Where the CCLP is the Coalition of Concerned Legal Professionals.

I hadn't heard of them until I bumped into them in front of the grocery store back in May after finishing up a study session during finals. They made a good pitch. Access to legal services is becoming more and more difficult, especially for the poor. I was told about their advising sessions and stuff, was showed a very glossy publication, etc. Having been thinking that volunteering somewhere might help me get some real-world experience, I signed up. They called me once in the middle of finals, at which point they got a curt "Leave me alone!" They called me again a week ago, let me know about what was going on, and I agreed to volunteer at a "legal advice" session on Saturday.

The legal advice session was fine. The group struck me as weird, but fine. Absolutely no government money, etc. I was a bit taken aback by the operations director (a full-time volunteer) when I was there. She started talking about eminent domain and the like, but she hadn't heard about Kelo v. New London. That struck me as odd. Anyhow, I found it strange that in the middle of this session, Michelle got very adamant about me coming by their office to figure out what I'll do to help out. I thought that was pretty presumptuous, but I agreed to come by Monday night. I did so.

Earlier, I wrote up my feelings after the Monday meeting, including:

After volunteering last weekend, I went in today to discuss what I might be able to do to help. Things were normal enough on Saturday, in spite of some comments that made them come off a bit radical in many ways for my tastes. Today, I got what amounted to a sales pitch, followed by what struck me as some strong-arm, almost cultish tactics. Not, “Hey, come help us at our literature table Saturday.” Not, “How about you send out these daily letters?” I was asked which part of their strategies I wanted to run. This is my second day with them.

My early searches for a website were not fruitful, so I gave up. However, throughout the day today, I kept thinking that there's got to be more about this group that I was missing. There was just too much craziness, and it seemed way to strange. Plus, somehow, they had to maintain these offices. I decided to do some more digging tonight. This time, I found stuff on the anti-cult activist Rick Ross's site.

Then I found this. Michelle, the "operations director", told me how she used to work for the "Western Service Workers Association" in Oakland. Some of the descriptions, down to the talk of the "cadre" in those postings are right in line with the education session I had on Monday night.

I guess I should have worked harder to know more before I got involved. Tomorrow, I am expecting a call from Michelle to find out what I've decided I want to take on management of. That should be fun. I haven't decided whether to bring this stuff up, or just to say I've decided I'm not interested.

Update: The fun never ends.