In 2019, the following offices are up for election: Secretary and Interim Treasurer (see below for descriptions).
Unopposed elections: If candidates are unopposed, they are elected by acclamation at the plenary.
Contested elections: If the election is contested, it will go to a ballot of the entire current membership.
See below for 2019 candidate statements!
Secretary Job Description
Secretary is a new position created last year by Constitutional Amendment. It is a three-year position and the term will end at the 2022 convention. This position is responsible for recording and sharing the institutional knowledge of the organization, and participating on the National Executive Council (NEC) and Executive Council (EC).
The Secretary is elected every three years by the national NLG membership. This position is responsible for recording and sharing the institutional knowledge of the organization, and participating on the National Executive Council (NEC) and Executive Council (EC). Tasks of this position include:
NEC Meetings
The Secretary attends all NEC meetings and is responsible for either taking or assigning notetaking functions. After the meeting, the Secretary edits and shares the notes with NEC members in a timely fashion and ensures they are added to the NEC Resources maintained by the National Office. The Secretary also assists the President in scheduling NEC/EC meetings and preparing NEC/EC agendas.
Institutional Knowledge
The Secretary will familiarize themselves with the documents and practices of the Guild, and assist the President and National Office in sharing these resources with NEC members.
NEC Responsibilities
Like all NEC members, the Secretary is expected to attend quarterly board meetings and participate in NEC email discussions. They will be responsible for reporting on their work once a year, and fundraising $500/year though either giving or soliciting donations.
Executive Council Responsibilities
Between NEC meetings, being on the EC includes participation in conference calls, which typically occur monthly. In addition, it includes regularly checking email to vote on and discuss endorsements and other issues between NEC meeting. Before and during board meetings, the EC sets the agenda for the meeting and sometimes helps to facilitate the meeting.
Anti-oppression
The Guild has committed to becoming an organization that addresses and ultimately eliminates internal oppression, as well as engaging in anti-oppression work outside of the organization. As with all NLG leadership, the Secretary is expected to contribute ideas related to furthering these goals. They will support the work of committees dedicated to representing and supporting underrepresented communities, including but not limited to TUPOCC, Disability Justice, Queer Caucus, and the Anti-Racism Committee. This commitment includes undertaking an annual anti-oppression training with the rest of the NEC.
NOTE: Travel costs to NEC meetings are covered by the National Office budget. When unable to attend meetings in person, the Secretary will either participate remotely or assign notetaking to other NEC members.
Secretary Candidate Statements:
Andi Pla:
Secretary Candidate Statement
I first became involved with the NLG as an undergraduate in 2016-2017. As the President of the Labor and Social Justice Club, I found myself in a dispute with right-wing organizations on campus and national media groups that led to retaliation from the entire institution. A mentor, alumni, and member of the LA chapter of the NLG stepped up to support our organization against the school and defend our rights as students. I have maintained my involvement with the NLG ever since.
In 2017 I began Law School at the University of Oregon and became Co-Director of our student NLG Chapter in the Spring of my 1L year. I had to learn the institutional ropes in order to get the chapter recognized as an official student organization and we tripled in membership the next year. In my 2L year I remained director and served as a student representative on the National Labor & Employment Committee. We organized KYR Trainings, Detention Center and Border Volunteer Trips, Speakers, and a series of Week Against Mass Incarceration events. This year we transitioned our leadership from hierarchal to a 5-member Board of Directors due to our growth in membership.
The NLG has given me a community outside of the traditional legal education that reinforces hierarchy, oppression, and assimilation. I constantly strive to support as many fellow students in withstanding the pressures to abandon moral and political values and be a resource for connecting them to the larger community of radical lawyers.
I am committed to the values of the Guild and plan to further my role within the organization in my transition out of law school and beyond. The Secretary position is a great way for me expand my knowledge and responsibilities within the NLG and contribute to the internal goals towards structural changes in the law that serve to protect the human and social rights of the people.
Andi Pla
D. Gregor
D. Gregor (she/her)
Candidate statement for Secretary
The NLG has been my activist home, and legal home, for over twenty years. I have been involved in governance and infrastructure capacities from local chapters, to committees, to national leadership. I have long been fascinated by and collected the history and institutional memories of the Guild, and participated in the NEC. Secretary seems an excellent fit for my skills.
In the past, I’ve faithfully served in the following roles:
– NextGen committee representative to the NEC
– National Vice President
– board member, Massachusetts, and Los Angeles chapters
– Resolutions Committee
– accessibility, and bathroom accessibility, coordinator for multiple national conventions
– interim Executive Director (national)
My legal work is primarily focused in criminal defense for activists, and mass defense. I am also an experienced street medic, and have acted in a liaison role between legal and medical support at many gatherings.
I would be honored to serve the Guild as Secretary and would appreciate your vote.
Treasurer (Interim)
Interim Treasurer is a two-year position and the term will end at the 2021 convention. This position is responsible for managing the NLG budget, finances, and fundraising plan, as well as participating on the National Executive Council (NEC) and Executive Council (EC). Tasks of this position include:
NEC Responsibilities: Attends all NEC meetings. Chair NEC Finance Committee, and set up meetings of committee between NEC meetings. Author quarterly reports to NEC and National Office regarding finances. Support President in Fundraising/Development Committee.
Budget and Finances: Manage finances and budget. Plan and execute the budget process and contracts for Annual Convention. Work with President and National Office to develop comprehensive fundraising strategy and capacity to implement. Work with National Office on tax reporting. Coordinate annual audit with contractor.
Executive Council Responsibilities: Between NEC meetings, being on the EC includes participation in regular conference calls, which typically occur monthly. In addition, it includes regularly checking their NLG email account to vote on and discuss endorsements and other issues between NEC meeting. Before and during board meetings, the EC sets the agenda for the NEC meeting and sometimes helps to facilitate the meeting.
Anti-oppression: The Guild has committed to becoming an organization that addresses and ultimately eliminates internal oppression, as well as engaging in anti-oppression work outside of the organization. As with all NLG leadership, the Treasurer is expected to contribute ideas related to furthering these goals. They will support the work of committees dedicated to representing and supporting underrepresented communities, including but not limited to TUPOCC, Disability Justice, Queer Caucus, and the Anti-Racism Committee. This commitment includes undertaking an annual anti-oppression training with the rest of the NEC.
NOTE: Travel costs to NEC meetings are covered by the National Office budget.
Treasurer Candidate Statements:
Amreet Sandhu:
Dear Elena,
Please accept this as my formal candidate statement for the current Interim Treasurer position on the National Lawyers Guild (NLG)’s National Executive Council (NEC). As you are aware, I have more than a decade of service to the NLG in a variety of roles. In 2006, I began working with my student chapter at Lewis & Clark Law School as a Legal Observer, and participated in projects led by the larger Portland, Oregon Chapter including contribution to United Nations Committee to End Racial Discrimination (CERD) Report. A decade later, in 2016, I began working to create a formal chapter in Sacramento, California, as our local group had previously been a legal observer group for the San Francisco, California Chapter. For my work in building a strong chapter with active and engaged membership including local student chapters, I earned the 2017 NLG Legal Worker of the Year recognition at the 80th Anniversary National Convention in Washington, D.C., raising generous NLG Dinner Journal funding in honor of my award.
Since then, the NEC recruited me to serve as Interim Chair of the National Queer Caucus until I was able to recruit a permanent Chair, anti-oppression co-trainer at the 2018 The United People of Color Caucus (TUPOCC) workshop, and for my current role as Vice President of the Far West Region, which includes Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, and California. In my role as Far West Regional Vice President, I organized a three-day regional conference with the Central Valley, California Chapter offering a keynote speaker, eleven panels, twelve workshops, and five social events for more than 140 participants. As a member of the NEC, I have met all my required duties, taken on ambitious projects, provided support to fellow board members in their projects, and helped raise more than $58k for the National Office Staff. I plan on applying this same level of enthusiasm, passion, and results-oriented leadership to the Interim Treasurer role so that we may provide the very best experience to our members and communities nation and worldwide. I am happy to answer any question you may have.
With appreciation,
Amreet Sandhu, J.D.
Sasha Novis:
I joined the Guild as a “Law for the People” intern at the San Francisco office in 2012, and have been a dedicated member ever since. I consider the NLG family: they are the reason I went to law school, the reason I stayed in school, and an inspiration to continue advocating for human rights over property interests.
For the past two years, I have had the privilege of serving on the NLG National Executive Committee as your Student National Vice President (SNVP). I have been an active board member, collaborating on several projects, participating in the Fundraising Committee, and organizing and supporting student chapters across the country to help grow our membership and build opportunities for the future of the Guild. One of my proudest achievements was creating a new regional NLG student conference: “Liberation Lawyering.” For two years in a row, this innovative event has brought together more than 150 activists, attorneys, and law students, to collaborate on pressing issues.
It would be an honor and a privilege to continue my service on the NLG National Executive Committe
Student National Vice President
There are two NLG Student National Vice Presidents (SNVP). One is elected each year at the NLG convention, and they serve staggered terms. In the second year of their term, they are on the Executive Committee (discussed in greater detail below).
Representing and supporting students
The job of the Student National Vice President is partially laid out in the constitution. The SNVP shall represent the interests of the student membership of the National Lawyers Guild. In fulfilling this duty, the SNVP shall:
- Maintain ongoing communication with NLG law school student representatives, and students who contact the NLG
- Determine and represent the interests of students between and beyond conventions by attending events in their area (and outside of their area when possible), and requesting input on topics when appropriate.
- Assist in student chapter growth, building resources for students and connecting students with wider resources
- Assist the national office staff, including but not limited to the Education and Research Director and the Membership Director, with brainstorming about recruitment and retention of students and other issues related to building and maintaining a vibrant student membership base.
- participate in conference calls with the Education and Research Director, as needed, between NEC meetings.
- facilitate the Student Caucus at the yearly convention.
- Work with the CB King Award Committee to select the annual award recipient
Working with the NEC
There are a number of concrete tasks that the SNVP must complete in relation to the NEC, including
- Attend quarterly NEC meetings, as is constitutionally mandated, and if they for any reason cannot attend, inform the NEC and their fellow SNVP in as timely a manner as possible.
- Prepare quarterly student reports for the NEC meetings that detail the activities of the SNVP, fundraising efforts, membership building efforts, and give a report back on student activities across the country.
- Send a summary of the NEC meeting to students via the student listserv.
- Fundraise $500 annually cash or in kind (ie memberships)
Anti-oppression
The Guild has committed itself to anti-oppression work, internally and externally. This means that the Guild is committed to becoming an organization that addresses and ultimately eliminates internal oppression, as well as engaging in anti-oppression work outside of the organization. Students are integral to this work. As with all NLG leadership, the SNVP is expected to contribute ideas related to furthering these goals. The SNVP will support the work of committees dedicated to representing and supporting underrepresented communities, including but not limited to TUPOCC, Disability Rights Committee, Queer Caucus, and the Anti-Sexism Committee. This support shall include but not be limited to taking an active role in supporting anti-oppression trainings at NEC meetings and at national conventions and supporting the Anti-Racism Committee in its ongoing work to build an anti-racist organization.
Student National Vice President Candidate Statements:
Luna Martinez Gomez
Berkeley Law NLG
For students committed to a career in the public interest, in movement lawyering, or in other anti-oppressive practices, law school can be an alienating space. Its obligations often leave little space for us to articulate the relationship between our values, our career aspirations, and our future legal practice. Mapping out careers as progressive attorneys is not as straightforward a project as (even temporary) paths in corporate law. Without the privilege of high predictability on our side, there are a few lighthouses along the way to provide guidance and support in our search. That’s what the NLG has provided for me since my first semester of law school. From Dis-Orientation to Legal Observing trainings, from coordinating protests and open letters with other chapters to hosting Progressive Law Day and Week Against Mass Incarceration, the NLG has allowed me to connect the theoretical content I’ve learned in law school to the struggles outside of the classroom. Just as importantly, it has provided me with the language, community, and space to unlearn the “training for hierarchy” that pervades the pedagogy and institutional practices of law schools.
As a first-generation college graduate and queer Latina, I am committed to practices that build collective capacity and power, especially for historically marginalized communities. Since starting law school, I have devoted significant time and effort to working with groups that support an overarching project of using the law to advance progressive social change. I see the SNVP position as an extension of this service. I look forward to working with other students to engage in an exercise of defining the standards we want to hold ourselves accountable to as we enter a profession with an unforgivably high entry barrier despite its enormous impact on society. It would be an exciting honor to be a vehicle for the needs and voices of law students while furthering the NLG’s mission.
Mariah Kauder
Drake Law NLG
I am writing to express my intent to run for the NLG Student National Vice President position. I am a 2L student at Drake University Law School in Des Moines, Iowa, where I started a student chapter of the Guild during the spring semester of my 1L year. In this short time, I have faced many of the same challenges being experienced at chapters across the country. For example, many chapters are being revitalized, and I now have first-hand knowledge about the key steps in this process. Moreover, I have been working to navigate a conservative environment at my law school, sustain engagement with peers who initially expressed interest, and act independently without an active state chapter to support us. Amidst these conditions, my team and I have planned a slate of events and activities for this year, including documentary screenings, as well as Know Your Rights and Legal Observer trainings. We have also started sending out a community calendar to keep students plugged into general events and volunteer opportunities happening in the area.
I would love to share the strategies my team and I have developed to confront these challenges and continue learning from my peers around the country. I am confident that my experience with the Guild thus far, as well as my general resourcefulness and persistence, have prepared me to facilitate this exchange of knowledge and support other new and existing law student chapters in their times of success and struggle. In addition, I feel personally inspired to take on this leadership position because I struggled initially with staying true to my values and accepted a corporate “big law” (big for Iowa) internship during my 1L year. I was incredibly disappointed in myself but had a difficult time finding others who understood this frustration. I learned about the Guild shortly thereafter and knew I needed to start a chapter on my campus. Now I want to take on the SNVP role in order to ensure that Guild student chapters across the country can support law students like myself no matter where they are in their journeys. I am passionate about the work of the Guild, prepared to take on the challenge of this role, and would be honored to have your vote.
