Northeastern University School of Law presents the 2007 Daynard Public Interest Visiting Fellows Program

2007 Fellows

James Bell
Executive Director
The W. Haywood Burns Institute for Juvenile Justice, Fairness and Equity

Judith A. Scott '74
Member
James & Hoffman
General Counsel
Service Employees International Union

Northeastern University School of Law is pleased to announce the 2007 Daynard Public Interest Visiting Fellows: social justice pathbreakers James Bell and Judith A. Scott. The Daynard Program brings two distinguished practitioners of public interest law to the Northeastern campus each academic year for a three-day visit. The fellows, nationally recognized public interest leaders, serve as role models for students, demonstrating how legal skills can be used effectively and creatively to make the world a better place. The Daynard Fellows each deliver an address that focuses on the strategic use of law to promote public interest goals, participate in classes, consult about professional opportunities for students and graduates, and meet individually with interested faculty, administrators and students.

This vibrant program was established in 2004 through the generosity of Professor Richard A. Daynard and his wife, Carol Iskols Daynard. Professor Daynard is an expert on legal approaches to dealing with the epidemics of tobacco- and obesity-related disease. He is president of law school's Public Health Advocacy Institute.

James Bell is founder and executive director of the W. Haywood Burns Institute. Based in San Francisco, Mr. Bell is a national leader in devising and implementing strategies to remedy the disproportional number of young people of color in the juvenile justice system. His institute work includes guiding the Community Justice Network for Youth, a national network of programs working successfully with young people of color, and focusing on issues that impact young people of color, such as the juvenile death penalty, mental health matters and "zero tolerance" in school discipline.

Mr. Bell also has extensive experience in the international juvenile justice arena: he assisted the African National Congress in the administration of the juvenile justice system in South Africa; worked with Palestinians and Israelis on alternatives to juvenile incarceration; trained government officials and activists on the human rights of children in Cambodia, Kenya, Brazil and France; and worked closely on restorative justice policy with officials in New Zealand and Australia.

Prior to founding the Burns Institute, Mr. Bell served as a staff attorney with the Youth Law Center in San Francisco for more than 20 years. He is the recipient of a Kellogg National Leadership Fellowship, the Livingstone Hall Award for Outstanding Juvenile Advocacy from the American Bar Association, the Clinton White Attorney of the Year Award from the Charles Houston Bar Association, the Advocate of the Year from the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the Moral Leadership Against Injustice Award from the Delancey Street Foundation.

Community Lecture and Reception
"Shadowboxing with the Apocalypse: Throw Away Children: An emerging caste structure in public systems"
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Noon, Room 97

Panel Discussion
"Beyond Zero Tolerance: A Discussion"
Friday January 26, 2007
3 p.m., Moot Courtroom

Judith Scott is a member of James & Hoffman, a labor law firm based in Washington, DC. Since 1996, she has also served as general counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the largest and fastest growing labor union in the private sector.

For more than 30 years, Ms. Scott has held key labor law positions in a wide range of unions in both the private and public sectors, having served as in-house legal counsel to the United Auto Workers, AFSCME, United Mine Workers, and Teamsters (as its general counsel). Her career has included Big Three auto talks, the 1989 historic United Mine Worker victory at Pittston Coal Company, extensive internal union governance and arbitration matters, and most recently, innovative organizing pacts within the private healthcare industry. In 2002, Ms. Scott was selected to give the prestigious Henry Kaiser lecture at Georgetown University School of Law.

In addition, Ms. Scott has given special attention to issues affecting women workers, beginning with her work on the implementation of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act amendment in 1979 auto negotiations. For many years, she has served on the board of the National Partnership for Women and Families. She was the legislative representative for the former Industrial Union Department of the AFL-CIO, advocating on Capitol Hill for labor, civil rights and social justice issues. Ms. Scott also is coauthor of the widely used book, Organizing and the Law. During the Clinton years, she served as a presidential appointee on the Advisory Committee to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.