#Draft: An Open Letter To Legal Institutions Working With Community Groups
This letter is written because we believe it is critical to express expectations that community groups can and should have when working with legal institutions on social change campaigns. The expectations shared in this letter factor the critical each of us brings to the fight for social justice and how, in this fight, it is important to subvert oppressive systems, not replicate them.
##Expectations: ###Transparency We can only be partners if we are not undermining each other's work. To this end, the undersigned community groups expect that any negotiations, demands, and communications that impact the work of community to be communicated to the community groups. We cannot afford to be undermined or have our work derailed by side conversations which we are central to but not a part of.
We expect there will be no back-room deals cut which undermine our work.
We expect that any knowledge gained via legal work regarding institutions community groups are fighting against will be shared with community groups to help them advance their work. ###Joint Campaigns When we work on a joint campaign or the same issue, it is critical that a collective framework is followed for any negotiation or decision that is reached. We are stronger when we are working together: therefore, we must make decisions together and include directly impacted communities in any negotiations or decision-making process.
When we work together, in order to affirm the worth we bring to this work, it is important for legal institutions to give credit to community groups which help move this work forward. Often, the media will perpetuate the power dynamic that only lawyers or legislators can speak authoritatively on issues: we invite allied legal institutions to subvert this paradigm and oppressive practice. ###Sharing Resources As legal institutions generally have more physical and social capital than community groups, we expect allied legal institutions to leverage that capital to uplift community groups.
At an economic level, this means that when working on joint campaigns, allied legal organizations are expected to provide greater material support (copies, material development, technology, communications, etc) to, advance the work of the joint campaign in a way that makes it clear the campaign is joint. We are seeking and hoping to dismantle the practice by which more effort is spent on whose logo is largest to the detriment of community needs.
At a more abstract level, we also expect legal institutions to share their social capital. This means that when we work together, it is made very clear to supporters that we are truly working together. This also means that funders should be able to identify which community groups these legal institutions are connected to and working with.
When legal institutions have the discretion to share funding, we expect funding to be directed to groups led by members of directly impacted communities. This funding/support should not be predicated by what issues are au courant but by what issues the legal institution understands are critical to the larger communities they come in contact with. ###Community Lawyering We expect legal institutions to train their staff on the principles of community lawyering. Chief among these is the practice of taking cues from the community; identifying that community victories are sometimes not the same as legal victories; and that the role of the community lawyer is not to lead movements, but to support movements.
All of the above expectations are the fruit of acknowledging that our movements need legal support but that legal support must notß come at the detriment of our organizations or movements.
We ask that you endorse the above principles and also engage community groups in dialog so that together we can beat back the various systems of oppression we are fighting against.
/s/
None of the contents of this open letter are new, rather, they build upon and seek to subvert nonprofit practices identified here starting at page 5 (pdf)