Benchmark
Institute is a training and performance development organization
dedicated to increasing the quality and quantity of legal
services to low-income communities.
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Interview with Stefan Mark Rosenzweig
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Introduction
On October 21, 2000 Benchmark Institute honored Stefan Rosenzweig at Celebration 2000, our annual party and fundraiser. As has become our tradition, we honor a
person from our community whose work serves as a model to others and who has
given strong support to training. The highlight of the evening is an interview
with the honoree in the style of “Inside the Actor’s Studio” -- a Bravo TV
production.
http://www.bravotv.com/This_Weeks_Features/
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About Stefan
About Downloading Videos
Film Clips:
Introduction
Starting Out
Education Work
Support Center Work
CRLA
Florida
Training
Advice to New Advocates
Questionnaire, Closing & Presentation of Award
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Reproduced here is the conversational interview
with Stefan conducted by
Rosemary French,
President, Benchmark Institute.
About Stefan
From his Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellowship at the
Legal Aid
Society of Alameda County in 1968 through his directorship
at the U.S.
Department of Education Office for Civil Rights,
Stefan Rosenzweig has worked to
eliminate poverty and discrimination
wherever he finds it. He pursued this
passion through his work at
California Rural Legal Assistance, Florida Rural
Legal Services,
Legal Services of the Florida Keys, Public Advocates, National
Center
for Youth Law, and Center for Law and Education.
Stefan began his affiliation with Benchmark in the mid-1980’s.
A core
faculty member at the first College of Advocacy in 1987,
he also taught Complex
Litigation, Writing, and Professional Work
Supervision. He continues his role as
trusted advisor to Benchmark
and delivers the history of the legal services
movement at the annual
College of Advocacy.
Whether shaping policy through the law reform cases, representing
individual migrant and disabled children to get needed services, drafting
legislation to help Limited English Proficient speaking children or forming
multicultural
coalitions to improve the way kids are educated, he has
affected the lives of
countless children in low-income communities of color.
An enthusiastic leader, Stefan is known for supporting others to do
great
work. Through his many accomplishments, he continues to show
the way for future
generations of civil rights and legal services advocates.
For his entire thirty-two year career, Stefan has done some form of
public
service. He has held almost every kind of position there is in l
egal services --
law clerk, staff attorney, executive director, director of
litigation. He has
served on the front lines and in a support capacity.
He has been a teacher and
trainer. He is a member of two bars -- California
and Florida, admitted to
practice in the U.S. Supreme Court, 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals, Federal
District Courts in Massachusetts, Northern District of
California and the
Southern District of Florida.
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Email questions, comments, or requests for assistance to Barb Rush
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Title
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Film Clips
Click on image to view film
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Introduction
Rosemary talks about the
low visibility of civil legal services for poor people in law school and
society at large. She describes the types of cases that legal services
handles including service and impact work. She introduces Stefan. |
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Starting
Out
Stefan talks about
growing up in New York City, attending college at Cornell University and
his days as an activist at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall in the 1960's. He
describes his work as a Reginald Heber Smith Fellow at the Legal Aid
Society of Alameda County including the "Master Charge and the $300
vacuum cleaner" case and the "day of death".
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Education
Work
Stefan describes how he got involved in doing education work when he
advised Chicano high school students in their negotiations with the
Oakland school system on the cultural relevance of its curriculum. He also
discusses teaching a Legal Rights class and doing intake at Laney
Community College in Oakland.
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Support
Center Work
Stefan talks about his
work at the Center for Law & Education in Boston in 1975 -76. Besides
providing support and training to legal services attorneys, much of his
time was spent doing a desegregation case challenging the at large
election of the Boston School Committee. Stefan recounts the challenges of
doing a trial with a judge who did not like him or his co-counsel. He then
describes his work at the National Center for Youth Law and Comite de
Padres de Familia v. Riles which compelled California to monitor and
enforce bilingual education laws. Comite reviews of California schools are
ongoing today. |
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California
Rural Legal Assistance
In 1982 during severe
funding cut-backs or "retrenchment," Stefan became Director of
Litigation at CRLA. Among his many responsibilities, Stefan provided
training and support to attorneys, community workers and secretaries in 12
field offices. Stefan is reminded about his "gentle" management
style. He also talks about the importance of community based people
working at CRLA and in legal services in general.
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Florida
After more than 20 years
of practice, Stefan went to Florida as Directing Attorney of the Florida
Keys, a small office where he did all kinds of cases and then to Florida
Rural Legal Services where he supervised its civil rights work.
He recounts the founding of the Florida Multicultural Network for
Educational Rights, a coalition of diverse organizations dedicated to
educational civil rights issues for low-income kids, and the results the
Network accomplished through a creative and politically astute combination
of litigation, outreach activities, training, and legislative work.
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Training
Stefan talks about how
the legal secretaries taught him how to practice law. He recalls the
glories of putting on trial advocacy training and how he was delighted to
have handed the job over to Benchmark. He talks about the importance of
skills training in legal services and training everybody -- lawyers,
paralegals, community workers and secretaries -- together. |
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Advice
to New Advocates
Stefan gives words of
wisdom to new legal services workers--among them, network and get quality
training!
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Questionnaire,
Closing, Presentation of Award
Stefan answers Bernard
Pivot's questionnaire:
What is your favorite word?
What is your least favorite word?
What turns you on? What turns you off? |
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What sound do you love? What sound do you hate?
What is your favorite curse word?
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
What profession would you not want to participate in?
If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you
arrive at
the pearly gates? |
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Stefan: stefan@benchmarkinstitute.org
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