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MASS DEFENSE PROJECT

The National Lawyers Guild has been involved in mass defense for over half a century.  The AFL-CIO LCC Lawyers' Coordinating Committee sponsored a training in October, 2011, to assist LCC attorneys with limited experience in criminal law and mass defense.  LCC and National Lawyers Guild Labor & Employment Committee members Mike Healey and Glen Downey presented the training and additional trainings may be organized in the future.  The materials from the training are below.  If you are interested in volunteering for mass defense activities, please contact Fran Schreiberg via email or at (510) 302-1071 or you may directly contact an attorney volunteer coordinator in your area (see the NLG website). 

Common Questions on Being Arrested in Peaceful Demonstrations while Leafleting and/or during Civil Disobedience
Legal Defense Fund Template : Justice for Janitors Legal Defense and Strike Fund
Legal Observer Materials from the NLG and ACLU

Click here to see the National Lawyers Guild page in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement.  This page has phone numbers for emergency legal support.  As well it has a list of emails of attorneys who have volunteered to coordinate mass defense in locations around the country.  More coordinators are added from time to time.  These volunteers can assist those in need of legal defense and also welcome attorneys, law students and legal workers who want to volunteer as legal observers or to provide other legal assistance during demonstrations.

Click here to see the manual prepared by Bob Myers of Los Angeles for the NLG's trainings of lawyers prior to the DNC in 2000. It is California and Los Angeles specific, but most of the information is readily translatable to other jurisdictions. This might be helpful for attorneys who do not usually handle criminal cases or don't represent protestors in criminal cases.  It is quite lengthy (99 pages).