In the first year, the NLADA will launch its new Racial Equity Institute.

This national hub will bring the client, civil legal aid and public defender communities plus our partners in the private bar and in-house counsel, together to develop and implement anti-racist strategies that will actively transform their organizations and the legal system.

  • Translate knowledge about structural racism into arguments for individual cases;

  • Translate the stories and lessons of individual cases into strategic litigation or policy advocacy for lasting change;

  • Build genuine, sustainable, community-led partnerships;
  • The Institute will build a new community of learning and collaboration and provide anti-racism training, resources, and policy guidance for civil legal aid and defender offices and leaders. Institute resources will help leaders and advocates; 

  • Align organizational internal DEI policies and practices to model anti-racism and incorporate an intentional focus and racial lens into their advocacy;
  • Collaborate with private bar and business partners to drive systemic change; and

  • Develop and utilize effective legal arguments, standards, empirical data and more to litigate race in the courtroom and promote anti-racist policies in their own jurisdictions.

About

We are America’s oldest and largest nonprofit association devoted to excellence in the delivery of legal services to those who cannot afford counsel. There is no other legal organization that touches on all the access points of poverty as does NLADA.

Information

National Legal Aid & Defender Association

1901 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 500 Washington, DC 20006
(Phone) 202.452.0620 | (Fax) 202.872.1031 Tax ID Number: 36-2337880

Additonal Links