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About
Mission
History
Today and Tomorrow
Who We Are / What We Do
More about the Milwaukee chapter
Who We Are / What We Do
The Guild is a local organization, as well as national organization. Local Guild chapters are
active on a wide range of issues, from police misconduct to environmental concerns to homelessness.
Our chapter
structure allows members to become active in the struggles of their own communities, to support
each other on a grassroots level and our committee structure make it possible to play a role in
national political, social justice and legal issues. The Guild has more than 5,000 members and
tens of thousands of active supporters, both within the legal profession and without. NLG
Chapters can be found in most states, in all major cities and on more than 100 law school
campuses.
This phrase from the NLG Preamble to the Guild's Constitution that began this short description
of a complex history makes clear that: The purpose of the National Lawyers Guild is ...to serve
the people, rather than public or private entities that do not put human needs first. By stating
clearly that ...human rights shall be held more sacred than property interests, the NLG Preamble
recognizes that the economic and social needs should also be considered "rights" and that these
rights often conflict with the interests of propertied elites in all nations. Adherence to these
ideas resulted in charges of "subversion" during the anti-Communist hysteria of the 1950s and 1960s.
Today, many of these same ideas are embodied in the United Nations International Declaration of
Human Rights, many international agreements to which the U.S. is a party (or should be), and are
being incorporated into 21st Century constitutional theory and practice.
These are the same principles have informed the Guild's approach to domestic legal, political and
social justice issues for over 60 years. These ideas have made possible the Guild's existence as
a multi-issue organization. Rather than focusing on narrow areas of professional practice, the NLG
see that a wide range of social, political and legal issues, such as racism, sexism, homophobia,
environmental destruction, immigrant-bashing, labor issues, voting rights, etc. are intertwined with
questions of economic justice and cannot be solved through focus on specific "legal practice" issues,
or through the legal system alone. As a result, in addition to belonging to other professional
organizations with a specific practice or professional focus, NLG lawyers, non-lawyers, students,
academics, legislators, jurists and activists from a wide range law-related work find ways to make
common cause, through the National Lawyers Guild.
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414.273.1040 ::: aheitzer@igc.org ::: 606 W. Wisconsin Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53203 Suite 1706
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