As I sit here writing my last National Lawyers Guild president’s column, I am realizing just how little opportunity there has been to stop and think. It is just now in going over reports and articles we’ve written, coalitions we’ve been part of, and movements we’ve supported, that I am understanding how much the NLG does. We are an organization of organizers: we are truly in the streets, in the courtrooms, and in the (virtual) meetings. We build, we grow, we fight.
We do this in our 65 local chapters and 120 student chapters across the country, with our more than 8,200 members totals. We have been doing it since 1937, and we will keep on doing it for many more decades to come. Last year, we coordinated legal support for 20,000 people arrested while protesting for Black lives. We produced webinars on topics ranging from Fighting for the Release of Detained Immigrants During the COVID-19 Pandemic and COVID-19 and the Urgent Struggle for Homes for All, Staying Radical in Law School and the Federal Repression of Activists & Their Lawyers. We held a digital convention with 1,000 attendees and two weeks of radical programming. We’ve had dozens of DisOrientations for law students, and law-student-run Week Against Mass Incarceration events.
Reflecting on all of this, it is so clear to me why the National Lawyers Guild is my political home. I am here to do the work. So is our staff and so our members. Although it will no longer be as your president, I will always be here with all of you, as we show up and fight back. Thank you all for being comrades and supporters.
In solidarity and gratitude,
Elena