Movement Law

Movement Law

Judge Damon J. Keith understood the law as an instrument that becomes just only when it is in the service of justice. The Keith Center carries that conviction forward through movement lawyering, a practice that places legal skill under the direction of communities organizing for their own liberation.

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Movement lawyering inverts the traditional relationship between attorney, legal worker, and cause. Lawyers and legal workers in this tradition take their strategic direction from organizers, residents, and directly impacted people, whereby the courtroom and statute become tools, among many, deployed in coordination with campaigns rather than in place of them. 

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Through this pillar, the Keith Center is building the infrastructure that makes this practice possible at scale. The program will train law students, lawyers, paralegals, and legal workers in political education and in the principles and tactics of movement law. 

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The goal is to catalyze an ecosystem of trained practitioners across the region who can be mobilized to meet the movement's needs for legal expertise and analysis, including legislative drafting, policy analysis, litigation support, know-your-rights education, or the strategic research campaigns depend on. 

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Training cohorts, partnership opportunities, and public resources on movement lawyering practice are in development and will be announced in the coming months. Community organizations and legal workers interested in this ecosystem are welcome to contact the Center now.

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This page will grow as the work does. Check back for announcements, resources, and opportunities to collaborate.