Attorney and author C.L. Lindsay tells students how he quit his job and started his own non-profit organization and focus on student and academic law. He is the author of “The College Student’s Guide to the Law: Get a Grade Changed, Keep Your Stuff Private, Throw a Police-Free Party, and More!” and considers himself the “attorney-at-large for college students across the country.” (Evan Solano/Clarion)
Topics like affirmative consent and stalking rarely get a crowd of college students laughing.
A unique presentation by lawyer and author C.L. Lindsay III informed and entertained a full house in the Student Center on April 6 as a guest speaker for the Associated Students of Citrus College’s Sex 101 Week.
Lindsay, an entertainment lawyer who also specializes in higher education rights, is the founder and executive director of the Coalition for Student & Academic Rights, a nonprofit organization of lawyers who work with students and professors seeking legal counsel.
The presentation covered hot topic laws relating to students such as voyeurism, sexual assault and public indecency.
“Basically, for all students in the room, I’m your lawyer,” he said.
Lindsay said he somehow became the “attorney-at-large for all the college students in the country.”
He became and advocate for higher education law after he quit his job at an entertainment law firm to help a friend and professor who was struggling with agruements against his teaching methods.
Linsday, discovering there was one else who was an expert in that field, moved back in with his dad and got his own office space.
Now, he can tell students the difference between indecent exposure and public urination and what protects being charged from one but can condemns to the other. Lindsay can even explain why pornography balances between obscenity and art or how sexting can turn into a child pornography case.
He provided a relatable and engaging crash course explaining higher education student, sex and harassment laws.
Lindsay studies every state law and college code of conduct before each visiting a campus.
Behavioral and social science major Ari Banuelos said the presentation was “eye-opening and entertaining.”
Lindsay extended his services outside of the presentation, offering to study other laws after Banuelos presented him with a difficult question.
“I asked a question that he was unable to answer which was ‘what to do in the case of a person with a disability such as autism,'” she said. “They may not realize that they are stalking, or harassing that person. What is done for them? For now they are put on the sex offenders list for 15 years and are unable to have a life.”
Lindsay’s presentation also featured homemade photography, featuring action figures and Barbie dolls set up to express uncomfortable and almost comical situations.
With Barbie and Ken in a sketchy situation at a house party and a well delivered joke, Lindsay caught and held students’ attention.
His lasting message for students is to understand these laws and what the courts are deciding.
“The pendulum is swinging towards ‘let’s deal with it,'” Lindsay said. “It’s not rocket science…even with no legal training you could understand (the laws).”
