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I posted this tweet at 12:40 am, Election night, 2016, when the unthinkable happened. I pledged that night to fight--to resist, if you will. I knew it was unlikely that I would make a difference, but I wanted to go down fighting.
The story of my Resistance:
Thread 1/ https://twitter.com/scottjshapiro/status/796225975973449728
The story of my Resistance:
Thread 1/ https://twitter.com/scottjshapiro/status/796225975973449728
I am a lawyer, but I hadn't practiced for a long time; when I did, it was family law. But law is not very hard, so I figured I would offer my research and writing services pro bono to help stop fascism. I wasn't sure exactly how to do that. 2/
I spoke to lots of people. I was trying to find an area of legal need. Since Trump had been so hostile to the press, I figured that journalists would need help. But established outlets like the NYT or PBS don't need someone me. They have experienced media lawyers on retainer. 3/
Through @JudithMatloff I learned about the needs of documentary filmmakers. Most of them do not have budgets for lawyers. They go into their projects legally unprotected. So I found an area of legal need: independent documentary filmmakers 4/
Dave Schultz @MFIADave at Yale's @MFIAclinic and I spent months speaking with people from the documentary space. We found that the documentarians are at the greatest danger from lawsuits at a certain time: right after production but before they get their insurance. 5/
If the target of the film finds out about the film, they can threaten to sue and thus scare insurance companies away. Filmmakers can't distribute without insurance. We found that they needed to shrink the time between finishing their film and getting insurance. 6/
One way to shrink that time is to do all the legal homework before submitting the film to the underwriter.
We came up with a pilot for a new project, called the "Doc Project." The clinics mission is to provide legal advice to documentary filmmakers. 7/
We came up with a pilot for a new project, called the "Doc Project." The clinics mission is to provide legal advice to documentary filmmakers. 7/
We resolve their legal questions and problems beforehand so that they can get their insurance quickly. It also reassures the insurance companies that these films have had legal representation before submission. 8/
Sandy Baron and I started the clinic (and now with Jennifer Borg). We are in our third year and have helped more than a dozen films. And we are also training media lawyers for the next generation.
So that was what I did in response to Trump /fin https://law.yale.edu/mfia/projects/docproject
So that was what I did in response to Trump /fin https://law.yale.edu/mfia/projects/docproject
