Lectures
April 25 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. co-sponsored by Amnesty Interantional Local Group 255
Central Branch of the Santa Barbara Public Library
Faulkner Gallery
Santa Barbara, CA
Two lectures in support of Amnesty International's Denounce Torture Initiative will take place on April 25, 7 -9 pm, at the Faulkner gallery of the Central Branch of the Santa Barbara Public Library. The speakers will be Michael Rapkin and Eric Sears who will be taking audience questions at the end of their presentations. This is a free event sponsored by Amnesty International and the ACLU.
Michael Rapkin has been a California lawyer for thirty years. He is a partner in the law firm of Rapkin, Gitlin & Beaumont, specializing in real estate law and serving as general counsel to hundreds of non-profit homeowners associations. Michael's law practice has been in the San Fernando Valley since 1975 and he now works out of a second office in Santa Monica.
Michael is married to his wife, Marlene, who is a special education law lawyer, representing mostly on a pro bono basis students and parents against school districts not providing educational needs as required by law for special needs students. Michael has three children, ages 27, 23, and 13.
Michael has served on the Board of Trustees for the San Fernando Valley Bar Association, chaired its Lawyer Referral Service, and served as Judge Pro Tem for several years in both the Small Claims Court and the traffic courts.
He was a co-founding member of the San Fernando Valley Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and served as its treasurer for about six years.
Michael is currently a member of the Board of Directors for the ACLU Foundation, Southern California.
He currently represents an alleged enemy combatant who is imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This required Michael to sue the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense to challenge his client's unlawful detention. He has been to Guantanamo Bay to meet with his client who has been imprisoned there for over four years, during which time he was tortured.
Eric Sears is the project manager for Amnesty International USA's Denounce Torture initiative. He is responsible for overseeing the organization's day-to-day campaigning and policy work aimed at stopping the use of torture and inhuman treatment in the US-led "war on terror."
Eric has been on staff at Amnesty for nearly four years and has held a variety of posts, including serving as a member of the Iraq Crisis Response Team, where he managed the organization's grassroots response to human rights violations in the war. He holds degrees in peace and conflict studies and political science from Saint Louis University.