Tuesday, December 17, 2019: 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Join the LA Law Library book discussion group as we conclude our year of Women and the Law with the true story of Eunice Hunton Carter, the grandmother of Yale Law Professor and bestselling author, Stephen L. Carter. She was black, a woman and a prosecutor, a graduate of Smith College and the granddaughter of slaves - as unlikely a combination as one could imagine in the New York City of the 1930s. When special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey selected twenty lawyers to help him clean up the city's underworld, she was the only member of the team who was not a white male. Without the strategy that she devised, Lucky Luciano, the most powerful mob boss in history, would not have been convicted. Complicating her rise in the legal profession was her difficult relationship with her younger brother, Alphaeus, an avowed Communist who – together with his friend Dashiell Hammett – went to prison during the McCarthy era.

Moving, haunting, and as fast-paced as a novel, Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster, tells the true story of a woman who often found her path blocked by the social and political expectations of her time, but never accepted defeat.

Presented by: Katie O'Laughlin, Managing Librarian, LA Law Library

Registration fee: FREE
Register today to reserve your seat!

Until further notice, this workshop has been suspended until its safe to resume in the law library. For assistance, please see information below.

For assistance from the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) by phone, please call 1-800-399-4529 for access to services. Regular call center hours are 9am – 12 pm, Mon-Fri. If you are unable to call during that time, you may temporarily apply for help between 1 p.m.–4:30 p.m. by dialing extension 8099. Click here for more information. You can also apply for LAFLA services online.

You can also get legal advice on many common questions by requesting a telephonic consultation with a lawyer in LA Law Library’s Lawyers in the Library. To schedule a free consultation with a lawyer, click here.

Tuesday, February 25, 2020: 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Join the LA Law Library book discussion group for the first discussion of 2020, the year of Voting! We will read and discuss Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America, by Ari Berman. After recounting the story of the civil rights movement's success in getting President Johnson to push the Voting Rights Act in 1965, Berman traces the erosion of that legislation over the subsequent half-century. The battles over race, representation, and political power continue as lawmakers devise new strategies to keep minorities out of the voting booth, while the Supreme Court has declared a key part of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional. Through meticulous research, in-depth interviews, and incisive on-the-ground reporting, Give Us the Ballot offers the first comprehensive history of its kind, and provides new insight into one of the most vital political and civil rights issues of our time. "This is the best kind of popular history – literate, passionate, and persuasive, balancing detail with accessibility." (Publishers Weekly).

Awards:

• National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist 2015, Nonfiction
• Notable Book of the Year (2015) by New York Times Book Review and The Washington Post
• Named a Best Book of the Year (2015) by NPR, The Boston Globe, and Kirkus Review

Presented by: Katie O'Laughlin, Managing Librarian, LA Law Library

Registration fee: FREE
Register today to reserve your seat!

Due to COVID-19, This class wil be broadcast online. Information, including the link, will be posted on this page shortly. Registrants will also be emailed the information.

Tuesday, March 24, 2020:  12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Many people need to find important court records, but doing so can be complicated. Although most documents filed with a court are public record and accessible to anyone, each court makes records available in different ways, and surprisingly few are freely available online. In this class, learn how to locate and access common types of court documents from state and federal courts.

Class covers:

• Finding civil and criminal court documents in other state superior courts
• Accessing older state court documents through county archives
• Using Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) to find federal court documents
• Finding state and federal appellate court briefs

Presented by: Austin Stoub, Senior Librarian for Reference & Research

Austin Stoub originally joined LA Law Library as a Reference intern in January of 2010. Upon receiving his MLIS from UCLA in June of 2010, he joined the staff full time as a Reference Librarian. Since that time, he has overseen development of the collection for all states except California, developed and taught a number of classes and has taken a role in operations at Circulation and Copy Center. After earning a BA in Political Science from Calvin College in 2001, he worked in various levels of government before entering UCLA School of Information Science in 2008.

Registration Fee: FREE

LA Law Library does not provide legal advice:
LA Law Library does not provide legal advice. LA Law Library provides legal resources and assistance with legal research as an educational service. The information presented in this program is not legal advice and is provided solely as an educational service to our patrons. For legal advice, you should consult an attorney.