E. Eden Williams has 30 years’ experience as a community organizer, social worker, and conflict resolution worker in 32 countries. His work focuses on community organizing and organizational effectiveness and evaluation. The NLG-Mass Chapter taught Eden how to fight to win and he now works with the Guild so others can understand the legal system and join the struggle.

Being familiar with the work of the Guild already, one of the first things Deb Wilmer did on entering law school was to join. After years as a labor and immigration rights activist, the National Lawyers Guild was an obvious extension of that work. Currently an immigration attorney in Boston, Deb hopes to continue fighting for the rights of marginalized peoples and people’s movements within and outside the Guild for many years to come.

David Kelston first arrived as an NLG client in the 1960s and became an NLG Board member in 2000. His commitment to the Guild is built on its service to the movement for justice and equality. For 80 years the NLG has fought for a more just society where human rights are more valuable than property interests. David knows the Guild will keep fighting until we win.

Chelsea Contrada has been a member of the guild since 2021, and joined the board in 2024. She is an attorney and bar advocate in Hampshire County. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Chelsea was a community college librarian and teacher, where she advocated for affordable and accessible higher education. She is passionate about the Guild’s mission and honored to be a part of this important work. 

Melinda Drew has retired as a full-time faculty member at Northeastern University School of Law. She continues to teach part-time. For many years she was the faculty advisor to the law school’s NLG chapter.  A Guild member for more than 35 years and a member of the Mass Defense Committee, Melinda concentrates on training Legal Observers, Legal Observer trainers, and providing Direct Action workshops. Melinda’s commitment to the Guild stems from her understanding that our country does not provide liberty and justice for all but, in fact, deprives many of their basic human rights.

For more than 25 years, Jeff Feuer has worked with his law partner, Lee Goldstein in a community-based law firm, representing tenants, employees, political activists, consumers, and non-profit organizations.  Jeff has been with the Guild for 35 years, and, as a member of the Board, has served on numerous committees including Coordinator of the Mass Defense Committee. He has provided pro bono legal representation to hundreds of arrested political demonstrators, from the Justice for Janitors campaign to Occupy Boston to the Black Live Matter movement, and to environmental, anti-nuclear, and immigrant rights activists. He has trained Legal Observers, provided Direct Action training for progressive political activists, and conducted numerous landlord-tenant Street Law Clinics.

Besides his family, friends, and the law, Jeff is passionate about music (especially Bruce Springsteen), baseball (he is the commissioner of a fantasy baseball league), and the continuing struggle for a better, more equitable, and just society.

Andrew is now retired from the active practice of law. His practice was primarily a plaintiffs practice with a large portion of his practice reorienting bicyclists, but which also included civil rights cases, mostly discrimination cases and police misconduct cases. In retirement he limits his practice, only taking “clients who don’t pay me”, in other words, only volunteer work. His current volunteer work primarily consists of representing climate action activists when they are arrested. He has been doing this for years, with the NLG Mass Defense Committee. He has been a Guild lawyer for decades and was a Guild honoree in 2020.

Lee Goldstein is a longtime Guild lawyer, teacher, and activist. Lee has worked to advance the rights of tenants, prisoners, workers, and political groups. He currently practices in a community law office in Cambridge while supervising students at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. For 80 years the Guild has served the movement for justice and equality; Lee knows it will keep fighting for decades to come.

Jasmine Gomez is a Constitutional lawyer and community activist and organizer in Boston. At Free Speech For People, Jasmine works toward getting big money out of politics, ending corporate constitutional rights, and promoting political equality through intersectional organizing on passing a Constitutional Amendment. They also organize and work with the NLG-Mass Chapter to fight for queer and trans liberation, for the decolonization of Puerto Rico, and for racial equity.

Lisa Lunskaya Gordon has worked for and with non profits for most of her career. As a consultant, she helped organizations bridge the gap between top-down government agencies, and grassroots networks. One of the biggest challenges in the struggle for justice is that different entities approach the same issue from completely different perspectives simultaneously. In order to build meaningful and positive change, our work must be to facilitate the meshing together of these two approaches, while continually working towards a more just legal system.

Josh Raisler Cohn is a public defender at the Roxbury Defenders Unit, representing people in Roxbury charged with serious felonies. Co-chair of the Mass Defense Committee, Josh finds inspiration in the Guild’s dedication to fighting oppression and supporting people’s movements for self determination.

Dave Runkle joined the Guild in his first weeks at Suffolk University Law School’s two-year J.D. program in 2021. Since then, Dave has worked on many Guild projects in support of workers’ rights and is currently an organizing member of the Independent Organizing Network project. Dave aims to use his prior experience in software engineering and project management to empower Guild efforts with the same critical thinking that once kept corporate software running. Outside of the Guild, Dave works for public clients through the Committee for Public Counsel Services Children and Families Law Division, and enjoys spending time with his family, playing games of all kinds, and making toys with 3D printing.