Renee Hatcher and Dorcas Gilmore Discuss Economic Justice and Community Development Law

Attorneys Renee C. Hatcher, director of the Business Enterprise Law Clinic, and Assistant Professor of Law at UIC John Marshall Law School, and Dorcas R. Gilmore, a principal of Gilmore Khandhar, LLC, and teacher at The George Washington University Law School, discuss the many facets of fostering sustainable economic justice through community development law. Renee Hatcher is a human rights and community development lawyer. who is also an Assistant Professor of Law, and Director of the Community Enterprise & Solidarity Economy Clinic at UIC John Marshall Law School (JMLS). The legal clinic provides free legal support to cooperatives, community-based institutions, and other types of solidarity economy initiatives and projects. As director of the Clinic and Assistant Professor of Law at JMLS, Renee is redefining what it means to bring about sustainable economic justice through community development law. Hatcher currently serves as a board member for the New Economy Coalition, a member of Resist, Reimagine and Rebuild (R3), Black Lawyers Solidarity Economy Network (BLESN), and a member of the Law for Black Lives Clinic Cohort Development Team. Her work and research focus on solidarity economy theory/practice and law. Dorcas R. Gilmore is an attorney, advocate and consultant on issues of leadership, racial equity, and community lawyering. She has spent a large part of her career working with nonprofit organizations, community-based organizations, and small businesses. Currently, she is a principal of Gilmore Khandhar, LLC, a solidarity economies law firm, and a teacher in the Small Business & Community Economic Development Clinic at The George Washington University Law School. Prior to her current position, she was an attorney with the national office of NAACP and Community Law Center in Baltimore, and taught at American University Washington College of Law. Dorcas is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Black Worker Center Project, the Baltimore Algebra Project, co-founder of the Baltimore Action Legal Team, and a founding board member of Baltimore Activating Solidarity Economies (BASE).