The Legal Voice Self Help Committee:Seattle's Best Kept Secret

By Lauren Akamine

Last spring, I was in the market for a muse. Late nights with Jon Stewart were not sufficient anymore and as a potential JD candidate about to take the plunge, I was in dire need of an overdose on motivation. My firm announced that we had two tickets left for an event, “Cocktails for a Cause.” Of course I was in. Networking with social justice champions and feasting on delectable hors d’oeuvres? Painting the town with likeminded individuals was the mental stimulation I had been craving.

Upon arriving to the event, I grabbed a crab cake and parked myself in front of a giant orange screen that read, “Women’s rights, nothing less.” At that moment, I knew I was going to be a part of a leading movement. For the rest of the night, I sat and looked up at the guest speakers in awe. Where did these women come from? Where does one find that kind of eloquent confidence? How do these women remain so hopeful in the face of the constant onslaught on women’s rights? Where has Legal Voice been all my life?!

I recently celebrated my one year anniversary as part of the Legal Voice family. I am currently a proud member of the Self Help Committee, a diverse group of social justice superheroes comprised of, but not limited to, attorneys, paralegals, and law students. We meet tucked away above The Paramount Theatre at the Legal Voice headquarters on the second Wednesday of every month. As Self Help Committee members we discuss issues on proposed court ruling with legislative advocacy staff, identify legal needs through community outreach, and increase access to legal information for the general public. The meetings are informal, usually accompanied with fresh fruit, old Halloween candy, and riveting dialogue about Legal Voice’s latest work.

What I didn’t anticipate was how much this small-scale committee contributes to the people of Washington State and to the mission of Legal Voice. From specific issues facing victims of violence (Hearing Guidelines for a Domestic Violence Protection Order – “You can do it without a lawyer!”) to basic information about lawyers (Working With a Lawyer  – yes, that phone call to your lawyer just cost you $50!) to estate planning and end-of-life issues (After a Death Occurs - a Checklist  – a vital collection of information for a very stressful time, excerpted from another example of dedicated committee work, the Handbook for Washington Seniors: Legal Rights and Resources.) As a contributing editor to the Self Help materials—available in the Tools to Help You section of the website—I discovered so much about issues that I had never considered before such as Basic Estate Planning for Unmarried Couples and Leave from Work for Victims of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Stalking (a right brought to you by Legal Voice!)

From this experience I began to understand why so many people required legal help. The law is an entity that we interact with every day. However as citizens, we often fear the law and perceive its complexity as a restrictive force. In reality, the law is in place to protect and enhance our rights. This is why the determined efforts of the Self Help Committee are so important. Our mission to enhance the general public’s access to the law enables citizens to find solutions to their legal issues and, in turn, increases their understanding of the law and how it can help them.

What I enjoy most about being part of the Self Help Committee are the people. I have never encountered so much passion in one room from so many different backgrounds, genders, and age groups. I like to think organizations like this are where people like Shirin Ebadi and Madeleine Albright first started: a small room, good ideas, and profound generosity. If the riveting conversations aren’t enough for you, consider joining for the unlimited smiles, the fulfilling work, and the old Halloween candy. Welcome to Seattle’s best kept secret. You won’t regret it.


Lauren Akamine is a paralegal for MacDonald Hoague & Bayless by day, and a Legal Voice feminista by night. She hopes to be accepted to law school soon so she can finally spread her wings and abandon cubicle life.

Survivor Stories:Education, Entertainment,or Public Investigation?

By Alex Kory

Including the voices and real life experiences of survivors can personalize issues like domestic violence and sexual assault in ways that statistics cannot. Stories educate, inspire, and connect people. Because of this, survivor stories are frequently told on the news, at public events, and even in movies and television. But has our demand for survivor stories come at the expense of survivors themselves?

While some survivors choose to share their stories on their own accord, many others are approached with speaking opportunities or interview requests. When I worked as a domestic violence advocate it was not uncommon to get inquiries from media or event planners looking for a survivor to share her story; Legal Voice, too, frequently receives similar requests. As advocates, we can help survivors decide whether to share her story by weighing the intent of a request against the impact on the survivor. In the end, the survivor is our number one priority.

But in other circumstances, that isn’t the case. Even with seemingly good intentions, education can quickly become exploitation by journalists, event planners, or panel moderators who are simply looking for the shocking details. Survivors may face disbelief in their stories or be pressed for explanations of very intimate, personal, and traumatizing events. Put on the spot, survivors may not have prepared for certain questions or considered the potential impacts of taking their story public.

Journalists who report on violence against women have to balance the demand for stories with scrupulous fact-checking. In the aftermath of Rolling Stone’s discredited story on an alleged gang-rape at University of Virginia, journalists are even wearier of believing a survivor’s own words. And as more stories are reported, including stories that become discredited, the public is weighing in on the issue in disturbing ways—playing out the role of investigator and adjudicator in news article comment sections and on social media.

Survivor stories that are told without the input or permission of the survivor can create risk, unwanted attention, and scrutiny for the survivor. I cannot count the number of times I saw the video of Janay Rice (Editor’s note: link does not take you to actual video) being dragged unconscious out of an elevator—not once because I sought it out. When she did decide to speak about her experience to ESPN, over 650 people weighed in in the comments section, with varying degrees of victim-blaming and misogyny.

It becomes even more problematic when we try to reconcile the demand for survivor stories in the news and at public events with the entertainment industry’s use of violence against women. While some stories are told to educate and engage people, others employ violence against women solely and indisputably for the purpose of entertainment. The wildly successful Law and Order: SVU—a show that dramatizes, reenacts, and profits off of stolen sexual violence survivor stories—has been feeding our insatiable desire for “real-life” survivor stories for over 16 years. And like the entertainment industry, most news media outlets are also driven by profits, which can lead to sensationalist reporting, gratuitous violence, and even highly sexualized depictions of victims and survivors.

Survivor stories at public events such as conferences, fundraisers, and even hearings on proposed legislation allow for live interaction between survivors and the audience, opening up the dialogue in critical ways. But it also creates the potential for invasive questions or offensive assertions by people assessing credibility, judging stories, and picking out the survivor’s mistakes. All of this may leave survivors feeling exhausted, angry, and exploited.

The goal of sharing survivor stories should be to empower women affected by violence and inspire others to take action against it. But when survivors are scrutinized, blamed, and used for entertainment, we’re only adding to the myriad reasons for the gross underreporting of rape and domestic violence.

So how can we engage with survivor stories in a way that is respectful, educational, healing, and empowering? There is no bright line rule and we can’t always anticipate the full impact of sharing a survivor story. But we can take steps to carefully consider the survivor speaker, the audience, and the purpose.

1. Survivor speaker: Choosing a speaker should be done thoughtfully. As an advocate at an emergency domestic violence shelter, I always turned down requests from people seeking survivors to speak because my clients were homeless and living in crisis, and often in the process of seeking legal protection or child custody. Survivors should be given space first before being asked to take their story public, and should not be asked to decide immediately. The survivor should be able to choose her own identifiers or labels, if any (i.e. dv survivor, victim of trafficking, etc.) and should be able to decide beforehand what topics will be discussed.
2. Audience: The particular audience may impact who the speaker is, what topics will be covered, and whether the audience will be able to engage with the speaker or not. Some survivors may be invigorated by speaking to potentially hostile or uninformed audiences like lawmakers or batterers groups. Others may prefer sympathetic audiences already knowledgeable about and committed to ending violence against women.
3. Purpose: Generally, survivor stories should be shared with some intention of educating people about the problem of gender-based violence and inspiring them to take action—rather than to entertain or instill fear. It may also be important to consider whether the story is put into context, related to larger societal issue, or accompanied by a discussion of the root problems and possible solutions, or a call to action.

Public speaking is scary enough. Asking a survivor to share a traumatic story with strangers should always be facilitated with care and respect. For more insight, check out the Survivor’s Guide to Public Speaking by the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence.

Alex Kory is an intern at Legal Voice and 4 short weeks away from graduation. She is a Scholar for Justice at Seattle University School of Law; and like a true north westerner, she camps in the rain.

Photo courtesy of Jezebel (Gawker Media).