Archive: Around Town

Karen Frankel Blum, Wells College Class of 1967, will be honored June 5, 2010, by the Wells College Alumnae Association with an Alumnae Award for her contributions to the field of law, especially for her work in the area of Section 1983 civil rights litigation. The Wells College Alumnae Award is conferred annually to a graduate or graduates who have reached a degree of high achievement in their profession or career, in volunteer and community work, in service to their alma mater or a combination of these endeavors.

As a nationally recognized authority on Section 1983, Blum is known as an outstanding scholar and teacher.  For the past twenty years, Blum has been an expert on Section 1983 Civil Rights Litigation and Qualified Immunity for the Federal Judicial Center, which provides orientation and continuing education for federal judges.  She has often done the orientation classes for new judges and annually leads workshops and seminars for federal district court and federal magistrate judges.  She writes materials that are basic resources for the judiciary and is noted for her accuracy and clarity, as well as her willingness to be consulted on specific issues.  In 2000, Blum received the Judge John R. Brown Award for Judicial Scholarship and Education.

Since 1974, Blum has served on the faculty of Suffolk University Law School in Boston, Massachusetts, first as Legal Practical Skills Instructor, then Assistant and Associate Professor, before being named Professor of Law in 1982. Blum teaches Civil Procedure, Federal Courts, Civil Rights and Police Misconduct Litigation. She brings not only her extended knowledge of civil rights, police misconduct litigation, and federal courts to her students, but also introduces them to the practical side of the law by incorporating lectures from active lawyers, taking students to the federal court to observe judicial proceedings, and linking students with practicing lawyers to work on actual cases.

Highly regarded for her unbiased view of civil rights law, Blum lectures to lawyers who defend civil rights cases as well as to plaintiffs’ lawyers.  She does programs for the National Sheriffs’ Association and for the Public Agency Training Council, bringing law enforcement agencies up to speed on risks and problems of liability.  She has been actively involved with the National Police Accountability Project and served on its Advisory Board since its inception in 1999.  NPAP was founded to help end police abuse of authority and provide education and training on police misconduct issues.

In addition, Blum regularly leads and presents at Continuing Legal Education seminars and institutes around the country.  She has been involved for many years with the Georgetown Continuing Legal Education Center, Georgetown University Law School, which sponsors a yearly conference on Section 1983 Civil Rights. The conference is now jointly sponsored by Suffolk University Law School.  She was named the first Director of the Masterman Institute on the First Amendment and the Fourth Estate at Suffolk University Law School in 2008.

Blum is the author of numerous books and articles relating to Section 1983 issues. She takes pride in the fact that Justice John Paul Stevens cited one of her earliest law review articles approvingly. Police Misconduct: Law and Litigation, written with Michael Avery and David Rudovsky, is now in its 10th edition.   Her outlines on An Overview of Section 1983 (800+ pages) and Qualified Immunity (1000+ pages) are fundamental to keeping judges and lawyers aware of the most recent legal developments and litigated issues under Section 1983.

She is affiliated with many professional organizations, including the American Bar Association, Massachusetts Bar Association, Boston Bar Association, American Association for Justice, Association of American Law Schools, American Constitution Society, Legal Committee, ACLU MASS, National Police Accountability Project, National Lawyers’ Guild and Women’s Bar Association.  She was recently appointed to the Massachusetts Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.   She has twice (2005 and 2008) been awarded the Yvette C. Mendez Quality of Life Award by the Black Law Students Association at Suffolk.  Blum has also been recognized by her peers and received the Charles P. Kindregan Award for Extraordinary Contributions to Advanced Legal Studies at Suffolk Law School in 2004.

After majoring in philosophy at Wells College, Blum taught children with learning disabilities for five years. She and her husband, Jeffrey Blum, attended Suffolk University Law School as evening students.  Blum was the first evening student at Suffolk to be named an editor of the Law Review, paving the way for future evening students to be eligible for editorial positions. When she received a J.D. from Suffolk in 1974, Blum was given the Outstanding Student Award for her class. She received an LL.M. from Harvard University Law School in 1976.

Her sons, Harrison and Morgan, were born in 1980 and 1984.  Harrison is studying Buddhist Ministry at Harvard Divinity School, and Morgan is a student at Suffolk Law.

----
v6i15