Extralegal Observations of a Protest Arrest

By Andy Izenson, NLG-NYC The criminal complaint associated with my arrest dated 4/29/2015, lists the following charges: PL 195.05 Obstructing Governmental Administration in the Second Degree PL 205.30 Resisting Arrest PL 240.20(5) Disorderly Conduct PL 240.20(6) Disorderly Conduct It says that I attempted to grab two officers who were making an arrest, and that when […]

Facing Unprecedented Challenges, NLG Prepares for 2017 and Beyond

By Pooja Gehi, NLG Executive Director As the National Lawyers Guild enters into our 80th year, we face a political landscape more outwardly repressive than we’ve seen in decades. The election of Donald Trump to the US presidency marks a renewed legitimization of racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, misogyny, anti-Semitism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of […]

Meet the 2016 Haywood Burns Fellows: Mark Shervington

By Mark Shervington I would never have imagined in my wildest dreams that I would ever be so honored and privileged as I have been to be awarded a 2016 NLG Haywood Burns Memorial Fellowship for Social and Economic Justice with the Parole Preparation Project (P3) of the New York City Chapter of the National […]

Meet the 2016 Haywood Burns Fellows: Crystal Peters

By Crystal Peters The Center for Popular Democracy is a high-impact national organization that partners with community-based organizations across the country to support their efforts to advance a pro-immigrant, pro-worker, racial justice agenda. Its staff of 50 includes 10 attorneys who provide high-quality legal support to community campaigns on a wide range of issues. As […]

Meet the 2016 Haywood Burns Fellows: Daniel Fryer

By Daniel Fryer This summer I was given the opportunity to work as a summer legal clerk at the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama. This experience expanded my development and exposure to the tools available to change the basic structure of our current political and economic system. “The opposite of poverty,” EJI’s founder […]

Meet the 2016 Haywood Burns Fellows: Joelle Eliza Mercado Lingat

By Joelle Eliza Mercado Lingat My experience with Northeast New Jersey Legal Services was incredibly enriching and powerful. My internship was based on the high need for expungement work in Hudson County, particularly my hometown of Jersey City. Although other agencies providing expungement services usually pay for a criminal background check, our funding does not […]

Meet the 2016 Haywood Burns Fellows: Martha Laura Garcia

By Martha Laura Garcia Few things said summer like a good old county fair: the delicious smell of dangerously unhealthy food, kids laughing and shrieking to the tune of the carnival ride sounds, and the hope that maybe that year you’d win a giant stuffed animal in one of the games. As a kid, you […]

Meet the 2016 Haywood Burns Fellows: Anya Morgan

By Anya Morgan This summer, I was a legal intern at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, where I worked primarily with the Prisoner Justice Project, and secondarily with the Survival and Self-Determination Project. Over the course of my internship, I was given the opportunity to work on a variety of cases and projects. While working […]

LPHR, PHROC, NLG Submit Complaint to UN on Travel Ban, other Repercussions against Palestinian Human Rights Defender Omar Barghouti

LONDON, RAMALLAH, NEW YORK—Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR), the Palestinian Human Rights Organisations Council (PHROC) and the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) have submitted a joint complaint to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders concerning the Israeli authorities travel ban imposed on Mr Omar Barghouti and other adverse repercussions […]

Baltimore Needs More Than Just Indictments

by Oren Nimni, TUPOCC Chair and Sharlyn Grace, National Vice President As police violence against Black community members and protesters continued this week in Baltimore, we were again reminded why we are proud to be a part of the National Lawyers Guild. The NLG quickly worked with other groups to mobilize legal support for the […]