Nurturing Freedom Dreams: An Approach to Movement Lawyering in the Black Lives Matter Era

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2021

Abstract

How might lawyers work with movements to build power and create more possibilities? What roles might lawyers play in truly transformative social change? How can lawyers and legal workers hasten change in cities like Detroit, where interlocking crises—tens of thousands of water shutoffs and tax foreclosures, sky-high asthma rates, school closures, entrenched poverty, and racist segregation—do not map easily onto civil rights, or even human rights, claims?

We are trained as lawyers to shoehorn complex problems into neat claims about equal protection or due process. We are trained to issue spot, not honor and encourage freedom dreams. But this moment demands more from us. Organizers are posing fundamental questions of power and freedom, offering dazzling visions and examples of what is possible when we fight for the full dignity of everyone in our communities—and our collective future depends on us listening to and supporting those demands and dreams.

When we allow ourselves, as lawyers, to be guided by curiosity, relationships, and collective visions, we can be more nimble and responsive in our legal practice and remain open to a fuller range of possibilities. This article is an attempt to explore real-time lessons from recent work in Detroit and to begin to identify some practices that can guide the strategies of movement lawyers in this moment. I discuss the origins of the Detroit Justice Center's "defense, offense, and dreaming" approach, and I describe some of the values, practices, and questions we have used to help us remain nimble as a team.

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