Series Description
We are lawyers troubled by the threat of rising authoritarianism and the conservative capture of US legal institutions. We believe the law can be leveraged to intervene and interrupt the erosion of our democracy, but it will require a massive transformation of our sector and a new power building commitment to bolster, defend and embolden social movement organizers.
Unprecedented: How Lawyers Can Build Power to Defeat Authoritarianism is an agitation to the legal sector to fulfill our role in fighting for a multi-racial democracy and move beyond winning cases to build collective power.
During four sessions we will be in dialogue with renowned intellectuals, organizers, experts, and lawyers to sharpen our analysis on the current rise of authoritarianism in the US and globally, the role of law, and what can we as lawyers can do to block the threats and support social movements building an expansive, multi-racial, and pluralistic democracy.
We hope you will join us on this journey and engage to build a force for human dignity, multi-racial democracy, and ecological harmony.
What to expect
Learn movement-lawyering frameworks in the fight for a deeper, truer multi-racial democracy;
Build a space for shared analysis of current organizing conditions, legal developments, movement infrastructure, and the broader context of rising authoritarianism;
Explore case studies that illuminate the most effective ways to thwart democratic backsliding (teaser: it’s a law & organizing approach!)
Encourage lawyers to move beyond an elections-only concept of democracy fights to begin laying the groundwork for more transformative and ambitious fights for governing power.
Upcoming Events
It’s Possible to Win: Inspiration from Democracy Fights Around the World.
Learn the full picture of the extreme right as an advancing global phenomenon. Gain insight from a Spanish global politics expert about trends and a Brazilian organizer who will narrate their successful electoral experience in 2022 and the role performed by popular movements. This is an opportunity to learn from, share with, and honor the work of our movements across the world.
How Did We Get Here? The History of the Conservative Legal Movement.
The sobering truth is that the legal sector is not presently positioned to guard against the imminent anti-democratic threats from the MAGA bloc. Learn from our speakers about the historic relationship between conservatism and the legal sector, the history of how the right took over the law, and what this history can teach us about the terrain of law today.
Getting in Formation: How Lawyers Should Orient to the Movement Against Authoritarianism.
Learn from Maurice Mitchell of Working Families Party and Alana Greer of Community Justice Project, interviewing each other about the role of progressive lawyers in the block and build pro multiracial democracy movement. We will answer the question: how do lawyers need to orient themselves to this moment to be in the right service to our social movements?
Why Progressive Lawyers Must Join the Pro-Democracy Fight: Understanding Today’s Authoritarian Crisis.
Learn from two of our country's preeminent movement elders who have helped to shape decades of movement strategies: Max Elbaum and Linda Burnham. Linda Burnham is a writer, activist, strategist, and political educator whose decades of experience focus on anti-racism, social justice feminism, and securing democracy.