Rachel Kitze Collins, Co-President, ACS Minneapolis-St. Paul Chapter
Rachel Kitze Collins (she/her) Co-President, ACS Minneapolis-St. Paul Chapter
My upbringing instilled in me a passion for social justice and a love of the environment. In college, political science and environmental studies were natural choices for my majors, although I resisted for a while the assumption that I would attend law school. But after internships in Washington, DC, at Environment America, a local nonprofit in Northfield, Minnesota, and in the legal clinics at William Mitchell College of Law (now Mitchell Hamline), I decided that pursuing a law degree was the best way to follow my passions and make a difference.
I was extremely fortunate to land a clerkship the summer after my 1L year at Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP (“LGN”), a mid-size law firm in Minneapolis with an active environmental and political/election law practice. After graduating from the University of Minnesota Law School in 2014 and clerking for a year on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, I joined LGN as an Associate. My practice consists of representing public entities and some businesses in complex, often high-profile litigation involving environmental, land use, constitutional, and contract law. For example, our work representing the local transit authority, the Metropolitan Council, helped advance construction of the Southwest Light Rail Transit line, the biggest public works project in the history of Minnesota and a crucial part of solving the public transportation problems in the Twin Cities. I also represent a tribal government in proceedings related to the construction of a crude-oil pipeline, which is proposed to cross the ceded territories in northern Minnesota. Our work there seeks to ensure that, if constructed, care is taken to preserve crucial cultural resources in that region. On the political side, our practice has been moving at warp-speed, as we defend against those who seek to overturn the results of the election and undermine our democracy. I am so grateful to have the opportunity at LGN to be involved in this impactful work.
ACS serves as the perfect complement to my practice. I love connecting and collaborating with other young, passionate, progressive lawyers, from all corners of the legal profession. Along with my Co-President, Saraswati Singh, we have worked hard to not only offer high-quality, substantive, and timely programming to our members, but also to ensure that ACS’s membership, board, and event speakers reflect the diversity of our legal community. And as we finally begin to turn the page on this administration, and look forward to January 20, 2021, I am particularly excited about the role that ACS will play ensuring that our judiciary also begins to reflect the diversity of our communities. We have a lot of work to do in that respect, including in Minnesota, but I know ACS is equipped to handle this challenge. I am proud to be even a small part of this organization that is battling on the front lines to achieve a more inclusive and equitable vision of the Constitution that works for everyone.
Carly Edelstein, 10th District Court of Appeals Judge, Former Co-President, ACS Columbus Lawyer Chapter.
Carly Edelstein (she/her) 10th District Court of Appeals Judge, Former Co-President, ACS Columbus Lawyer Chapter.
I became an attorney because I believe law has the power to remedy inequality and transform communities. After college, as a teacher in Southern California, I witnessed grave inequalities. I encountered a broken education system that disproportionately affected students of color from low-income communities. Most of my students did not have access to early childhood education and therefore entered school behind their wealthier, suburban counterparts. To contextualize that experience, I studied urban education policy before heading to law school. I learned that fixing the education system and providing equal access to quality education, housing, and healthcare cannot be accomplished in one classroom. Rather, I hoped to work toward these goals and break the cycle of poverty through larger policy and legal advocacy.
While I have zig-zagged across the country from Rhode Island to California and then landing in the Midwest, and my career path has taken various unexpected turns, my commitment to those goals has remained steadfast. I began my legal career as a law clerk and then at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, fighting racial discrimination in schools. After a brief stint at a nonprofit healthcare organization designing a legal services program, I found myself at the Office of the Ohio Public Defender in Columbus, Ohio, as an appellate defender. Although I never imagined a career in criminal law, this has been one of the best decisions I could ever have made. It combines my desire to fight racial discrimination and create systemic change with client contact and intellectual rigor. Every day, I fight with and for incredible clients bygiving them a voice in a system that has rendered them voiceless. I would not trade this experience for anything else.
Once I landed in Columbus, where I planned to stay for the foreseeable future, I began planting roots. And that included finding a community of like-minded people. I naturally turned back to ACS after having been a student member of my law school chapter. I’ve had the pleasure of serving as an attorney on the executive board of the ACS Columbus Lawyer Chapter for four years, having served the past two years as co-president.Our small but mighty team has accomplished so much in the past two years, including Supreme Court reviews, an awards reception to honor local powerhouse lawyers, a lively #MeToo community conversation, and programming addressing impeachment, election protection, applying the lessons of Korematsu to today’s world, criminal justice reform, and police violence against communities of color. The past seven months have been very difficult for everyone, but the ACS Columbus Lawyer Chapter has embraced the challenges created by the pandemic and continued to put out powerful programming for our local community and folks around the country.
I’m so grateful and proud to be part of a community of like-minded people who are committed to using their powerful skills and social capital to build a better world. I have found my people – people who can commiserate with me when it seems like the world is coming to an end and who can celebrate the small and big victories in our own lives and in our community. Although I have finished my two-year term as co-president, I look forward to continuing my service on the executive board and providing the Columbus community with quality programming and resources and a place of belonging for progressive-minded people.
It’s amazing the journeys we take in life. When I started my career as a professional jazz musician in my native New Orleans 12 years ago, I never had even an inkling that I would become a lawyer one day. Young and single, I had recently graduated from music school, and I was laser-focused on writing and performing music. Today, I am married with one kid (and another on the way!), and I just started my own law practice focused on disability rights. I went from performing every day at nightclubs, festivals, or private parties, to talking with clients every day and filing motions in court. Still seems weird to me. But the same forces that drove me to step away from my music career were largely the same forces that drove me to join the American Constitution Society.
I didn’t follow politics closely when I began my music career. But I kept encountering issues as a musician that seemed unfair, and every time I asked “Why is this so?,” the answer was a political one. For example, demanding fair wages from music venues was always a challenge. And most of the “old timers” would tell me that they were making almost the same money that they were twenty years ago, even though the cost of living had exploded since then. It was then that I learned about so-called “right to work” laws, which are designed to crush unions in service of the ownership class by limiting the amount of dues unions can collect. The New Orleans Musicians Union, which used to be a powerful force for workers’ rights, was completely defanged, and today, it’s basically a glorified club that pays out a pension to older musicians who were members when the union still had power.
Another example is healthcare. When the Affordable Care Act became law, I volunteered with the New Orleans Musician’s Clinic to help sign people up. The Musician’s Clinic is a nonprofit that provides free or low-cost medical services to New Orleans musicians, and they wanted as many musicians as possible to get insured under the new law. But because Louisiana had not expanded Medicaid at the time, I was in the unenviable position of telling many of my friends and colleagues that they were “too poor to qualify for health insurance subsidies.” This was a radicalizing experience for me. Ultimately, I became so engrossed in political issues that I became much less interested in continuing my music career and much more interested in the law. That led me to Tulane Law School.
Contrary to popular belief, “the law” is not just a bunch of words written down that provide a right or wrong answer to every set of facts that may arise. Instead, interpretations of the written law must be argued for by attorneys and considered by judges. And who those attorneys and judges are matters immensely in deciding what “the law” actually means. Decades ago, a bunch of powerful corporate attorneys decided that the courts in the United States had strayed too far in favor of workers’ protections, and they banded together to seek through life-appointed judges what they could not obtain from Congress: corporate-friendly laws. This group is called the Federalist Society. Today, virtually every circuit court judge or Supreme Court justice appointed by a Republican president is deeply involved with this antidemocratic group. And it is no secret that ACS was founded as a counterbalance to the Federalist Society.
I’ve been involved with ACS for about six years. I joined ACS in law school and served as the Treasurer of the Tulane Law chapter my 2L year and as President my 3L year, when I was selected as a Next Generation Leader. During my time as President, we focused on training events that would allow law students (who can’t practice law) to get their hands dirty: we hosted a legal observer training, an abortion clinic escort training, a fair-housing tester training, and an election protection training. We also hosted events highlighting the Black Lives Matter movement, local environmental issues, and many other topics. During my time clerking for a federal district court judge in Birmingham, Alabama, I helped run the Alabama Lawyer Chapter and organized a voter restoration training to train local lawyers to help people with felony convictions restore their voting rights. I also helped establish the Cumberland School of Law ACS Student Chapter. The next year, while I was clerking for the Tenth Circuit, I helped establish a student chapter at the University of Wyoming College of Law, which remains very active today. And most recently, while clerking at the D.C. Circuit, I participated in all sorts of ACS events, including a live Zoom performance during the 2020 ACS Virtual National Convention. All along the way, I have remained as active as I can be with ACS’s national organization, which is full of talented attorneys who want to see the law used as a force for good, instead of a weapon for powerful interests who oppress working class people, women, people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ people, and other marginalized groups.
I love my job. I will never make as much money as a disability rights attorney as I would have if I had entertained offers from the big law firms who represent predatory banks, big polluters, pharmaceutical companies, monopolists, and other bad actors. But I wake up every day energized, because I know my clients are suffering, and if I don’t fight for their rights, they may not find anyonewilling to do it. More and more, progressive lawyers are eschewing the allure of big paydays from these firms, realizing that being a part of that system merely perpetuates it, no matter how many pro bono cases you take. But my job is also personal for me. My son has a genetic condition that causes a head-spinning number of physical and cognitive disabilities. As a result, arguing with health insurance companies and public-benefits agencies has become my second full-time job over the past several years. I didn’t know anything about disability rights before law school. But my family now regularly experiences disability discrimination, so we know firsthand how hurtful it is. At a certain point, I also realized how pervasive it is and that there was no other area of law that I’d rather specialize in. Indeed, my personal experience not only motivates me to fight for my clients, but also helps my clients put more trust in me. I’ve even had clients tell me “I wouldn’t hire anyone who doesn’t understand firsthand what I’m going through—that’s why I called you.”
I still play music in my free time, to unwind. But I truly don’t miss doing it for a living, because being a disability rights lawyer is my dream job. And I’m so happy that organizations like ACS exist to work for a legal system that gives my clients and other similarly oppressed groups a fair day in court.
Gabriella Barbosa, Co-Chair, ACS Los Angeles Lawyer Chapter
Gabriella Barbosa (she/her) Co-Chair, ACS Los Angeles Lawyer Chapter
I have always been guided by a duty to be kind to and help people. This duty is rooted in my own experiences navigating challenges and overcoming obstacles as the first generation of my family to be born in the United States. As a child, I learned resilience through my mother’s incredible ingenuity and intelligence. But I was also deeply impacted by the xenophobia, racism, and bigotry that stained the history of our country’s founding and continues to exist within its systems of power.
This understanding of unfairness compelled me to become a lawyer. I wanted to gain a deep understanding of the law as a moral and political vision of our nation and do my small part to ensure that this vision lives up to its founding principles by increasing access, equity, and opportunity for communities of people who have been historically oppressed.
Upon graduating from Columbia Law, I set myself on a path to fight for justice. I designed and received an Equal Justice Works fellowship at Public Counsel in Los Angeles, using direct client representation, impact litigation, policy and legislative advocacy, and community education as tools to close the achievement and opportunity gap that persists in our public education system, with a focus on students in immigrant families. I then worked for an elected school board member, advising him on policy and strategy to improve outcomes and equity for the over 600,000 public school students across Los Angeles. Subsequently, I became Director of Advocacy and Policy of a multi-issue area advocacy organization, implementing a community-centered framework where lawyers and advocates work together with impacted community members to identify issues plaguing their communities; and design, advocate for, and secure systemic policy changes that increase access, equity, and opportunity.
I now work as Policy Director at The Children’s Partnership, where I lead the organization’s policy and advocacy agenda nationally and in California on child health equity with a focus on how racism, immigration enforcement, and other social determinants of health impact the well-being of children from marginalized communities. Throughout all of these experiences, I have used my legal training and the law as a proactive tool to address inequities through policy and legislation.
The American Constitution Society (ACS) has played an integral role in my professional path, and I am grateful for the organization’s continued support! ACS has connected me with multiple scholarships to attend its conferences and gathering of progressive lawyers across the years, believed in me and my work, and actively recruited me to become a member of the ACS Los Angeles Lawyer Chapter (thank you Molly!). ACS has also been a strong supporter of our chapter’s dedication to uplift the voices, work, and experiences of attorneys of color. I can’t wait for what we can accomplish together in the coming years.
Grace Stranch, Co-President, ACS Nashville Chapter and ACS Next Generation Leader
Grace Stranch (she/her) Co-President, ACS Nashville Chapter and ACS Next Generation Leader
My grandfather used to joke, “How do you get good lawyers? You raise them; it just takes a while.” Though my parents did not push me into following them into a legal career, they instilled in me the values intrinsic in public interest law. They raised me to fiercely advocate for the most marginalized in society and to use every ounce of influence I possess to push for a just society. When I decided to attend law school, one of their first suggestions was to get involved with ACS.
When I discovered that the University of Tennessee did not have an ACS Chapter, I committed to working with the administration of the law school and my fellow students to found one. After getting our chapter off the ground, I served as its president until I graduated. While at UT, I made it a priority to partner with other student and community groups because I believe the fiercest advocates are those who collaborate with others and seek to amplify the voices of those most impacted. Following the ACS model, we created collaborations to address voting rights issues, desegregation of schools, and pathways to the bench, and to organize the Appalachian Public Interest Environmental Law Conference. I was thrilled when ACS chose me to be the first Next Generation Leader in Tennessee, where I committed to being involved with ACS for my career. What I learned about ACS during law school made me want to entrench myself in its diverse network and join its fight for the interests of the public.
Upon graduation, I co-founded the ACS Knoxville Lawyer Chapter. Through my work with this chapter, I was honored to receive the Rookie Lawyer Chapter Chair of the Year at ACS’s first National Lawyer Convening. The National Conventions and Lawyer Convenings of ACS have provided me with important knowledge, deep friendships, and business partnerships. Perhaps the greatest strength of ACS is its collaborative model: ACS uses its resources wisely by creating spaces to share the expertise necessary to accomplish its goals.
I fulfilled my grandfather’s punch line by returning to Nashville as a third-generation lawyer at Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings, PLLC. I took up his mantle by focusing my practice on labor and employment litigation with an emphasis on union representation and expanded his vision through complex litigation and class action work. I use ACS’s collaborative model throughout my practice and in my personal life. I serve on many nonprofit boards and actively collaborate with a variety of grassroots movements. Now, more than ever, is the time to expand and share the vision of ACS. Through my work as the co-president of the Nashville Chapter of ACS, my legal career, and my personal life, I will continue to fight for the ideals espoused by ACS and work to expand its collaborative model and its diverse legal networks.
Ariel Levinson-Waldman, Member, ACS Washington, DC Lawyer Chapter; Author, A New Frontier for Civil Rights: Ending Discriminatory Driver’s License Suspension Schemes (ACS Issue Brief 2019)
Ariel Levinson-Waldman (he/him) Member, ACS Washington, DC Lawyer Chapter; Author, A New Frontier for Civil Rights: Ending Discriminatory Driver’s License Suspension Schemes (ACS Issue Brief 2019)
I wish ACS had existed when I started law school in 1998.
As the grandson of Holocaust survivors and son of a Russian-Israeli immigrant to the United States, I had a vague, generalized sense that the tools of lawyering should be used to help those with less access to power and privilege. However, I had no well-developed framework for what that might mean in practice. And in law school, most of the organized events on broad, framework legal ideas were put on by the Federalist Society and emphasized concepts of efficiency and originalism and textualism. These felt, to say the least, radically incomplete and inadequate. Fortunately, by the time I graduated, a nascent organization called the Madison Society had started up. That group eventually evolved into ACS, and I’m grateful it did.
ACS provides an important platform for promoting a positive vision for laws and policies that “uphold the Constitution in the 21st Century by ensuring that law is a force for,” among other important goals, advancing “the public interest and for improving people’s lives.” At each of my professional stops before founding Tzedek DC – as a law clerk, as a Fellow at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, in private practice, and during my eight years serving in the DC and federal governments – ACS and its national convention, issue briefs, individual events, and informal gatherings have all been a highly valued resource for both ideas and meeting terrific people. I have also been honored to be an ACS mentor at a series of events over the years and to have the opportunity to give back.
One particular area of ACS advocacy – ensuring access to civil justice – has been central to the work of the organization Tzedek DC, which I co-founded in 2016 as a volunteer and have led since 2017. Drawing on a central tenet of Jewish teachings – “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof,” or “Justice, justice you shall pursue,” Tzedek DC’s mission is to safeguard the legal rights of low-income DC residents dealing with often unjust, abusive, and illegal debt collection practices, as well as other consumer protection problems like credit reporting issues, identity theft, and predatory lending. Ninety-five percent of Tzedek DC's clients are African American. Tzedek DC pursues our mission as anti-racism work in response to (a) the massive gaps in wealth that track racial lines in DC, where the mean net assets of white families are 8,100 percent those of their African-American neighbors, and (b) the debt collection industry's practices, whose mass-filed lawsuits extract wealth disproportionately from community members of color. In support of this work, we provide free, direct legal services for the thousands of people in our community sued in mass debt collection cases; engage in systemic advocacy, such as our efforts to end driver license suspensions for unpaid debts, and our more recent advocacy for emergency legislation to protect people from wage garnishment during the pandemic; and offer community outreach and education, such as our recent English and Spanish language Know Your Rights webinars.
The COVID-19 pandemic is an especially important time for the core values of ACS to influence services provided to vulnerable community members and to shape reforms of key public policies that in so many ways have failed our communities of color. I’m proud to be part of a network that hopefully can contribute to positive and long-overdue change.
