A Workshop for Social Entrepreneurs
- Organizing Legal Support for Disobedience and Direct Action
- The Shotgun Campaign: How to Mobilize a Response to Injustice
- First Punchcards, Now ID Cards: Modern Ways Poor and Minority Voters Get Disenfranchised and What to Do About It
- How Can the Media Help Your Cause?
- Putting the "Impact" Back into Impact Litigation
- The Bottom Line: The Fundamentals of Fundraising for Public Interest Advocates
- Staying Power: Establishing and Maintaining a Sustainable Public Interest Organization
November 12-13, 2004
Keynote Speaker
- Judy Appelbaum, Vice President and Legal Director, National Women's Law Center (Bio)
Panels
- The Truth About Public Interest Practice (Description)
- Disability Rights - Current Issues in the Law (Description)
- Lawyering in Communities of Color (Description)
- Animal Liberation and the Law (Description)
- Reclaiming the Juvenile Mind - Juvenile Justice and Mental Health Issues (Description)
- The Future of America's Drinking Water (Description)
- Racial Justice & the GLBT Rights Movement (Description)
- Election '04 and Voting Rights (Description)
- International Human Rights - Alien Tort Claims Act (Description)
November 7-9, 2003
Keynote Speaker
- Thomas A. Saenz, Vice President of Litigation, Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (Bio)
Panels
- Celebrating Young Lawyers: What You Can Do in the First Ten Years of Your Career
- The Effects of Gendered and Racialized Practices on a Global Society: Strategies for Progress
- Issues Surrounding California's Proposition 54: How Progressive Lawyers Use Racial/Ethnic Data for Social Change
- Social Justice Curriculum
- Kids Behind Bars: The State of Juvenile Detention in California
- A Tale of Two Cities: Legal and Policy Responses to Homelessness in San Francisco and New York City
- The US Prison Industrial Complex and its Societal Impact
- Pumped Up: Law, Science, and Oil in America
- Race and Education: Still Separate and Unequal?
- The Truth About Practicing Public Interest Law - What They Don’t Teach You In Law School
- The Battle between the Tribes, the State, the Farmers and the Feds over Water and Fish in the Klamath Basin
- Equally in War and Peace: An Examination of Civil Rights in the Wake of 9/11
Workshops
- Social Justice Curriculum
- Organizing
- Gender/Race
November 8-10, 2002
Keynote Speaker
- Connie Rice, Director, Advancement Project (Bio)
Panels
- Roe at 30: The Fragile State of Abortion Rights
- Holding Corporations Responsible
- Alternatives to Detention for Youth Offenders: Programs that Work
- Action & Adversity in Disabilities Rights
- Environmental Justice: Strategies to Reclaim Our Neighborhoods
- Same-Sex Adoption: Legal and Personal Perspectives
- Immigration and Civil Rights After 9/11
- The Role of Foreign and Local NGOs in Developing the Rule of Law: The Latin American Case Example
- U.S. Foreign Policy, Oil Politics, Terrorism, and the Long Arm of U.S. Law
- Labor Organizing under the NLRA: Problems and Possibilities for Reform
- Beyond Campaign Finance Legislation: Alternative Approaches to Political Reform
November 2-4, 2001
Keynote Speaker
- Bryan Stevenson, Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative (Bio)
Panels
- Alternative Electoral Systems and Third Party Politics
- Prospects for the International Criminal Court
- Racial Profiling: Defining Terms and Crafting Solutions
- Uncovering Actual Innocence: Emerging Projects in Law Schools and Beyond
- Representation of Death-Condemned Individuals and the Ramifications of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996
- A Different Kind of 'Time': the Experiences of Children with Incarcerated Parents
- La Zona Maquiladora: What's wrong, and how can it be fixed?
- Progressive Lawyering: Community Organizing and Social Change
- Raising the Roof: Cutting-Edge Housing Advocacy
- Reparations
March 3-5, 2000
Keynote Speakers
- Elaine Jones, Director-Counsel of NAACP Legal Defense Fund
- Paul Wellstone, Senator of Minnesota
Panels
- Progressive Lawyering within Government Institutions
- What's "Left" in the Environmental Movement?
- Domestic Violence Solutions
- The Practive and Development of American Indian Courts
- Towards a Better Prison System
- Defending Death Row Inmates
- Information Activism
- Prosecuting War Crimes
- Litigating against the Gun Industry
- Queer Kids in Foster Care and the Educational System
- Disability Law and Culture
- Community Organizing for Legal Advocates
- How to Start Your Own Advocacy Organization
March 12-14, 1999
Keynote Speaker
- Ralph Nader
Panels
- Working Pro Bono for Social Justice
- Activist Academics
- Progressive Prosecution: Prosecutors as Problem Solvers
- Opportunity & Oppression: Workers' Rights Advocacy on the Global Level
- Filling/Fighting the Disparity Gap: Winning Economic Justice through Litigation and the Grassroots
- Confronting a "Criminal" Justice System: Challenges & Strategies for Defense
- Queer Culture Clash? Organizing & Advocacy Across Lines of Identity
- Fighting for Our Working Lives: Power Imbalances in the Workplace
- Growin' Up & Movin' Forward: Youth Advocacy & the Law
- Lawyering at Ground Zero: Effects of the New Immigration Laws & Strategies for Response
- Toxic Justice: Ethnicity & Environment
Workshops
- Starting your own 501(c)(3)
- Thinking Outside the Box: Creative Advocacy Strategies for Lawyers
