Alert for Activists
Resistance Committee Report
The Resistance Committee has grown to over twenty members. Threats to our immigrant neighbors have been our biggest focus over the past few weeks. The Resistance Committee now has two active projects that support non-citizens in MA at different points of intervention. We partnered with MIRA to train dozens of NLG-MA members to provide Know Your Rights workshops to community … Read more>>
Northeastern University Chapter Report
At the end of February, almost 20 Northeastern University School of Law students received a Legal Observer training at the joint NUSL and UMass Dartmouth session! The high amount of interest is indicative of students really wanting to do their part to secure the right to protest and criticize our government in the face of this increased oppression and attacks … Read more>>
NLG-Mass 2025 Annual Dinner Ads/Sponsorships
The Annual Dinner will be on Friday, May 16, at the Arts at the Armory in Somerville. Invitations to the event will be sent out in early March. We hope you will be with us on this special day and join us in celebrating this year’s honorees and the Guild!
Program Greetings/Ads
Sponsorships… Read more>>
NLG-Mass 2025 Annual Dinner Tickets
The Annual Dinner will be on Friday, May 16, at the Arts at the Armory in Somerville. Invitations to the event will be sent out in early March. We hope you will be with us on this special day and join us in celebrating this year’s honorees and the Guild!
Purchase Annual Dinner Tickets… Read more>>Welcoming New Board Members
Kylah Clay (right) is a public defender in Boston. She represents protesters and activists through the Mass Defense Committee. She also helps workers organize independent unions through the Independent Organizing Network.
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Annie Guare (left) is an eviction defense attorney working on behalf of low-income tenants to prevent homelessness, curb unethical landlord practices, and increase access to affordable housing. She is … Read more>>
Northeastern University Chapter Report
NUSL’s NLG Chapter began its semester themed around abolition by tabling to direct students to donate to mutual aid funds for those in Altadena impacted by the wildfire and for incarcerated fire fighters.
For the two lunch time tabling sessions NLG members brought in baked goods to incentivize donations and laid out an array of QR codes to easily direct … Read more>>
I.O.N. Report
I.O.N. has been hard at work, building trainings and educational resources, supporting workers in different stages of the unionization and bargaining processes, and conducting research on the changing state of labor law and how best to organize around it.
– Trainings and Educational Resources: I.O.N. has built and offered training on filing unfair labor practices, defending against union-busting, invoking … Read more>>
Community Profile: MIRA Coalition
MIRA is a coalition of organizations dedicated to advancing the rights of immigrants and refugees across New England. Founded in 1987, its more than 140 member organizations engage in a wide range of activities aimed to help those who arrived in Greater Boston from another country, with services ranging from on-the-ground assistance, to advocating for policies at the highest levels … Read more>>
Resistance Committee: Join Now!
NLG-MA members have formed a Resistance Committee to brainstorm, build, and act in resistance to rising facism. Our Committee has been meeting weekly since Inauguration Day. We are staying updated on Trump 2.0 attacks on our communities and neighbors, so we can direct NLG-MA resources to respond quickly to growing crises.
This week, about thirty NLG members trained with the … Read more>>
2025 NLG-Mass Annual Testimonial Dinner Honorees Announced
The 2025 NLG Annual Testimonial Dinner honorees have been announced! We are thrilled to inform you that this year the NLG-Mass Chapter will be honoring a group of outstanding legal professionals and activists. The Lawyer Award will be presented to Fair Work P.C. (employment law office in Boston) and Rachel Weber (criminal defense attorney, based in Hampshire and Franklin Counties, … Read more>>
NLG Welcomes New Year with Game Night
On a snowy night in mid-January, the NLG-Mass Chapter held its first ever Game Night. Even though the event was on a Sunday evening, to our delight, around 25 NLG members and friends came and enthusiastically sat at long tables to engage in board games.
The games ranged from easy ones that took 10 minutes to finish to more complicated … Read more>>
State and Boston Police Crack Down on the Opposition to the Right-Wing Anti-Abortion Agenda
by V. Chay
On Saturday, November 16, a Christian-Right forced-birth group, the Men’s March, staged a rally and march along Commonwealth Avenue in Boston from Planned Parenthood to Boston Common. Flyers encouraged participants to adopt a dress code of suits or clerical uniform. This group includes known members of far-right coalitions.
In response, a network of local groups and activists planned a … Read more>>
Mass Defense Committee: A Year In Review
Well, it certainly has been a busy year for activists across the state, and that means it has been a busy year for our Mass Defense Committee! We worked in partnership with the NLG Legal Observer program and the Litigation Committee most closely this year to provide the holistic, wrap around social movement support that organizers have come to depend … Read more>>
Highlights from Boston University’s NLG Chapter in 2024
Redefining Antisemitism: What’s at stake?
The State’s Special Commission on Combatting Antisemitism held its first meeting on October 29, launching a process which may have profound implications for free speech, academic freedom, education, hate crimes designations, and all anti-racist struggles in the Commonwealth. Many Commission appointees represent or have ties to major Israel-aligned organizations in the State: The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Jewish Community Relations … Read more>>
Litigation Committee: A Year in Review
The Litigation Committee spent 2024 engaged in the constant fight for systemic change, advancing a number of matters against law enforcement entities and large corporate entities.
Our action against BPD for their intransigence resulted in an award of legal fees from Judge Cowin. After almost three years of obstruction and obfuscation by Boston Police in acquiring records regarding BPD’s response, or lack … Read more>>
2024 NLG National Convention in Birmingham, Alabama
Eden Williams
Embarking on this year’s National Lawyers Guild 2024 #Law4ThePeople Convention was one of excitement and anticipation. Knowing we would be in the company of some of the Guild’s best legal professionals, scholars, and activists, made the trip worth the many hours travelled for the 200+ who ventured out from all over the U.S.A and other parts of the world. What to … Read more>>
Building Resistance
Deb Wilmer & Eden Williams, Co-Chairs of NLG-Mass
Right now, the need for the Guild is greater than ever. Trump won, the right-wing has dominance in both houses of Congress and, of course, the Supreme Court. Although media pundits claim the working class has gone to the right, this is not so. Progressive ballot measures passed easily in several “red” … Read more>>
ION at the Anarchist Bookfair
The NLG Independent Organizing Network (ION) was invited to be on a workers’ rights panel during the Anarchist Bookfair in mid-October, held at the Cambridge Community Center. Besides the ION’s representative, Dave Runkle, the panel had Rocky Prull (President of the Blue Bottle Independent Union which ION has helped), and Janet Shek (a co-chair of the New Seasons Labor Union). Both unions … Read more>>
We’re Loving It: The NLG Helps CAIR-MA in Case Against McDonald’s
Barb Dougan, Legal Director at CAIR-Massachusetts
On October 29, the Mass. Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) issued a “probable cause” finding in a public accommodations case that CAIR-Massachusetts filed in 2022. The case concerned an appalling incident at a McDonald’s restaurant in Chicopee. When a Muslim woman ordered a fish sandwich for her 7-year-old son, McDonald’s employees stuffed it full … Read more>>