Community Lawyering in Resistance to Neoliberalism

This essay reviews Scott L. Cummings’ book, AN EQUAL PLACE: LAWYERS IN THE STRUGGLE FOR LOS ANGELES. Cummings’ book makes a significant contribution to community lawyering literature by providing in detail the actual work of community lawyers in Los Angeles in the era between the city’s 1992 Rebellion and the 2008 global financial crisis. However, this review posits that the book missed analyzing the lawyers’ work in two critical ways that could better inform movement lawyers today. First, it misses analyzing the forces the communities were up against through the lens of racial capitalism, which offers opportunities for solidarity across disparate communities. And second, it misses analyzing the work of the lawyers through the lens of critical race theory, which compels a deeper reflection on the relationship between law and organizing, specifically one that views organizing as a theory of change as opposed to a tactic for change.