News – Page 4

May 31, 2020 by Admin

Volunteer to Help Provide Legal Representation

NLG-Chicago is coordinating legal representation for people arrested during the George Floyd protests that began May 30, 2020. We are also coordinating on the ground legal support.

If you are an attorney licensed in Illinois and are potentially interested in volunteering your time to assist in providing legal representation, please fill out this form.

Note that this is only a preliminary request. Filling out this form does not commit you to any case. NLG will follow up with you shortly.

Volunteer Form for Legal Representation

In solidarity,

Mass Defense Committe

NLG-Chicago

May 31, 2020 by Admin

UPDATE ON ARRESTS AND CHARGES IN CHICAGO BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTS: Joint statement from NLG-Chicago Mass Defense Committee & Chicago Community Bond Fund

As they have in cities across the country, people in Chicago have taken to the streets over the last several days to demand justice for Black communities terrorized by police violence. This wave of action was sparked by demonstrations following the police murders of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky and George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Right now there are many different versions of what has happened in the last 24 hours in Chicago, but one thing is clear: The Chicago Police rioted. Police violently attacked hundreds if not thousands of people demanding an end to police violence. This response was unacceptable and unnecessary.

NLG and CCBF have been working with organizers to provide legal support for protesters in the form of Legal Observers, operating a legal support hotline, and coordinating with jail support teams. We are doing our best to track people in custody and ensure they are supported and safely released. Jail support teams and reports from people arrested confirm that, at a minimum, several hundred people were in police custody overnight.

Right now there are very different numbers of arrests being estimated, from 240 to over 1,000. It is important to understand there are two ways to understand what an arrest is. An arrest occurs when police detain someone and they are unable to leave. The term “arrest” is sometimes only used to describe when someone is “processed,” meaning fingerprinted and charged. This second definition excludes people who were detained on the street and excludes people who were taken into police custody for hours—if they were then released without charges. These different definitions may account for some of the discrepancy in estimated number of arrests. We may never know an exact number, but what has been made clear is that hundreds of people throughout Chicago have had extremely negative interactions with police throughout the duration of the protests over the past few days.

There were rampant examples of violence by Chicago Police, including striking protestors in the head with batons, use of pepper spray, and driving police vehicles into crowds. Many of the arrests appeared to be completely random. One of NLG’s Legal Observers was arrested and beaten with batons, demonstrating how indiscriminately the police were making arrests and utilizing excessive force.

Both NLG and CCBF remain committed to supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. We believe direct action and protest are essential in achieving social change, and we have your back in the streets. Please stay tuned for further updates as we learn more.

Given our years of supporting movements fighting for systemic change, we have seen a pattern of police and prosecutors falsely arresting protesters and charging them with crimes they did not commit. Based on our experience and what we saw on the ground yesterday, we believe that this is happening on a widespread basis right now. We demand that the City and County immediately release those who are currently in custody and drop all charges against the protesters.

April 29, 2020 by Admin

Celebrate May Day Virtually!

For the past 130 years, workers around the world have gathered on May 1st to defend workers’ rights. While we can’t celebrate May Day in person as a chapter this year, we hope everyone is still staying connected to each other and to the struggle for justice. Join these virtual gatherings to celebrate May Day 2020!

SpeakOut! MAY DAY MESSAGE FROM ANGELA DAVIS
Friday, May 1, 3pm
On this International Workers Day, political activist, scholar, author, and SpeakOut speaker Angela Davis reflects on possible ways forward and what it’s going to take to bring about economic and racial justice. She invites us to reimagine a society that benefits all workers – from low wage earners to workers in the gig economy; from those working remotely to those on the front lines of the pandemic; from artists to incarcerated people.

SYSTEM IN CRISIS: A WORKING-CLASS VISION FOR THE FUTURE
Friday, May 1, 4pm
Celebrate May Day with a discussion from leading labor voices about how we can build a radical working class response to the current crisis. Featuring:
Stacy Davis Gates, VP of the Chicago Teachers Union
Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA
Sarah Jaffe, labor journalist
Register through Eventbrite to receive a link to the stream on the day of the event.
This event is a fundraiser for Haymarket Books and Labor Notes. Haymarket Books is an independent, radical, non-profit publisher. Labor Notes is a media and organizing project that is the voice of union activists who want to put the movement back in the labor movement.

LabourStart VIRTUAL MAY DAY
Friday May 1st (ongoing)
LabourStart is the news and campaigning website of the international trade union movement. LabourStart has organized an online May Day event spanning the globe – in cooperation with the International Trade Union Confederation and the global union federations. This Virtual May Day will feature videos from trade unions around the world — speeches, music and stories from workers’ struggles on every continent.

November 12, 2019 by Admin

Thank you for supporting the NLG Annual Celebration

We are so excited for our 2019 Annual Celebration. We would like to thank our sponsors, silent auction donors, and host committee for helping make the event a success!

Host committee

Kalman Resnick

Susan Gzesh

Carol Brook

Mariana Karampelas

Silent Auction Donors

DoveTail Brewery

Lookingglass Theatre

Goodman Theatre

Museum of Contemporary Art

Spa Soak

Mercedez Gonzalez Massage

Bluebird Wellness

Rebecca Harris

Gloria Golec Floral Designs

Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers

Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurant

The Levantine Kitchen

November 8, 2019 by Admin

Learn more about the work of Palestine Legal

We are so excited to be honoring Dima Khalidi of Palestine Legal at our Annual Celebration this year.

Learn more about Palestine Legal on their website, or read their fall newsletter below. PalLegal_FallNewsletter-2019

October 27, 2019 by Admin

2019 Annual Celebration

Our Annual Celebration is coming up on Friday, November 15th, 5:30 – 9:30pm at the Hatchery, 135 N Kedzie. Come celebrate 82 years of law for the people! Buy tickets now at www.tinyurl.com/2019AnnualCelebration

Join us for a night of eating, drinking, and merrymaking to support the work of NLG Chicago. Our 2019 celebration will be a chance for lawyers, legal workers, law students, and all our friends and comrades to come together. There will be catered vegan appetizers, a fabulous silent auction, and more! Space is wheelchair accessible. For other accessibility inquiries or any additional questions, please email chicago@nlg.org.

Our Kinoy Award honoree this year is Dima Khalidi. Dima Khalidi is the founder and director of Palestine Legal. She oversees Palestine Legal’s array of legal and advocacy work to protect people speaking out for Palestinian freedom from attacks on their civil and constitutional rights. Over the last seven years, in collaboration with the NLG and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Dima has built Palestine Legal into a 9-person movement lawyering nonprofit that takes the lead from the movement it serves, using the law as one among many tools that can be deployed together to fight injustice. Palestine Legal’s support to activists advocating for Palestinian freedom and resisting widespread efforts to shut them down models a kind of principled advocacy that demands our individual rights of speech and association, and our collective right to join for justice. Dima’s leadership has built an institution that protects the people who are questioning one of the most entrenched of orthodoxies – unquestioning support for Israel and the political ideology of Zionism – and that is committed to building solidarity with and uplifting other movements for social justice. As a leader, Dima is dedicated to supporting others in building their collective power – both inside the organization she directs and outside in the movements she supports.

Dima’s past work has also served the Palestinian cause in various ways. She worked with CCR as a cooperating attorney on the Mamilla Cemetery Campaign, petitioning United Nations officials to stop the desecration of an ancient Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem, and advocating on behalf of Palestinian descendants of individuals interred in the cemetery. As a volunteer and intern at CCR, she worked on cases seeking accountability for Israeli violations of international law, as well as on CCR’s Guantanamo Bay docket. She also interned with the People’s Law Office in Chicago, assisting in the acquittal of Palestinian-American Muhammad Salah on major federal criminal charges.

The Arthur Kinoy Peoples Law Award is in honor of Arthur Kinoy, a celebrated and beloved member of the National Lawyers Guild who dedicated himself to using the law in service of the people and encouraged generations of others to do the same. Arthur Kinoy was a fierce civil rights lawyer, a co-founder of the Center for Constitutional Rights, and an active Guild member for most of his adult life.

October 8, 2019 by Admin

CLE: Fighting for the Freedom of Political Prisoners

Here are the written materials from our Sept 12 CLE: Fighting for the Freedom of Political Prisoners.

Assembling Parole Packets and Advo Letters Memo 7.31.2019Africa v. Digulielmo_ 2004 Habeas Decision Challenging ConvictionIL Parole Training Materials

A siege. A bomb. 48 dogs. And the black commune that would not surrender _ World news _ The Guardian Janet Africa Habeas Memo

September 19, 2019 by Admin

Annual Celebration 2019

Tickets go on sale this Monday at 9am for NLG Chicago’s 2019 Annual Celebration! We hope you’ll join us to celebrate 82 years of law for the people.

This year, we have a special promotional offer just for the first day of ticket sales. Buy your ticket on Monday, Sept 23, and you’ll be entered in a raffle for a FREE WINE TASTING at Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurant. Tickets can be purchased through the event page. Remember, buy your tickets on our opening day to get entered in this special promotional raffle.

The event is Friday, November 15th from 5:30-9:30pm at The Hatchery, 135 N Kedzie. There will be catered vegan appetizers, a fabulous silent auction, and more! Space is wheelchair accessible. Learn more.

Be ready to buy your tickets Monday and WIN A FREE WINE TASTING!

August 26, 2019 by Admin

NLG Chicago Newsletter 2019 3Q

June 28, 2019 by General Volunteer

NLG Chicago Bar Bash

Post-bar bar night: TLC from the NLG

When: Monday, August 5th from 5:30-8:00

Where: Lagunitas Brewing company

Wander out on the brewery catwalks to watch the magic of beer production. Catch up with your friends in the NLG community. Most importantly, DRINK BEER from the Lagunitas taproom, because all proceeds benefit NLG Chi. Free vegan food!

If you are taking the bar exam in July 2019, there will be one free drink with your admission, AND a free super hero cape. If you aren’t taking the bar exam this summer, support the NLG by buying drinks – for the superheroes in capes and yourself too.

This event is only $10 for admission, but wait! YOU CAN GET IN FREE! We are offering FREE ADMISSION to anyone who signs up to be a monthly donor on our website. Simply sign up to donate at any amount on nlgchicago.org/foundation, and check the box for “Recurring donation.” You will automatically be issued a free ticket to this event for becoming a monthly donor at any level. Simple as that! AND if you sign up to be a monthly donor, you also get a free drink (but no superhero cape), even if you aren’t taking the bar in 2019.

Buy tickets today at www.tinyurl.com/NLGBarBash, or go to the Facebook event for more info. The venue is wheelchair accessible. For any other accessibility questions or concerns, please email chicago@nlg.org.