Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Staff Attorney CJ Sandley will join a workshop at the National Lawyers Guild 2024 #Law4ThePeople Convention entitled Challenging Court Secrecy in Prison Litigation. 

The workshop will take place in-person on Thursday, October 31, 9 a.m. - 10 a.m. CDT at Hilton Downtown Birmingham at UAB, and virtually on Sunday, November 3, 2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. CDT.

Prison and detention litigation often involves matters of life and death, public policy, and major local, state, and federal expenditures. It is far too common that critical evidence and rulings about such matters are kept from public disclosure via protective orders and orders to seal. In this workshop, facilitators will discuss the scope and predominance of non-public filings in prison litigation; explore the reasons why practitioners often acquiesce to secrecy; offer insight into how such information, if made public, can be useful to movements and the media; and share practical guidance with litigators seeking to maximize transparency. The workshop will highlight recent efforts to unseal court records in a prison conditions case against the federal Bureau of Prisons as a case study. Written materials will include sample briefs and a model protective order. Workshop participants will practice crafting sample protective order provisions aimed at maximizing access to matters of public interest while fervently protecting litigants' sensitive personal information.

Speakers:

• CJ Sandley, Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights
• Jackie Aranda Osorno, Zitrin Anti-Court Secrecy Senior Attorney at Public Justice
• Beth Shelbourne, journalist and writer

The Center for Constitutional Rights is proud to sponsor the National Lawyers Guild 2024 #Law4ThePeople Convention, a hybrid conference taking place Wednesday, October 30, through Sunday, November 3, in Birmingham, AL. Hundreds of legal professionals, scholars, and activists will attend the conference for five days of interactive CLEs, workshops, and panels by members of the oldest and most progressive public-interest bar association in the country. 

Join NLG for groundbreaking discussions on movement law, and be a part of the legal arm of liberation movements.