A Political LawyerMarjorie Cohn ’75 Heads the National Lawyers Guild
Who says that first job out of law school isn’t important? It definitely was for Marjorie Cohn ’75. Cohn’s first job after graduating from Santa Clara Law was to run the Bay Area office of the National Lawyers Guild. A career as a labor lawyer, criminal defense attorney, law school professor, author, and legal commentator followed. But her activism remains strong, so it’s not surprising that she is now the national president of the same progressive organization that she first worked for 31 years ago. "Becoming president of the National Lawyers Guild is the greatest honor I have ever received and the most awesome responsibility I have ever undertaken," she said.
Cohn is serving a three-year term as president of the Guild, a group with several thousand members among attorneys, law students, and legal workers. The Guild was formed in 1937 because the American Bar Association refused to admit people of color. The New York-based organization is often at the forefront of social activism on national and international issues, including fighting for the rights of workers, GIs, immigrants, and gays and lesbians, and against illegal wars. One of Cohn’s strongest memories as a law student at SCU was being an active member of the law school’s Guild chapter. She first joined the Guild in 1971, when she worked at the Palo Alto Law Commune, which helped people with draft problems and other legal issues. She had just graduated from Stanford where she was active in the movement against the Vietnam War. Cohn also credits SCU courses in international law and advanced criminal procedure for setting her on the path of life as a "political lawyer," which she defines as "someone who uses the law as an instrument for social change." The National Lawyers Guild job is one of many activities that keep Cohn busy. She is also a professor who teaches criminal law, criminal procedure, evidence, and international human rights at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego. She has taught at the school since 1991, and has been honored five times with the Student Bar Association’s Golden Apple Award for outstanding teaching. Among other awards, she also won the San Diego County Bar Association’s Service to Legal Education Award in 2005, and a 2006 award for top attorneys in academics in San Diego. "I love teaching stu dents to think critically, to analyze Supreme Court cases and to come to their own conclusions," she says. "To really understand the cases, students need to know who’s on the Court and where they’re coming from." Teaching also gives her the opportunity to speak out on issues and to write articles and books. A recent week’s schedule for Cohn included appearances on XM Satellite Radio and AirAmerica, and on her weekly Monday slot on WBAI radio in New York City (via a Pacifica radio station), where she discusses legal and political issues, and an interview for New York’s Newsday newspaper. Cohn writes frequently for Web sites such as AlterNet, CommonDreams, CounterPunch and ZNet. She co-authored a book with CBS newsman David Dow, Cameras in the Courtroom: Television and the Pursuit of Justice, which followed a stint as a commentator for CBS News during the O.J. Simpson trial. Her new book, Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang has Defied the Law, will be published in June. Cohn, who is fluent in Spanish, is married to Jerry Wallingford, an appellate criminal defense attorney, and is the mother of two sons, one a Los Angeles-based actor and the other a high school student in San Diego. By Larry Sokoloff '92 |
