Edgar Cahn at Swarthmore

Posted by Swarthmore College on September 8, 2015

On Wednesday afternoon, September 9, 2015 at 4:30 PM Edgar Cahn will present a lecture in the Scheuer Room of Kohlberg Hall at Swarthmore College, open to the public. Mr. Cahn, a 1956 Swarthmore College graduate, will discuss his more than 50 year career as a public interest lawyer in both the criminal and civil justice arenas. Mr. Cahn (along with his deceased wife Jean Camper Cahn, also a Swarthmore College graduate) co-authored a famed Yale Law Journal article in 1964 that directly led to federally funded legal services for the poor which today provides legal counsel to more than a million citizens annually. The Cahns pioneered legal clinics for the poor, now staples in law schools throughout America.

Mr. Cahn will discuss his speechwriting job at the Department of Justice, where he crafted speeches for President Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, Arthur Goldberg, and Sargent Shriver. He will discuss why he invented Timebanking—a formal system to allow recipients of services to pay back, or pay forward, the cost of services received with their own volunteer services. He will discuss his experience founding a youth court in Washington D.C. which kept 60% of all nonviolent criminal offenders out of the juvenile justice system. He will reflect on his Racial Justice Initiative, which led to public hearings on alternatives to detention in light of the “kids for cash” judicial scandal in Luzerne County. Mr. Cahn will discuss which systems change strategies worked and why.

The lecture is free, but seating is limited and will be available on a first come, first serve basis. Mr. Cahn is expected to answer questions at the end of his lecture.

On September 10, Mr. Cahn will be honored at the National Constitution Center as the first recipient of the Education Works Social Justice Award for his life’s work and on the 11th, at Penn Law, he will host a series of panels on youth court.