Scott Cummings: A Career Dedicated to Legal Ethics, Social Justice, and Community Empowerment at UCLA

Introduction

Scott Cummings is the Robert Henigson Professor of Legal Ethics at the UCLA School of Law, and his career has been dedicated to exploring the intersection of law, ethics, and social justice. Joining the UCLA Law faculty in 2002, Cummings has distinguished himself as a scholar, teacher, and advocate, focusing on legal ethics, access to justice, and local government law. His work extends beyond the classroom, deeply engaging with community organizations and movements to promote economic empowerment and address issues of inequality.

Academic Career and Recognition

Cummings's impact on legal education is evident in his numerous accolades and appointments. He earned his B.A. at UC Berkeley and his J.D. at UCLA. In 2023, Cummings won the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award, with an additional citation for distinction in teaching at the graduate level, the university’s highest honor for classroom excellence. The UCLA Academic Senate presents this award to increase awareness of UCLA’s leadership in teaching and public service by honoring individuals who bring respect and admiration to teaching at UCLA.

Cummings expressed his gratitude for the award, acknowledging his students' passion and determination to use law to make a difference. He noted that he had learned more from them than he could ever teach about the meaning of justice and what it takes to achieve.

In 2022-23, Cummings was honored as the Fulbright-Schuman Distinguished Chair at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and as a fellow at the Stanford Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. In 2023, he was also awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Contributions to Legal Scholarship

Cummings is a prolific scholar, and his work explores how innovative legal mobilization produces transformative social change.

Read also: Discover Agnes Scott College

His publications include:

Lawyers and Movements: Legal Mobilization in Transformative Times (Oxford forthcoming).
An Equal Place: Lawyers in the Struggle for Los Angeles (Oxford 2021).
Global Pro Bono: Causes, Consequences and Contestation (with Fabio de Sa e Silva and Louise Trubek) (Cambridge 2021).
Making Public Interest Lawyers in a Time of Crisis: An Evidence-Based Approach (with Catherine Albiston and Richard Abel).
Public Interest Lawyering: A Contemporary Perspective (with Alan Chen) (Wolters Kluwer, 2012).
Legal Ethics (with Deborah Rhode, David Luban, and Nora Engstrom) (8th ed. Foundation Press, 2016).

His articles on lawyers and social justice have appeared in leading law reviews and peer-reviewed journals.

Cummings's research interests encompass a wide range of topics, including:

The role of lawyers in democratic backsliding.
Mobilizable labor law.
Preemption by procurement.
The ethics of movement lawyering.
Access to justice.
Law and social movements.

Program on Legal Ethics and the Profession

Cummings is the founding faculty director of the UCLA Program on Legal Ethics and the Profession, which promotes empirical research and innovative programming on the challenges facing lawyers in the 21st century. The program serves as a hub for scholars, practitioners, and students interested in exploring the ethical dimensions of legal practice and the role of lawyers in society.

Community Engagement and Advocacy

Before joining the UCLA faculty, Cummings worked with community groups in Los Angeles to build economic opportunity and political empowerment. In 1998, he was awarded a Skadden Fellowship to work in the Community Development Project at Public Counsel in Los Angeles, where he provided transactional legal assistance to nonprofit organizations and small businesses engaged in community development efforts.

Cummings's commitment to community engagement is reflected in his scholarship and teaching. He has written extensively on community economic development, local government law, and the role of lawyers in social movements. He also involves his students in community-based projects, providing them with opportunities to apply their legal skills to address real-world problems.

Insights into Legal Ethics and Social Change

Cummings's work offers valuable insights into the ethical challenges facing lawyers today and the role of law in promoting social change. He emphasizes the importance of lawyers acting as partners in social movements, using sophisticated legal strategies to improve conditions in low-wage industries and empower marginalized communities.

Cummings's perspective is informed by his experience working with community organizations and local businesses in Los Angeles. He has witnessed firsthand the impact of deindustrialization, outsourcing, and immigration on low-wage workers and the importance of legal advocacy in addressing these challenges.

Addressing Contemporary Issues

Cummings's recent work examines the role of lawyers in democratic backsliding, exploring the unprecedented ways in which lawyers are implicated in the erosion of democratic norms and institutions. As a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow, Cummings plans to write a book, tentatively titled Lawyers in Faltering Democracy, which will examine the role of lawyers in democratic backsliding across four countries: the United States, Brazil, Hungary, and India.

A Legacy of Teaching and Scholarship

Scott Cummings's career at UCLA has been marked by a deep commitment to teaching, scholarship, and community engagement. He has inspired countless students to pursue careers in public interest law and has made significant contributions to the fields of legal ethics, access to justice, and local government law. His work serves as a reminder of the power of law to promote social change and the importance of lawyers acting as advocates for justice and equality.

Read also: Scott Bessent's biography

Selected Publications

Lawyers in Backsliding Democracy, 112 Calif. L. Rev. _ (forthcoming 2024).
Mobilizable Labor Law (with Andrew Elmore), 99 Ind. L.J. 127 (2024).
Preemption By Procurement (with Madeline Janis), 70 UCLA L. Rev. 392 (2023).
An Ode to Rhode: In Principle and in Practice, 91 FDMLR 1201 (March 2023).
Catalytic Localism: What is new about the Green New Deal?, 97 Chi.-Kent L.Rev. 291 (2022).
Making Public Interest Lawyers In A Time Of Crisis: An Evidence-Based Approach (with Catherine Albiston and Richard L. Abel), 34 Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 223 (2021).
United States: Out of Many Legal Professions, One? (with Carroll S Seron, Ann Southworth, Rebecca L Sandefur, Steven A Boutcher and Anna Raup-Kounovsky), in Lawyers in 21st-Century Societies: Vol 1: National Reports (edited by edited by Richard L. Abel and Ole Hammerslev, with Hilary Sommerlad and Ulrike Schultz, Hart Publishers, 2020).
Preemption as a Tool of Misclassification (with Emma Curran Donnelly Hulse), 66 UCLA Law Review 1872 (2019).
Case Study 4: Lawyer for a Coalition with an Informal Leader (with Michael Haber), 47 Hofstra Law Review 61 (2018).
Living Poor in the Affluent City, UCLA Law Review Discourse (2018).
Law and Social Movements: Reimagining the Progressive Canon, 2018 Wisconsin Law Review 441 (2018).
A Reflection on the Ethics of Movement Lawyering (with Susan D. Carle), 31 Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 447 (2018).
The Social Movement Turn in Law, 43 Law & Social Inquiry 360 (2018).
The Puzzle of Social Movements in American Legal Theory, 64 UCLA Law Review 1552 (2017).
Movement Lawyering, 2017 Univ. of Illinois Law Review 1645 (2017).
Access to Justice: Looking Back, Thinking Ahead (with Deborah L. Rhode), 30 Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 485 (2017).
Law and Social Movements: An Interdisciplinary Analysis, in Handbook of Social Movements Across Disciplines 233 (edited by Conny Roggeband & Bert Klandermands, Springer, 2017).
Rethinking the Foundational Critiques of Lawyers in Social Movements, 85 Fordham Law Review 1987 (2017).
Teaching Movements, 65 Journal of Legal Education 374 (2015).
Public Interest Law: The United States and Beyond, in International Encyclopedia of the Social And Behavioral Sciences 555 (edited by James D. Wright, Elsevier, 2015).
Poverty Law: United States (with Jeffrey Selbin), in International Encyclopedia of the Social And Behavioral Sciences (edited by James D. Wright, Elsevier, 2015).
Preemptive Strike: Law in the Campaign for Clean Trucks, 4 UC Irvine Law Review 939 (2015).
Mobilizing Law for Justice in Asia: A Comparative Approach (with Frank W. Munger and Louise G. Trubek), 31(3) Wisconsin International Law Journal 353 (2014).
How Lawyers Manage Intragroup Dissent, 89 Chicago-Kent Law Review 547 (2014).
Empirical Studies of Law and Social Change: What Is the Field? What Are the Questions?, 2013 Wisconsin Law Review 171 (2013).
Beyond the Numbers: What We Know-and Should Know-About American Pro Bono (with Rebecca L. Sandefur), 7 Harvard Law & Policy Review 83 (2013).
Community Benefits Agreements (with Benjamin S. Beach), in Community Economic Development Law: A Text For Engaged Learning (edited by Susan Bennet, Brenda Bratton Blom, Louise Howells & Deborah Kenn, Carolina Academic Press, 2012).
Review Essay, 61 Journal of Legal Education 711 (2012).
Privatizing Public Interest Law, 25 Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 1 (2012).
The Accountability Problem in Public Interest Practice: Old Paradigms and New Directions, in Lawyers In Practice: Ethical Decision Making In Context (edited by Lynn Mather & Leslie Levin, University of Chicago Press, 2012).
The Pursuit of Legal Rights-and Beyond, 56 UCLA Law Review 506 (2012).
The Future of Public Interest Law, 33 University of Arkansas Little Rock Law Journal 355 (2011).
Litigation at Work: Defending Day Labor in Los Angeles, 58 UCLA Law Review 1617 (2011).
Labor Activism in Local Politics: From CBAS to "CBAS" and Beyond (with Katherine Stone), in The Idea of Labour Law (edited by Guy Davidov & Brian Languille, Oxford University Press, 2011).
What Good Are Lawyers?, in The Paradox Of Professionalism: Lawyers and the Possibility of Justice (edited by Scott L. Cummings, Cambridge University Press, 2011).
Lawyering for Marriage Equality (with Doug NeJaime), 57 UCLA Law Review 1235 (2010).
Managing Pro Bono: Doing Well by Doing Better (with Deborah L. Rhode), 78 Fordham Law Review 2359 (2010).
Mobilizing Local Government Law for Low-Wage Workers (with Steven A. Boutcher), 2009 Univ. Of Chicago Legal Forum 187 (2009).
Hemmed In: Legal Mobilization in the Los Angeles Anti-Sweatshop Movement, 30 Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law 1 (2009).
Between Profit and Principle: The Private Public Interest Firm (with Ann Southworth), in Private Lawyers and the Public Interest: The Evolving Role of Pro Bono in the Legal Professio (edited by Robert Granfield & Lynn Mather, Oxford University Press, 2009).
Public Interest Litigation: Insights from Theory and Practice, 36 Fordham Urban Law Journal 603 (2009).
Globalizing Public Interest Law (with Louise G. Trubek), 13 UCLA Journal of International Law & Foreign Affairs 1-53 (2009).
The Internationalization of Public Interest Law, 57 Duke Law Journal 891 (2008).
Law in the Labor Movement’s Challenge to Wal-Mart: A Case Study of the Inglewood Site Fight, 95 California Law Rreview 1927 (2007).
Critical Legal Consciousness in Action, 120(39) Harvard Law Review forum 62 (2007).
Global-Local Linkages in the Community Economic Development Field, in Progressive Lawyering, Globalization and Markets: Rethinking Ideology and Strategy (edited by Clare Dalton, William S. Hein & Co, 2007).
Mobilization Lawyering: Community Economic Development in the Figueroa Corridor, in Cause Lawyers and Social Movements 302 (edited by Austin Sarat & Stuart Scheingold, Stanford University Press, 2006).
Review Essay, After Public Interest Law (with Ingrid V. Eagly), 100 Northwestern University Law Review 1251 (2006).
The Federal Role in Community Economic Development (with Benjamin S. Beach), 40 Clearinghouse Review 89 (2006).
The Politics of Pro Bono, (52) UCLA Law Review 1 (2004).
Recentralization: Community Development and the Case for Regionalism, 8 Journal of Small & Emerging Business Law 131 (2004).
Between Markets and Politics: A Response to Porter’s Competitive Advantage Thesis, 82 Oregon Law Review 901 (2004).
Toward a New Theory of Community Economic Development (with Gregory Volz), 37 Clearinghouse Review 158 (2003).
Community Economic Development as Progressive Politics: Toward a Grassroots Movement for Economic Justice, 54 Stanford Law Review 399 (2001).
A Critical Reflection on Law and Organizing (with Ingrid V. Eagly), 48 UCLA Law Review 443-517 (2001).
Developing Cooperatives as a Job Creation Strategy for Low Income Workers, 25 NYU Review of Law and Social Change 181 (1999).
The Politics of Helping: Reflections on Identity, Ethics, and Defending the Poor, 6 Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law & Policy 43 (1999).
Affirmative Action and the Rhetoric of Individual Rights: Reclaiming Liberalism as a “Color Conscious” Theory, 13 Harvard Blackletter Law Journal 183 (1997).

tags: #scott #cummings #ucla #career