The National Lawyers Guild is dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system.
The National Lawyers Guild is a national non-profit legal and political organization of lawyers, legal workers, law students, and jailhouse lawyers. We represent progressive political movements, using the law to protect human rights above property interests and to attain social justice.
The Lewis & Clark NLG chapter maintains a radical presence on the L&C campus. We also strive to strengthen ties between the student body and the the local and national community by supporting local activists through the Legal Observer Project and continuing to work for human rights in new ways.
We are unapologetically in support of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, and all other radical intersectional movements for justice and liberation for the marginalized. We recognize that due to the oppressive nature of the legal institution, extra-legal tactics may become necessary, and we are here to support organizers and activists through the legal implications of such tactics.
On campus, we continue to push conversations about race & racism, transphobia, transmisogyny, sexism, and homophobia. Our intention is to make a campus that feels welcoming to those who hold marginalized identities, especially those identities who are currently in the exceptional minority.
Our aim is to bring together all those who regard adjustments to new conditions as more important than the veneration of precedent; who recognize the importance of safeguarding and extending the rights of workers, women, farmers, and minority groups upon whom the welfare of the entire nation depends; who seek actively to eliminate racism; who work to maintain and protect our civil rights and liberties in the face of persistent attacks upon them; and who look upon the law as an instrument for the protection of the people, rather than for their repression.
—National Lawyers Guild Charter
