The NLGR is the Guild’s intellectual journal, which aims to publish timely, insightful articles that address and respond to the interests and needs of the progressive legal and activist communities. Our readership includes lawyers, scholars, legal workers, jailhouse lawyers, and activists. The NLGR board is composed of an inter-generational group of Guild members, including attorneys, law professors, law students, and legal workers.

The NLGR seeks a new Editor in Chief and a Layout Editor. To apply, please send a resume and statement of interest to nlgreview.execeditor@nlg.org by May 15, 2021. Applications will be reviewed by a selection committee of the NLG Review Editorial Board.

Due to staffing shortages and other logistic issues related to COVID, the NLGR has been on hiatus since late Fall 2020. The new EIC and Layout Editor will join NLGR editorial board members and Guild staff to re-vision and re-launch the journal this spring.

For 48 years, the NLG has been funding the summer work of law students and legal workers seeking to build their progressive lawyering skills. The Haywood Burns Fellowships for Social and Economic Justice provide an alternative vision of what lawyers can do: a vision that too few law students are exposed to during their three years in the classroom.

In the words of Jilisa Milton, NLG National Vice President, “Being a Haywood Burns Fellow in 2018 was one of the most impactful ways the NLG supported me as a black, feminist, southern movement activist trying to find my way as a law student at the University of Alabama School of Law.”

In this political climate, the need has never been greater for a new generation of committed people’s lawyers. Funding for social justice legal internships is virtually non-existent as students continue to face rising law school costs and limited employment prospects. Support of the Fellowships is more essential than ever.

Demonstrations in the Bay Area

On Friday, April 23, three Legal Observers traveled to San Francisco City Hall for a vigil and direct action organized by Faith in Action. Organizers demanded that the Mayor's Office of Housing honor the approximately 7600 requests for rental assistance, made by individuals who have been waiting for 6 months or more and whose requests may be discarded as the City transfers to a new program. Organizers occupied the lobby of City Hall; there were no arrests.

On Saturday, April 24, Legal Observers mobilized for seven actions in Oakland, Hayward, Berkeley, Alameda, and San Francisco.

• In Downtown Oakland, one Legal Observer supported a rally to free Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has been infected with COVID-19 and recently underwent heart surgery.
• In West Oakland, a rally to celebrate Mumia’s birthday and honor the legacy of Huey Newton was supported by the Demonstrations Hotline. There was a heavy police presence, which included vans waiting to transport arrestees, but no incidents and no arrests.
• In Hayward, a rally and healing space organized by the Hayward Community Coalition was supported by the Demonstrations Hotline. Community members gathered to grieve loved ones lost to police. There were no incidents.
• In Berkeley, two Legal Observers supported a march in defense of 1921 Walnut Street and People’s Park. There were no arrests or incidents and little police presence.
• In Alameda, two Legal Observers supported a youth-led march against police brutality and the recent murder of Mario A. González by Alameda Police Department. There were no arrests or incidents.

Also on Saturday, April 24, three Legal Observers supported a march and rally to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the Frisco 5 Hunger Strike and to demand that SFPD be defunded. The action culminated with an occupation in front of City Hall which lasted until early morning on Monday, April 26, when SFPD evicted occupiers from the site. Despite the eviction, there were no arrests.

On Sunday, April 25, a celebration of the 52nd anniversary of People’s Park was supported by the Demonstrations Hotline. The event featured vendors, local musicians, artists, and speeches by long-term park users and residents. There were no incidents.

Santa Rita Jail Hotline Seeking Volunteers!

The Santa Rita Jail Hotline will host another Hotline Worker Training in early May and is looking for volunteers who are interested to become a part of the project!

Please share widely:

Hotline Flyer

Social Media Slides

Most recently, the SRJ Hotline directly confronted the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) regarding their refusal to provide essential medical care to Randy Harris, currently incarcerated in Santa Rita Jail. For more information about Randy’s situation, see the Thursday, 4/22 press advisory from NLG. Randy is far from the only person experiencing severe medical neglect in Santa Rita Jail. But the SRJ Hotline needs more support from dedicated hotline workers to support people inside and to maintain pressure on ACSO.

Hotline Workers take calls from Santa Rita Jail, collect testimonies from callers, and correspond with prisoners. Through the Hotline, there are also opportunities to get involved with advocacy letters to ACSO and public officials, as well as participate in efforts to end incarceration and promote alternatives.

Now is an especially critical time to support our incarcerated community as the US Department of Justice opens up an investigation regarding the abuse of people with mental illness in both Santa Rita Jail and John George Psychiatric Hospital. One hotline correspondent emphasizes that state-generated reports on carceral abuse severely underestimate the extent of the mental health crisis, because the Santa Rita Jail actively traumatizes people even if they did not have a preexisting mental health issue.

Please fill out the volunteer form to learn more about the upcoming training. Contact srjhotline@nlgsf.org with questions.

Photo Credit: SF Poster Syndicate

The Immigration Committee will continue to fight against tech/state surveillance and move towards building the bridge between the abolition movement and the migrant justice movement.

The Public Advocacy and Education subcommittee plans to reach out to Law Students Against ICE and NLG student chapters who are fighting to hold legal research databases, LexisNexis and Westlaw, accountable for selling information to ICE that have put undocumented community members in danger. The subcommittee looks to have active members from either or both of these collectives attend our next meeting to inform them on the current status of the campaign and how this Chapter can uplift/platform their calls for accountability. If you are an active member of Law Students Against ICE and/or an NLG student chapter, please contact migrantjustice@nlgsf.org.

The Decriminalization, Decarceration, and Abolition work group will create an outreach list of individual organizers, legal workers, collectives, and organizations who are currently working towards abolition in the immigration justice movement. They hope to recruit people into their subcommittee and/or have them attend a meeting in order to inform where their efforts are most needed and how they can apply them. With the upcoming Shut ‘Em Down Demo happening on August 21st to September 9th, the call for a building abolition movement across realms of incarceration is growing and the subcommittee intends to join it.

If you are a lawyer, legal worker, law student, jailhouse lawyer, and/or immigration advocate interested in joining our Immigration Justice Committee, please contact: migrantjustice@nlgsf.org.

Immigration Resources

The ILRC has created an Immigration Preparedness Toolkit for those who are looking to assess their immigration options, learn how to create an action plan, and develop a strategy that works for them. 

Download their immigration toolkit here. You can also download the Spanish version of the Toolkit here.

The Youth Caucus welcomes new members and prepares to create resources for young people, as protests begin to rise and state violence continues. The Know Your Rights group continues to adapt the KYR Training Session for young people and we aim to have it finalized by May, for more young people and our partner organizations that work with youth, to utilize as demonstrations continue and state repression reacts. The Cops off Campus group will work on their collaboration with local community organizations, and plan a town hall in order for community members to share their concerns on the presence of officers remaining on campus and discuss how the school budget could be reoriented towards more useful resources (i.e. mental health counselors, ethnic studies curriculum). We are also planning to connect young people who attend the town hall to the various training sessions we are launching for youth, so that they can be equipped and feel prepared. The work group will also begin to construct a #MeToo pamphlet that will inform young people on how to identify abuse on campus and in juvenile detention.

For more information on the NLG-SFBA Youth Caucus:

Age Requirement: 14-24 years old

School Requirements: None

We formed 2 work groups within the Youth Caucus focused on different areas of youth organizing.

Work Groups:

• Know Your Rights Group: This group will focus on creating materials to educate young people on their rights and how best to protect themselves either on campus or at a protest.
  
• Cops Off Campus Group: This group will focus on building campaign efforts to get cops off school campuses, as well as educating youth on alternative practices and resources for harm reduction (i.e. mental health, peer liaisons, etc.)

Our standing meetings will be on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 3pm on Zoom. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, May 4th at 3pm.

If you are interested in joining or supporting our Youth Caucus please contact our Program Coordinator, Savannah, here: savannah@nlgsf.org.