As an undergraduate at Columbia University, Gregory Louis was on track to become a history professor. He laughed as he recounted the experience of attending an information session about tutoring 7th and 8th graders for the free food, but he quickly found a place to make a difference in his local community.
“I noticed kids were missing sessions and found out that some were becoming emancipated from abusive parents, some were facing eviction, and some were undocumented. I came to the realization that until people’s basic material needs were met, education remained inaccessible. My goal in becoming a professor was to teach kids who didn’t have access to material needs. Since they wouldn’t benefit, I changed courses and decided to go to law school.”
Gregory evoked the phrase “mystic bonds of sacrifice” to describe the drive that motivates people in impossible situations to rise above their circumstances and go back to the community to use their skills to uplift others. To him, CUNY Law represents the culmination of a search for a place to invest his knowledge for maximum impact in his local community.
“It’s the only place I could imagine myself teaching. The CUNY system creates space for access, and many students are from the city. Some are first-generation immigrants and are often the first in their family to finish college. Some students are the first lawyers in their families.”
As a well-educated, first generation, middle-class New York native, Gregory noted that he was lucky to never be left wanting, and didn’t notice the great disparity New Yorkers faced until he traveled.
“You tend to forget how poor the city actually is in terms of average income. Meeting people outside of the city and coming back home has given me a vantage of poverty outside of a city lens. New York is a heavily romanticized place, but many students came from public schools that failed them, while their peers in more wealthy neighborhoods accessed private schools with more opportunities to achieve their goals.”
Gregory is joining the school as an Assistant Professor at a unique juncture in CUNY Law’s history. He notes several challenges for the CUNY Law community.
“Socio-economic disparity will play out. Many New Yorkers have yet to access the digital age. We take Wifi and internet access for granted and assume online education will work. We have students living together in crowded and loud spaces. Students will become impatient with our established baseline of learning and socialization based on 19th century cases, since it seems trite in comparison to what we’re collectively living through. It’s an election year, and if things don’t meet expectations, what do you tell already cynical and demoralized students?”
In addition to a pandemic-affected job market, there are pending policies surrounding DACA students whose visas are dependent on employment post-graduation. One area of contention for Gregory is the uncertainty surrounding the Bar exam.
“It’s unreal that we are asking students under these circumstances to stress out about this exam. Other generations of lawyers argue that this is the way it’s always been, but they’ve never lived through a pandemic. The most relatable piece of the Bar exam is the manufacture of stress, but the stress of practice is an order of magnitude more pressing because it’s real. You’re dealing with people — not exams. Why do we subject people to three years of law school, if two months of study for an exam supposedly covers the knowledge needed to practice? This is why I’m in favor of diploma privilege — especially in this circumstance.”
For recent graduates, Gregory encourages reflection on overcoming the impossible.
“This is just another version of something you lived through. In a time when community can’t offer the self-care many would usually seek, reflect on how remarkable it is that you transcended your impossible circumstances, and harness that to repeat those actions.”
Gregory wished that as a 1L, someone would have told him that much of law school was learning to play a game.
“Law school is socializing you into a profession that helps students critique people and situations within a fairness framework rooted in Western European and Pan-Western ideas. They frame cases as morally pure and they’re often unrelated to the lived experience of students, so don’t pressure yourselves to understand cases intuitively. Focus on the social reality of the case, and how the law is being used as a tool to work out fairness.”
One important aspect of the upcoming year will be holding space for and centering the experiences of Black students and faculty, as they face additional consequences on top of a global pandemic and subsequent educational hardships.
Gregory advises allies to “abide in folks’ pain” when it comes to holding space for the experience of Black community members during the movement for Black lives. “Don’t immediately switch to solutions or worry about how to make it better. Sit with the pain, find points of relation, and forward- moving solutions will emerge. COVID-19 has given everyone a sense of deprivation, but some of my fellow classmates and colleagues have lived in this reality of deprivation forever. This has always been their normal — and there is no new normal for some of us. There’s truly no place in the U.S. you can get respite as a Black person.”
Find out more about Gregory’s work and expertise here, and read his latest piece in the LPE Blog. Follow Gregory’s work and advocacy on Twitter @GregoryELouis1