Get your tickets & purchase ad space in the journal!

United to Defend Your Right to Protest:
Fighting Fascism Since 1937

Annual Testimonial Dinner

Date: Saturday April 25, 2026 • 6pm - 9pm
Location: UC Law Auditorium • 198 McAllister Street • San Francisco, CA
 

Champions of Justice Honorees

Debra Murov  •  Deanna (Dee) Mouton

Keynote Speaker

Mahmoud Khalil

• • •

• EVENT DETAILS •

Join us on April 25th at our annual Testimonial Dinner, where we honor members and allies who are driven by the same values of equity and justice that guide NLG-SFBA’s work. This year we are excited to honor Debra Murov and Deanna (Dee) Mouton for all that they've done for our communities. We'll also get to hear from Mahmoud Khalil, our keynote speaker.

We also invite you to join us for a special pre-reception gathering with keynote speaker Mahmoud Khalil, and honorees Debra Murov and Deanna (Dee) Mouton. Tickets for this reception are limited! See more details below.

The testimonial dinner is also our biggest fundraising event! Since our inception, we have been dedicated to mass defense and protecting the rights of demonstrators as the legal arm of the movement. The SF Bay Area chapter is one of the largest staffed NLG chapters in the country, and your contributions help us maintain that status. Being a staffed chapter means that we are able to have one of the most responsive and robust Legal Observer programs, we are able to remain close and responsive to our local membership, and we are able to host social events that keep us connected and build our resilience.

You can contribute by purchasing a ticket, getting an ad in this year's journal, or making a donation!

Accessibility: The venue is wheelchair accessible: there are elevators to get into the auditorium, there are bathrooms on the same floor, and there is a ramp onto the stage. Please contact us (contact@nlgsf.org) if you have any additional accessibility questions.

• JOURNAL ADS •

Purchase an ad in the 2026 journal!
Ad deadline: Monday, April 6, 2026

Become a part of Guild history, celebrate our honorees, & support the NLG-SFBA when you purchase an ad.

• TICKETS •

Get your tickets now!
Ticket deadline: Monday, April 13, 2026

We have two ticket options this year: General Admission and VIP. We also have a very limited number of table reservations available!

General Admission ticket ($150): Covers your admission to the gala, along with a catered dinner and drinks. (Discounted GA tickets are available for students & legal workers for $60.)

VIP ticket ($400): Covers your gala admission (with catered dinner and drinks) and gets you access to a special pre-gala reception with keynote speaker Mahmoud Khalil, and honorees Debra Murov and Deanna (Dee) Mouton, from 5 to 6 pm, before the main program begins. Enjoy light appetizers, refreshments, and good conversation! Tickets limited!

Table reservations ($500): Secures you a dedicated table for the evening, where you can choose up to 9 other people to join you. (NOTE: These are separate from your event ticket, and you will still need to purchase dinner tickets.)

*Discounted tickets available for $60 for students and non-attorney legal workers

All proceeds from this event will help us continue to support and defend organizers, activists, and social movements here in the Bay Area.
If the ticket cost is prohibitive for you, please reach out to us (contact@nlgsf.org). We may have a limited number of donated tickets available.

• CHAMPIONS OF JUSTICE •

Debra Murov - Artist-Activist. Born in Shreveport, Louisiana. Debra Murov’s political education began at an early age, in the segregated south, witnessed through the white and black waiting rooms at her pediatrician’s office, separate entrances at the movie theaters and designated drinking cups for the domestic household “maids”. By the age of 10, she encountered the results of systemic racism during de-segregation of public schools. Mid-way through 5th grade, she was sent to a newly constructed elementary school in a black neighborhood, walking distance from her childhood home. The new school lacked enough textbooks for every student and on some days the three-square divided plastic lunch plates had only one food item, such as warmed whole canned tomatoes. This experience fundamentally changed her. 

Fast forward, post college, 1981. Her political activism grew out of the solidarity movement with Central America. Through her older sister’s influences and the politics of the 1980s, she and members of a collective household in Santa Monica, California, joined the fight against the U.S. intervention in Central America via the L.A. chapter of CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador). They organized committees and worked alongside the Salvadoreños in exile. Debra worked with the arts/communications committee creating political posters, placards, banners, puppetry, and other creative expressions of solidarity messaging while simultaneously teaching graphic design skills to the Salvadorans. Later she joined a news subcommittee tasked with reading multiple daily periodicals, combing the news for information about the US involvement in Central America. They synthesized information into short paragraphs to hand off to public facing members attending public forums such as university teach ins, spokesperson at rallies, press conferences and demonstrations. Additionally, the committee worked closely within coalitions and with the Ecumenical Council on Churches and churches who had declared their building a sanctuary for families and political refugees fleeing their country’s oppression. 

Tired of the endless L.A. traffic and freeways, Debra moved to San Francisco in 1986 working as a graphic artist. She married, raised two daughters and volunteered in the public schools as an art instructor. In 1999, she began working with trial lawyers (litigators) providing information graphic presentations to keep jurors awake, umm, persuade them towards the best outcome for her clients. In 2004, one of her clients introduced her to a jury consultant, Karen Jo Koonan. They became fast friends, sharing a connection to Shreveport.

In 2016, after voicing a desire to become more active, Karen Jo recruited her to join the dinner committee of the National Lawyers Guild local chapter. Debra offered her skills as a graphic artist and began designing the testimonial booklet. In 2018, she was elected to the board and in a weak moment in 2020, she accepted the nomination as treasurer. She is most comfortable working behind the scenes fueling (i.e. fundraising) organizations for folx who prefer to be public facing activist. Financially speaking, black is her favorite color. If you want to help prevent her insomnia, become a sustainer! 

 Deanna “Dee” Mouton (they/she) is a San Francisco native born in the Mission District. They identify as a queer Black, Latine, Native American (Andean and Blackfeet), and first-generation college and law school graduate, and the child of an immigrant mother. 

Dee is an activist, advocate, organizer, and speaker about intersectional issues, including prisoners’ rights, the housing crisis in the Bay Area and the rights of the unhoused, and the empowerment of young attorneys of color who also identify as queer and/or first-generation. They use every opportunity to advocate, help represent, or provide know-your-rights to those in need—whether that be on a family trip to Denver, CO, with folks unlawfully arrested at Stop Cop City in Atlanta, GA, or with displaced unhoused people in the Bay Area at Wood Street and the largest curbside community in East Oakland (the E 12th street encampment). Dee has also provided invaluable support to the Santa Rita Jail Hotline, which they helped start. They wrote the scripts and created several documents to ensure the success of the hotline, worked on Babu v. Ahern—a class action complaint on behalf of prisoners in Santa Rita—, interviewed over 100 prisoners held in Santa Rita Jail, and worked with Restore Oakland to help stop the expansion of Santa Rita, a historic victory. Dee has also interned in criminal defense with NLG members.

Dee first learned about the NLG during law school at Progressive Law Day. Since then, they have held numerous leadership roles with the NLG including. They were an at-large member on the NLG-SFBA chapter, the Vice President of the NLG-SFBA chapter until December 2025, the NLG Far West Regional Representative, and a member on the NLG National Executive Committee (NEC). Dee has also supported and contributed to the Guild through strategic planning for National NLG leadership events, development of the Bay Area law student chapters, and fundraised for the NLG-SFBA at sustainer events. In their role as Far West Rep, Dee conducted statewide Legal Observer trainings and taught at the National NLG's Law4thePeople convention in Alabama on unhoused rights and how the NLG can become more involved in helping the unhoused crisis. In the last year, Dee helped found the first mobile legal clinic for unhoused folks and has conducted four legal clinics. They also helped organize the first free store of its kind in the Mission, and is helping ensure its success. 

Currently, Dee continues their advocacy including by conducting Know Your Rights trainings and tabling around the Bay Area.

• KEYNOTE SPEAKER •

Mahmoud Khalil was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria. Mahmoud has a Bachelor's degree in computer science from the Lebanese American University in Beirut and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Columbia University in NYC.

On March 8, 2025, Mahmoud was unlawfully arrested, without a warrant, at his apartment in Manhattan. His arrest was part of a campaign by the Trump administration to silence the free speech of those speaking up for justice in Palestine and against the genocide in Gaza. The Trump administration cited the baseless claim of Secretary of State Rubio, that Mahmoud’s presence in the US could potentially harm US foreign policy, as its justification for his arrest.

Mahmoud was taken into custody outside of his apartment in NY and immediately whisked away to New Jersey and then to rural Louisiana (where ICE sends people so their cases are before the conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals). Mahmoud spent 104 days (including missing the birth of his son) until the New Jersey District Court Judge hearing his habeas case ordered his release.

Mahmoud has been represented by a team of lawyers including San Francisco Guild law firm Van Der Hout LLP including Marc Van Der Hout, Johnny Sinodis, Oona Cahill and Kyra Lillian.

Since his arrest, Mahmoud has continued to speak out in support of the rights of Palestinians and against the genocide in Gaza.

Mahmoud is an inspiring speaker on the interconnection between the fight for Palestinian liberation and the global struggle for justice and liberation.

The San Francisco National Lawyers Guild is honored to welcome Mahmoud Khalil as our Keynote speaker at our 2026 Testimonial Dinner.