A coalition of lawyers, law students, legal workers, and jailhouse lawyers, the National Lawyers Guild looks at the law as an instrument for the protection of the people, rather than for their repression. The Guild is a space for students who value human rights over property interests and who are dedicated to progressive change in the structure of our political, social, and economic system. As part of this larger network, the Penn Law Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild strives to amplify and sustain student-led initiatives committed to prison industrial complex abolition, intersectionality, anti-racism, anti-capitalism, and collective care. We understand that lawyers do not create social change, but that social movements create social change, and we must assess how we can best support the work of existing movements as students, legal workers, and community members. We recognize that as students we collectively have a particular power and responsibility to leverage our privilege and position to combat the university’s complicity in upholding systems of white supremacy. Within the law school, we aim to build awareness, initiative, and capacity among students to draw connections between the law school’s institutional function and its impact on the residents of West Philadelphia and the city more broadly.

Contact Penn Law NLG: nlg.pennlaw@gmail.com.