NLG #Law4thePeople Convention 2020

CLE Credit: 1 hour for General (Topical content, skills training, law practice management)

This panel will discuss some of the strategies and effective techniques for rural community organizing and legal advocacy. The presenters will discuss the community justice worker model used in rural and indigenous communities in the Southwest including ‘checkerboard’ inter-jurisdictional areas of state,federal, and tribal lands. Topics covered include the particular challenges facing community organizers and legal advocates working in rural locations, the anatomy of a successful rural community campaign in Western New Mexico and strategies to allow legal workers and organizers to better work effectively together building the power of marginalized communities from the ground up.

(CLE Credit will be given through the State Bar of CA. After the convention, we'll be emailing out attendance verification forms to all attendees.)

Speakers:

Michelle Garcia is a civil rights and tribal law attorney with New Mexico Legal Aid who oversees an LGBTQ+ legal access program in rural and indigenous areas. Garcia formerly worked as Senior Trial Attorney for the State of New Mexico and is a graduate of Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans.

Marquita Nez is a student at the University of New Mexico obtaining her undergraduate education in Family and Child Studies concentration in Human Development and Family Relations, minoring in Native American Studies with an emphasis on Indigenous Learning Communities. Nez has worked as a Community Justice Worker for New Mexico Legal Aid focusing on advocacy and engaging in community based learning and service.

Maslyn Locke is currently an environmental justice staff attorney at the New Mexico Environmental Law Center working on environmental impact litigation. She formerly worked as a staff attorney at New Mexico Legal Aid focusing on the areas of housing and family law and LGBTQ+ legal access and holds both a JD and Master's of Social Work from the University of Kansas.