Legal Advocacy

Text Box: Relations department, we will seek expanded friend of the court opportunities in cases of discrimination that disadvantage women in the workplace. With this strategy, we believe that we will maximize our effectiveness and ensure that we will be heard by courts that affirmatively want our opinion on the cases and the issues before them. AAUW has also made the decision that as LAF transitions toward expanded case and issue support, we will move away from direct financial plaintiff case support. While plaintiffs have been grateful for our financial support, it has always been the act of putting AAUW's name behind the case and the issue that has been our central contribution. As our approach shifts, it is important that we maintain our commitments to the 10 plaintiffs whose cases we currently support. Thanks to your continued generosity, LAF expects to provide third-cycle case support funds to them in May. Although AAUW is on a July-to-June fiscal year, we are annualizing LAF's 2008 case funding support to accommodate the

Text Box: expectations of current plaintiffs and the tax year needs of our donors. We expect to provide direct plaintiff case support funding in August/September and November/December. LAF is no longer accepting new plaintiff case support applications , and we will not provide such direct case funding to current plaintiffs after December 2008. We will, however continue to provide travel and speaking stipends and are exploring emergency relief funding to assist with the many additional burdens faced by plaintiffs (health decline, job loss, family obligations, etc.) Over the years, many plaintiffs have been very grateful for our support and have spoken at AAUW meetings across the country, sharing their stories and thanking our members for their help. Given our members' interest in these cases, we hope very much that the visits will continue and expect that to be so based on our experiences with with plaintiffs we have previously supported.

Text Box: Book Sale Thanks to all of you who so generously donated books and other media articles for the LAF book sale at the May 24 luncheon. New Directions for LAF Several key LAF program decisions were made recently by the Board of Directors. Here is the information on some of these new directions. Case Support Many members and others who look to AAUW for our leadership have urged us to extend our LAF plaintiff support beyond academia to other workplace settings. AAUW's new Value Promise affirms that: "As AAUW members, we belong to a community that breaks through....barriers so ALL women have a fair chance." LAF is expanding to include sex discrimination in all workplaces to reflect our commitment to that fair chance. A primary aspect of this expansion is to build on AAUW's history of participating as "amicus curiae" in cases affecting women's rights. In collaboration with the Public Policy and Government

By LAF Liaison

Marilyn Roland

rolandm2@comcast.net