637 South Dearborn Street, Third Floor
Chicago, Illinois 60605
Ph: 312-913-0039
Fax: 312-913-0045
contact@nlgchicago.org
www.nlgchicago.org
"...to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests."
The National Lawyers Guild is dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system. Through its members -- lawyers, law students, jailhouse lawyers, and
legal workers united in chapters and committees -- the Guild works locally, nationally and internationally as an effective political and social force in the service of the people.
Our aims:
. to eliminate racism;
. to safeguard and strengthen the rights of workers, women, farmers and minority groups, upon whom the welfare of the entire nation depends;
. to maintain and protect our civil rights and liberties in the face of persistent attacks upon them;
. to use the law as an instrument for the protection of the people, rather than for their repression.
More about the NLG
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NLG
History
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* Capsule History
* "About the Guild"
By NLG past president Peter Erlinder
* We Are Family
By NLG past president Paul Harris
* Guild Luminaries
* Famous Cases...coming soon!
The National Lawyers Guild was founded in 1937, as an alternative to the American Bar Association, which was racially segregated.
For 70 years, NLG members have been in the forefront of the American people's struggles for real democracy, for economic and social justice, and
against oppression and discrimination based on race, ethnicity, immigration status, class, gender, or sexual orientation.
The Guild admits to full membership law students, legal workers (non-attorneys working in the law), and "jailhouse lawyers" (inmate legal
experts). The Guild elected its first African-American president in the early 1950s and its first female president in the 1960s. The first
legal-worker president was elected in 1996.
1930s — The first Guild lawyers supported FDR's New Deal; defended the labor movement; & fought Jim Crow. Guild members volunteered to fight in
Spain against Franco & the fascists.
1940s — Nuremburg to Chicago: Guild lawyers helped prosecute Nazis; & litigated Hansberry v. Lee, the case that doomed Jim Crow laws in Northern
cities.
1945 — Present at the founding of the U.N.: The Guild was one of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) selected by the U.S. government to
represent the American people at the United Nations founding conference in San Francisco.
Late 40s & 50s — Guild members founded the first national plaintiffs' personal injury bar association (which became the American Trial Lawyers
Association); & pioneered storefront law offices for low-income clients (which became the model for the community-based offices of the Legal
Services Corporation).
McCarthyism — Guild members represented the Hollywood Ten, the Rosenbergs, and thousands of victims of the witch-hunts. Refusing to require
"loyalty oaths," the Guild was slapped with the "subversive" label. (The Justice Department admitted the charges were baseless after ten years of
federal litigation. The new label is "terrorist.")
1960s — Guild members represented the families of murdered civil rights activists Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman; challenged the seating of the
all-white Mississippi delegation at the 1964 Democratic Convention; defended thousands of civil rights activists; & litigated ground-breaking
Supreme Court cases such as: Dombrowski v. Pfister, Goldberg v. Kelly, & Monell v. Dept. of Public Services.
60s & 70s — Guild members represented Vietnam War draft resisters (& had offices in Asia for GIs); defended antiwar activists and the Chicago 7;
argued U.S. v. U.S. District Court, the Supreme Court case that led to Nixon's downfall; resisted the COINTELPRO moves against the Black Panther
Party, the American Indian Movement, and the Puerto Rican independence movement; & helped bring about the Freedom of Information Act & restrictions
on government spying on civilians.
1970s — The NLG supported self-determination for Palestine; opposed apartheid in South Africa (at a time when the U.S. Government still called
Nelson Mandella a "terrorist"); & began the fight against the blockade of Cuba.
1980s - The Guild pioneered the "necessity defense" & use of international law to defend anti-nuclear activists; founded the National Immigration
Project; organized "People's Tribunals" exposing the illegality of U.S. intervention in Central America (which helped lead to the "Iran-Contra"
scandal); & won a judgment against the FBI for illegal political surveillance.
1990s — Guild members mobilized opposition to the First Iraq War; defended Haitian refugees; opposed the U.S. embargo of Cuba; developed new civil
rights litigation strategies on employment, education, housing, and health care rights; pioneered legal theories holding foreign human rights
violators accountable in U.S. courts; worked on "globalization" issues several years before Seattle; & opposed NAFTA.
Early 2000s — The Guild defended anti-globalization, environmental, and labor activists; encourages cross-border labor organizing that exposes the
abuses in the maquiladoras; & founded the Project for Human, Economic and Environmental Defense (HEED) and the Committee on Corporations, the
Constitution & Human Rights began to work on "globalization" issues.
Post 9/11 — Guild members tried to turn back the worst aspects of the USA PATRIOT Act; are representing Guantanamo detainees; litigated against
military tribunals; are fighting to preserve civil rights & liberties; & demanding that the U.S. government respect the Constitution &
international law at home and abroad. Guild members defend activists, represent immigrants facing deportation, & testify in Federal & state
legislatures against civil liberties cutbacks. Join us today!
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