Calling all NLG Chicago leaders and active committee members!

Join us this Friday afternoon for a facilitation training with Karen Jo Koonan. Gain some great skills about effective communication and organizing, and help us move our organization forward. Food will be provided!

RSVP to chicago@nlg.org today. We need to know how many treats to get!

WHEN: Friday, March 8
4:30 – 6:00 p.m.

WHERE: People’s Law Office, 1180 N. Milwaukee
(Blue-Division)

WHAT: Facilitation Training with Karen Jo Koonan

RSVP! chicago@nlg.org

Karen Jo Koonan has been active in the Guild since early 1969 when she and Peter Haberfeld were the first staff people in the Bay Area Regional Office. In 1970 she co-founded the Bar Sinister in Los Angeles, one of the first law collectives, and she became active in the L.A. Chapter. She organized the first Lawyers Guild delegation to Cuba in late 1970 after cutting cane on the second Venceremos Brigade. Karen Jo was part of the National Office Collective in 1974-75.
In 1980, Karen Jo moved from L.A. back to the Bay Area where she has been active in the local chapter, often serving on the Executive Board and working on various other committees and projects. The Chapter awarded Karen Jo the “Unsung Heroine” award in 1990, she was the honoree at the Chapter’s Annual Dinner in 1997 and, along with the other former women national presidents, she received the Law for the People Award at the 70th National Convention in 2007.

In addition to her Guild work, Karen Jo worked in the civil rights movement in Mississippi for seven months in 1964-65 and was active in the anti-Vietnam War movement. She has worked as a machinist and assembly line worker and has raised two daughters who are both now in college. She has been active in her community and was a Commissioner on the Delinquency Prevention Commission of San Francisco. Since 1987 she has been a trial consultant with the NJP/West in Oakland, specializing in criminal defense and civil rights cases where she has consulted in over 1,500 cases and assisted in more than 500 trials.

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And, then join us for a Next Gen Happy Hour afterwards . . .

When: Friday, March 8, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Where: Gold Star Bar,1755 W. Division (just a short walk from PLO)

Specials: It’s Gold Star, what isn’t on special?

PRESS RELEASE
Chicago Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild

For Immediate Release: September 27, 2012

Cook County Court Dismisses more than 90 Cases Against Occupy Chicago Protesters
Judge rules park curfew ordinance unconstitutional on its face and as applied

Chicago, IL — Cook County Court Judge Thomas Donnelly dismissed over 90 cases today against Occupy Chicago activists who were arrested last October and charged with a violation of rarely used park curfew law. Judge Donnelly issued a written ruling today which found that the city’s park curfew ordinance is “unconstitutional both on its face and as applied and all complaints in this case are dismissed with prejudice.” The Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) filed motions to dismiss in February on behalf of 92 Occupy Chicago protesters.

Judge Donnelly’s order from today reads in part that, “The City’s claim that citizen safety, park maintenance and park preservation constitute the substantial governmental interests that justifies closing the park seven hours nightly fails because the City routinely closes the park for fewer than seven hours nightly, making ad hoc exceptions to the Curfew for permitted groups.” The order continued that, “Because it is undisputed that the City closes Grant Park longer than necessary to serve the governments interests, the Curfew is not narrowly tailored, in violation of the First Amendment. The Curfew also violates the Illinois Constitution which provides a more vigorous right to free assembly, embracing even non-expressive assemblies.”

“Judge Donnelly made the right decision by declaring the city’s ordinance unconstitutional and by dismissing the remaining cases brought by the city against activists legitimately engaged in free speech,” said NLG attorney Sarah Gelsomino from the People’s Law Office and one of the lawyers representing the charged activists. “Hopefully this sends a clear message to the city that they must better respect the First Amendment rights of protesters no matter what their message might be.”

Nearly a year ago, on October 16th and 23rd, more than 300 Occupy Chicago activists were arrested for protesting in Grant Park and accused of violating the city’s park curfew, which had been inconsistently imposed from 11pm-6am. Most of the 300 protesters arrested have already accepted a deal with the city to resolve their cases for community service in lieu of a conviction. It’s unclear whether these agreements will need to be revisited as a result of today’s ruling.

In his order, Judge Donnelly pointed out the city’s inconsistent enforcement by stating that, “while the City arrested everyone remaining in Grant Park during the Occupy Chicago rally, the City arrested no one at the Obama 2008 presidential election victory rally, even though the Obama rally was equally in violation of the Curfew. That violates Defendants’ right to equal protection because it treats similarly situated citizens differently.”

After supporting the rights of Occupy Chicago activists for months, the Chicago chapter of the NLG went on to provide legal support for the thousands who protested against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in May.

Today’s order dismissing Occupy Chicago cases: https://nlgchicago.org/wp-content/uploads/Memo-Opinion-Order.pdf

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The National Lawyers Guild was founded in 1937 and is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has chapters in every state.

October 22 Deadline to Submit Claim Form in Anti-war Class Action

Earlier this year Vodak v. City of Chicago, a class action lawsuit resulting from false arrests at a 2003 anti-war protest, settled for $6.2 Million.

After nine years of litigation, attorneys from the Chicago Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild scored a significant victory by settling the suit. The case is a class action on behalf of over 700 protestors who were falsely arrested or detained by Chicago police during an anti-war demonstration in 2003.

The class is made up of any individual who was either held on the street for over 90 minutes or arrested and taken into police custody on Chicago Avenue, east of Michigan Avenue on March 20, 2003.

The deadline for class members to submit a claim form is October 22, 2012. Any class member who did not receive a form should contact the Claims Administrator immediately to request one. The Claims Administrator can be contacted at: