Tuesday, August 22, 2023: 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. (PST) via Zoom

Join the LA Law Library book discussion group via Zoom as we continue our year-long exploration of environmental justice and climate related issues as we discuss Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial, by Corban Addison.

Farm waste mismanagement is the subject of this nonfiction environmental thriller.  The book reports on a series of court cases filed against Smithfield Foods by neighbors of its industrial hog operations.  In the process of relating the legal battles, Addison reveals the many examples of environmental pollution and racial inequality embedded in our industrialized food system.

About the Author:

• BS Mechanical Engineering, Cal Poly
• JD University of Virginia School of Law
• Author of 4 novels: A Walk Across the Sun (2012), The Garden of Burning Sand (2014), The Tears of Dark Water (2016 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Award), A  Harvest of Thorns (2017)
• Attorney, activist and world traveler, Addison is a supporter of humanitarian and social justice causes around the world.

Presented by: Katie O’Laughlin, Managing Librarian, Reference & Research

Registration fee: FREE.  This discussion will be hosted via Zoom.

Zoom information and link will be emailed to registrants prior to discussion.

LA Law Library does not provide legal advice:  LA Law Library does not provide legal advice. LA Law Library provides legal resources and assistance with legal research as an educational service. The information presented in this program is not legal advice and is provided solely as an educational service to our patrons. For legal advice, you should consult an attorney.          

Class recorded Friday, July 28, 2023 

In this class, learn how to state your (or your loved one’s) preferences for future mental health treatment in a legal document, so that if an incident results in arrest or psychiatric inpatient treatment, those preferences are provided to medical professionals, service providers, law enforcement and family and friends.  Advance planning for mental health care can protect and benefit a person who lives with mental illness, as well as their family members and loved ones.

Through a Psychiatric Advance Directive (PAD), a person can express their wishes regarding psychiatric and medical treatment.   PADs may be drafted when a person is well enough to make choices and consider preferences for future mental health treatment.  PADs are then used when a person becomes unable to make decisions during a mental health crisis.  The instructor will discuss the purpose of a PAD, and how to prepare and finalize this important document.

Class covers:

• The Psychiatric Advance Directive (PAD): what it does and what a person needs to know in order to create one
• What can a PAD do for a person with a mental health condition
• What can be addressed in a PAD
• When does a PAD go into effect
• Naming someone to make mental health care decisions in the event of a crisis
• Information on California laws that support the use PADs

Presented by:

Erik Nickels, Skadden Fellow, Mental Health Advocacy Services (http://mhas-la.org/)

Registration Fee: FREE

Course Materials: If you would like to receive a copy of the course materials for any of the classes, including any PowerPoint used, please register at the Register Now! button for the class, provided below.

LA Law Library does not provide legal advice:
LA Law Library does not provide legal advice.  LA Law Library provides legal resources and assistance with legal research as an educational service.  The information presented in this program is not legal advice and is provided solely as an educational service to our patrons.  For legal advice, you should consult an attorney.

Tuesday, December 19, 2023: 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. (PST) via Zoom

MEET ROSANNA XIA, author of California Against the Sea: Visions for Our Vanishing Coastline, and join the LA Law Library book discussion group via Zoom as we continue our year-long exploration of environmental justice and climate related issues.  Along California’s 1,200 mile-coastline, the overheated Pacific Ocean is rising, imperiling both wildlife and the maritime towns and cities that 27 million people call home.  Xia, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, investigates the impacts of engineered landscapes, the market pressures of development, and the ecological activism and political scrimmages that have carved our contemporary coastline and foretell even greater changes to our shores.  Xia charts how the decisions we make today will determine where we go tomorrow: headlong into natural disaster, or toward an equitable refashioning.  Join the discussion and share your thoughts!

Meet author Rosanna Xia on Zoom:

• Environmental reporter for the Los Angeles Times, where she specializes in stories about the coast and ocean
• Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2020 for explanatory reporting
• Work anthologized in the Best American Science and Nature Writing series

Presented by: Katie O’Laughlin, Managing Librarian, Reference & Research

Registration fee: FREE. This discussion will be hosted via Zoom. Zoom information and link will be emailed to registrants prior to discussion.

LA Law Library does not provide legal advice:  LA Law Library does not provide legal advice. LA Law Library provides legal resources and assistance with legal research as an educational service. The information presented in this program is not legal advice and is provided solely as an educational service to our patrons. For legal advice, you should consult an attorney.          

Tuesday December 13, 2022: 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. (PST) via Zoom

Join the LA Law Library book discussion group via Zoom as we conclude our year-long exploration of income inequality with a discussion of The Velvet Rope Economy: How Inequality Became Big Business, by Nelson D. Schwartz.  In nearly every realm of daily life there is an invisible rope that divides how Americans live.  On one side of the rope, for a price, red tape is cut, lines are jumped, appointments are secured, and doors are opened.  On the other side, middle and working class Americans fight to find an empty seat on the plane, a place in line with their kids at an amusement park, a college acceptance letter, or a hospital bed.  Author Schwartz not only documents all the ways the business culture has learned to cater to the rich at the expense of everyone else, but also explains why it matters.

About the Author:

• Currently Managing Director of Teneo, a global CEO advisory firm
• Spent more than two decades as a leading business journalist, first at Fortune and then at The New York Times, covering economics with a special interest in issues re: inequality
• Author of The View From Behind the Velvet Rope, an occasional series in The Times on how growing disparities in wealth are leading to priority treatment of the rich
• Recipient of the 2014 Nathanial Nash Award given by The Times to the reporter who “best excels in business and economic news”

Presented by: Katie O’Laughlin, Managing Librarian, Reference & Research

Registration fee: FREE.  This discussion will be hosted via Zoom.  Zoom information and link will be emailed to registrants prior to discussion.

LA Law Library does not provide legal advice: LA Law Library does not provide legal advice. LA Law Library provides legal resources and assistance with legal research as an educational service. The information presented in this program is not legal advice and is provided solely as an educational service to our patrons. For legal advice, you should consult an attorney.