Lawyering for Liberation: A Toolbox for Movement Lawyers

This fiery manifesto provides a concrete action plan for legal professionals and activists advancing Black liberation and transformative social change.

Revolutions happen in the streets, not in courtrooms. But in the struggle against systems increasingly designed to perpetuate inequality and benefit those in power, lawyers must do their part. As leaders from the acclaimed movement lawyering and advocacy organization Law for Black Lives, editors Marbré Stahly-Butts and Ameca Reali have spent years on the front lines of transformative social change. With Lawyering for Liberation, they offer concrete tools for fellow legal workers and lawyers working to achieve a just future.

Grounded in the politics of abolition, Black queer feminism, and anticapitalism, this approachable how-to guide distills key concepts of movement lawyering and assembles advice from dozens of lawyers, legal workers, and organizers in areas like jail and bail support, stop-and-frisk litigation, protester defense, reparations, family law, housing, and more. The result is not just a manual for resistance but an urgent call to join the movement.

Marbré Stahly-Butts is Associate Professor at CUNY School of Law and cofounder and former Executive Director of Law for Black Lives.

Ameca Reali is Executive Director of the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center and former Membership Director at Law for Black Lives.