We think power and change come from the grassroots not from the courts, and we encourage you to ground yourselves in your local contexts. For most of us, movement lawyering is a different approach than what we grew up around or what we learned in law school. We are working to build trainings and ways for our network to gather and support the movement-but we need to hear from you about what you need. What steps can you take in your own practice to change this? How can you lawyer as a way to build people power? To dismantle white supremacy? Are there opportunities to legal observe and advise on protest and civil disobedience? To plug into campaigns for change that might benefit from policy support, whether in criminal justice, housing, or beyond? Can you offer meeting space, money, or food for local organizers? 6. Traditional approaches to lawyering, even public interest lawyering, often reinforce the status quo rather than build for transformative change. Commit yourself to using law to build power for the people. How are we each part of the problem? How can we each be part of the solution? Treating ourselves and those closest to us with love and dignity is one of the most radical acts we can engage. Acknowledge the emotional trauma for colleagues of color, particularly Black colleagues. Discuss how anti-Black state violence and the impunity that surrounds it is a core challenge to how we often think, talk, and operate within the legal system. This is a moment to bring people together to process, grieve, and reflect. Organize a reflection and grieving space at your law office or law school. If you are already an experienced movement lawyer, this is your time to hold space: Call a meeting, bring people together. Get together and assess the skills you bring to the table and the relationships you might already have to community organizers working for radical change and racial justice. You might find those folks through Law for Black Lives, the National Lawyers Guild, National Conference for Black Lawyers, the National Black Law Students Association, at your local legal aid, public defender’s offices, or your law firm. Join or create a space for movement lawyering in your city or school. In this dynamic, it is important to find like-minded people looking to support people’s movements instead.
It can be isolating to work toward transforming the legal system within a profession that lends itself to maintaining the status quo. Connect with other lawyers, legal workers, and law students to assess collective capacity and build community. Go to meetings, listen, build with leaders. Look up your local grassroots racial justice and human/civil rights organizations.
It requires being part of a team and following direction from organizers. Movement lawyering is based on building relationships of trust with organizers. Build relationships with community organizers working toward transformative social change in your city. Rising tensions historically have led to increased surveillance and state oppression, meaning legal support is needed now more than ever. You might observe through your local National Lawyers Guild office, provide legal advice to copwatch programs or organizers seeking input, or simply participate in a grieving space. If you are seeking ways to get involved, here are some suggestions to do so in a way that is centered in the idea that real transformation comes from people’s struggle: 1.