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Edgar S. Cahn

PASTED FROM TIMEBANKS

Dr. Edgar S. Cahn is the creator of Time Dollars and the founder of TimeBanks USA, as well as the co-founder of the National Legal Services Program and the Antioch School of Law (now the David A. Clarke School of Law). He is the author of “No More Throw Away People: The Co-Production Imperative,” “Time Dollars” (co-author Jonathan Rowe, Rodale Press, 1992), “Our Brother’s Keeper: The Indian in White America,” (1972) and “Hunger USA.” The development of Time Dollars is just one achievement in a career that, since the early 1960′s, has been dedicated to achieving social justice for the disenfranchised. His own life is an example of dedication to strongly held principles and ideals, and he brings to audiences a powerful vision, sincere compassion, spontaneous humor, and the ability to inspire others.

Edgar Cahn is the originator of Time Dollars, the creator of the Co-Production principle, and the President and Founder of the Time Dollar USA. A compelling speaker, Edgar possesses the eloquence, passion, and sense of humor to inspire in his audiences a sense not only that social justice matters, but that it calls for immediate action. For over four decades, his own life has stood as a model for action and as a testament to his abiding concern for the rights, welfare, and dignity of the disenfranchised.

A graduate of the Yale law school, Edgar entered the legal profession determined to use the law to achieve social justice. He started his career in government as special counsel and speechwriter for Attorney General Robert Kennedy under President John Kennedy. As part of that role, he was assigned by Kennedy to the Solicitor General’s office for the government’s amicus brief in civil rights sit-in cases. Edgar also worked to spearhead the first national campaign against hunger and malnutrition in the US, and in doing so, he authored an influential report entitled Hunger USA, which led to legislation enforcing shipments of food to severely malnourished communities on Indian reservations and in the southern United States. His work to fight hunger also involved initiating the earliest litigation to challenge the administration of the food stamp and commodities program, establishing the standing for potential recipients, and assisting in the preparation and defense of controversial documentary, “Hunger in America.”

In 1963, Edgar’s life and work seeking social justice first became known at a larger scale when the article he co-authored with his late wife, Jean Camper Cahn, titled “The War on Poverty: A Civilian Perspective” was published in the Yale Law Journal and became the blueprint for the National Legal Services program. Using their model and working closely with Sargent Shriver and the War on Poverty, Edgar and Jean co-created the National Legal Services program under the Office of Economic Opportunity in the Johnson administration.

Having left the government for work with the Field Foundation in 1968, Edgar founded the Citizens Advocate Center as watchdog on government whose primary purpose was to challenge the colonialism of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. That same year, he authored “Our Brother’s Keeper, the Indian in White America.” Leading American Indian activists did the research for the book, which was intended as a catalyst for change in national policy and which helped to spearhead the official adoption of Indian self-determination as national policy.

In 1972, Edgar and his late wife created and founded the Antioch School of Law, which later became the UDC David A. Clarke School of Law and continues the tradition established in the Antioch days to emphasize social justice as a critical role for the law. As law-school deans, Edgar and Jean were the first pioneers of clinical legal education in the US, an approach which is now to be found in law schools throughout the nation.

In 1980 after a massive heart attack that nearly claimed his life, Cahn stepped outside of the law to create yet another social invention, a local, tax-exempt currency called Time Dollars, which are designed to validate and reward the work of the disenfranchised in rebuilding their communities and fighting for social justice. As a distinguished fellow at the London School of Economics, Edgar completed the work on Time Dollars that has led to Time Dollar initiatives being funded by government and major philanthropic foundations in the United States in areas as widespread as juvenile justice, community health, education, public housing, community building, wraparound services for children with emotional disorders, immigrant workers’ rights, and elder care.

As the president and founder of the Time Dollar USA, Cahn’s experience with Time Dollars led him in 1995 to develop a radical new framework for social welfare and social justice that turns recipients of service into co-producers of change. He called this new approach “Co-Production.” An example of Co-Production principles at work can be seen in Washington, DC, his home city, where in 1996 he founded the Time Dollar Youth Court, whose mission is to enlist youth in changing the shape of juvenile justice in DC. Sanctioned by the DC Superior Court, the Time Dollar Youth Court is now among the largest youth courts in the nation. Its innovative design enlists more than 400 youth each year, the majority of them former delinquents, as active shapers of a new form of justice for DC youth.

Background & Early Career

Edgar S. Cahn was born in 1935 in New York City, where he grew up. His father, Edmond Cahn, a lawyer, law professor and legal philosopher raised Edgar to believe that human beings have the innate capacity to recognize and respond to injustices. “It was drilled into me,” Cahn said, “that we were here to create a more just world and that segregation and racism were, in some sense, the quintessential injustice. I was brought up believing that all people were equal.”^[1] EXPAND

Cahn’s earned a B.A. magna cum laude from Swarthmore College, an M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Honors include: Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude, Fulbright Scholar (Cambridge University), Order of the Coif, Articles & Book Review Editor, Yale Law Journal; EXPAND

Early Career

He started his career in government as special counsel and speechwriter for Attorney General Robert Kennedy under President John Kennedy. As part of that role, he was assigned by Kennedy to the Solicitor General’s office for the government’s amicus brief in civil rights sit-in cases.^[2] EXPAND

Creation of Legal Services Program

In 1963, an article he co-authored with his late wife, Jean Camper Cahn, titled “The War on Poverty: A Civilian Perspective” was published in the Yale Law Journal and became the blueprint for the National Legal Services program. The article proved to be influential and its publication opened up to a wider audience the Cahn's views and efforts on how deliver greater social justice to previously ignored sectors of American society. Using their model Edgar Cahn, working as Sargent Shriver's Executive Assistant, and Jean Cahn, brought over as a Consultant from the State Department to initiate the program, co-created the National Legal Services program under the Office of Economic Opportunity in the Johnson administration.^[3]

War on Hunger

With the publication in 1968 of "Hunger, USA," Edgar Cahn initiated both the pre-eminent exposé of hunger in America and the first major national drive against it, which led to legislation enforcing shipments of food to severely malnourished communities on Indian reservations and in the southern United States. His work to fight hunger also involved initiating the earliest litigation to challenge the administration of the food stamp and commodities program, establishing the standing for potential recipients, and assisting in the preparation and defense of the controversial documentary, “Hunger in America.^[2]

Native American Rights

Having left the government for work with the Field Foundation in 1968, Cahn founded the Citizens Advocate Center as a government watchdog whose primary purpose was to challenge what he viewed as the then-prevailing attitude of colonialism at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. That same year, he authored “Our Brother’s Keeper, the Indian in White America.” Leading American Indian activists did the research for the book, which was intended as a catalyst for change in national policy and which helped to spearhead the official adoption of Indian self-determination as national policy.^[2]

Legal Education Innovation

Professor Cahn directs the Law and Justice Program at the David A.Clarke Law School of the University of the District of Columbia, where he presently holds the position of Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Law.

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Co-Founder, Antioch Scool of Law

Together with his late wife Jean. he founded in 1971 the Antioch School of Law, UDC-DCSL's predecessor and the first law school in the United States to educate law students primarily through clinical training in legal services to the poor. Together they served as co-deans from 1971 to 1980.

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Pioneer in Clinical Legal Education

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System Change

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Timebanking/Timebanks USA

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In 1980, at age 46, Cahn survived a massive heart attack. The event turned his life in a new direction. As a distinguished fellow at the London School of Economics, he designed an economic strategy for social change called Time Banking.^[4] He invented what he called "Time Dollars," designed to validate and reward the work of the disenfranchised in rebuilding their communities and fighting for social justice. In it, everyone's work time is valued equally. This work led to the funding of Time Dollar initiatives by governments and major philanthropic foundations in the United States in areas as widespread as juvenile justice, community health, education, public housing, community building, wraparound services for children with emotional disorders, immigrant workers’ rights, and elder care.^[3] He also founded the Time Dollars project, a service credit program that now has more than 70 communities in the United States, Great Britain and Japan with registered programs (www.timebanks.org). His use of "time dollars" as an economic strategy for addressing social problems is described in his books, "Time Dollars" (1992) and "No More Throw-Away People: The Coproduction Imperative" (2004), showing how to mobilize a nonmarket economy that recognizes and rewards reciprocal contributions of service and caring.^[5]

As the president and founder of the Time Dollar USA, Cahn’s experience with Time Dollars led him in 1995 to develop a radical new framework for social welfare and social justice that turns recipients of service into co-producers of change. He called this new approach “Co-Production.” An example of Co-Production principles at work can be seen in Washington, DC, his home city, where in 1996 he founded the Time Dollar Youth Court, whose mission is to enlist youth in changing the shape of juvenile justice in DC. Sanctioned by the DC Superior Court, the Time Dollar Youth Court is now among the largest youth courts in the nation. Its innovative design enlists more than 400 youth each year, the majority of them former delinquents, as active shapers of a new form of justice for youth.^[3]

TimebanksUSA Projects

1. RJI 2. TimeDollar Youth Court 3. Carebanking 4. Homecomers Academy 5. Community Weaver EXPAND

Co-Production

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Personal life

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Works

Books

Articles

Memorable quotes

Media Appearences

Videos

Awards & Affiliations

Edgar and Jean Cahn Article Award for distinguished scholarship on the subject of equal access to justice

This award is given by the National Equal Justice Library of the Georgetown Library "in order to honor past scholarship on the subject of equal access to justice and to encourage greater interest among scholars in future research and writing in this field." The award "is named for Edgar and Jean Cahn, in recognition of their seminal 1964 Yale Law Journal article, The War on Poverty: A Civilian Perspective which supplied the intellectual basis for the OEO Legal Services Program and its successor, the Legal Services Corporation.

The inaugural award was presented in 2000 to the late Marc Feldman for his article entitled Political Lessons: Legal Services for the Poor, Georgetown Law Review, 1995. In 2002 the award was presented by Sargent Shriver to Edgar Cahn.^[6]

Swarthmore College Edgar and Jean Camper Cahn Law and Social Justice Award

The Swarthmore College Edgar and Jean Camper Cahn Law and Social Justice Award was recently established by the Legal Services to the Public Committee and the Pro Bono Office of the Pennsylvania Bar Association to honor a Swarthmore College student for outstanding achievement in the field of social justice. The Inaugural Award was presented to Shilpa Boppana, a 2011 Swarthmore graduate, on May 29, 2011 for her work at the college supporting youth courts in the Chester Upland schools.^[7]

Affiliations

Special counsel and speechwriter for Attorney General Robert Kennedy

Special Assistant to the Director, Office of Economic Opportunity

Founder, Citizens Advocate Center

Special Counsel to Chairman, Navajo Nation

Visiting professor, University of Miami School of Law

Visiting Scholar, Columbia University's Center for the Study of Human Rights

Senior Research Fellow, Southeast Florida Center on Aging at Florida International University

Distinguished Visiting Scholar, the London School of Economics

Honors

Honors include: Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude, Fulbright Scholar (Cambridge University), Order of the Coif, Articles & Book Review Editor, Yale Law Journal; Jefferson Award for Outstanding Public Service Benefiting Local Communities; Founder’s Award, National Council on Aging; American Association of Law Schools William Pincus Award for Outstanding Contribution to Clinical Legal Education; Point of Light 1997; Co-op Quarterly 1998 Building Economic Alternatives Award for Outstanding Work in Fostering a Sustainable Economy; Medal of Distinction, D.C. Superior Court 2000. Phi Beta Kappa

Fulbright Scholar (Cambridge University)

Order of the Coif

Articles & Book Review Editor, Yale Law Journal

Jefferson Award for Outstanding Public Service Benefiting Local Communities

Founders Award, National Council on Aging

American Association of Law Schools William Pincus Award for Outstanding Contribution to Clinical Legal Education, 1997

National Legal Aid and Defender Association's Charles Dorsey Award, 1999

Point of Light 1997

Co-op Quarterly 1998 Building Economic Alternatives Award for Outstanding Work in Fostering a Sustainable Economy

Medal of Distinction, D.C. Superior Court 2000.

Ashoka Senior Fellow, 2008

National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA) Charles Dorsey Award, 2009http://204.200.207.175/smithcahnaward1.htm