Veryl Pow
Associate Professor of Law
Email: verylpow@ggu.edu
Pow earned his J.D. at UCLA School of Law in 2017. As a law student, he interned at A New Way of Life Reentry Project, where he worked to challenge driver’s license suspensions as a mechanism to collect traffic court debt in South Los Angeles. He attempted a rebellious approach by organizing with former traffic clients, facilitating community meetings twice a month at a public library in Watts, and deploying multiple modes of advocacy to challenge Los Angeles County’s collection scheme.
Pow’s teaching and scholarly interests are informed by the lenses of racial capitalism, Critical Race Theory, and Rebellious Lawyering. Prior to joining GGU, Pow taught in the Community Development Clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law. Many of the Clinic’s organizational clients, such as urban farms and worker cooperatives, embodied alternative forms and/or values from traditional finance and profit accumulation. Prior to teaching, Pow was on a Skadden fellowship challenging the bail bonds industry in Baltimore. As a Skadden fellow, he directly represented low-income debtors sued by bail bond companies in debt collection actions; ran two weekly community bail clinics; and filed a class action against major bail industry players, including two of the nation’s nine largest insurers of bail bonds, which ended in a settlement.
Pow’s activities in Baltimore also included formal movement lawyering spaces, such as the Baltimore Action Legal Team and the National Lawyers Guild, as well as engagement in rebellious lawyering, such as his participation with the development of the Cherry Hill Food Cooperative. He has also spoken at various conferences nationwide on community and movement lawyering, including the 2018 NLADA conference in Houston on a panel titled Community Listening: A Response to an Established Community Lawyering Practice, and on a Law for Black Lives webinar in May 2019 about community development alternatives to racial capitalism.
COURSES
LAWU - 314Property Law
Research Interests & Areas of Specialization
- Critical Race Theory
- Racial Capitalism
- Rebellious Lawyering
Education
- JD, University of California, Los Angeles
- BA, University of Washington
Professional & Teaching Experience
- Teaching Fellow, University of Baltimore School of Law
- Associate Counsel, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
- Movement Lawyer, Baltimore Action Legal Team
Selected Publications
- Grassroots Movement Lawyering: Insights from the George Floyd Rebellion, 69 UCLA L. Rev. 80 (2022).
- Rebellious Social Movement Lawyering Against Traffic Court Debt, 64 UCLA L. Rev. 1770 (2017).
Professional Associations
- State Bar of Maryland
- American Bar Association
- ClassCrits
- Just Transition Lawyering Institute
- Law for Black Lives
- National Lawyers Guild
Honors & Awards
- Skadden Fellow (2017-2019)
- Volunteer of the Month, Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service (Oct. 2019)
- UCLA Masin Family Academic Gold Award (for Critical Race Theory) (2015)
- UCLA Masin Family Academic Gold Award (for Re-Entry, Work, & Race) (2016)
- Employee Justice Fellow, California Employment Lawyers Association (2016)