Expanding Access to Reproductive Health Law Resources

In 2023, our Reproductive Health Digest provided 17,317 individual daily updates on the current state of the law in all 56 states and territories. The Digest distills significant policy shifts and offers clear, concise updates to healthcare providers and advocates.

Building on this, we launched our long-awaited Policy Resource Hub for Reproductive Health in fall 2023. This public-facing portal, supported by the tireless efforts of 1,000 pro bono attorneys and law students, grants access to our meticulously researched database and other in-depth resources, ensuring accessible and up-to-date legal information in reproductive healthcare.

Empowering Attorneys to Champion State-Level Civil Rights Advocacy

In the face of escalating challenges to our civil liberties at the state level, our State Legislative Advocacy Academy (SLAA) has equipped an impressive 475 attorneys with legislative advocacy training, with access to our suite of 13 expert training modules.

A significant milestone in 2023 was the inauguration of our first SLAA Leadership program. We proudly supported 20 trailblazing SLAA Leaders across 17 different states, who received specialized training and monthly coaching from L4GG’s Director of Attorney Impact & Engagement, on how to advocate for progressive state-level change.

Navigating Climate Funding and Bridging the Gap for Environmental Justice

Our Green and Equitable Communities Clinic (formerly the Decarbonization and Climate Resiliency Funding Clinic)’s free federal funding webinars provided necessary guidance to 600+ representatives across 49 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, and Guam on funding eligibility, application processes, timelines, acceptable projects, and more under federal legislation.

We also provided direct legal assistance to the Indiana NAACP in gaining intervenor status in necessary regulatory proceedings, ensuring that communities of color have a voice in decisions impacting their environment. Similarly, our collaboration with the Benton Harbor Community Water Council led to a revealing report on the ongoing water crisis, underscoring the urgency of addressing systemic environmental injustice.

Adapting to Asylum Policy Changes with Resilience and Innovation

Project Corazon faced unprecedented challenges due to rapid shifts in asylum policies and technological hurdles with the CBPOne app, significantly impacting asylum seekers' access to legal aid. Despite these obstacles, we provided crucial support to over 10 survivors of torture and their families to legally enter the U.S., while also spotlighting and addressing key issues with CBPOne, notably its failure to recognize dark skin and the vulnerability of LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers. Through direct actions, comment training webinars, and continuous outreach in Matamoros and Reynosa, we made significant strides in advocating against anti-immigrant measures and enhancing communication with migrants. We also leveraged technology for real-time information dissemination via Facebook Live sessions - through 17 Facebook Live sessions, we provided crucial updates to 39,624 viewers.

Ensuring Patients Get Abortion Care

Immediately following the Dobbs decision, we spearheaded our Reproductive Health Legal Assistance Project, a large-scale project that provides clear, up-to-date legal guidance to reproductive healthcare providers in states and territories across the country. We trained and mobilized over 500 volunteers who are conducting legal research in all 56 U.S. states and territories. We also hired a reproductive justice staff attorney, Alyssa Morrison, who will lead the project in 2023. 

Training Lawyers to Enact State Legislative Advocacy

We launched our State Legislative Advocacy Academy (SLAA), a first-of-its-kind training program for lawyers and law students on how to conduct state-level legislative advocacy. L4GG’s first Director of Attorney Impact & Engagement, LaTonya Joyner-Gregory, was hired to lead the program, which has been running since August. 293 lawyers joined the SLAA and accessed our 9 expert training modules.

Helping Communities Secure Federal Climate Funding

We launched the Green and Equitable Communities Clinic (formerly the Decarbonization and Climate Resiliency Funding Clinic) to help communicates access federal climate funding from recent laws. We produced 6 webinars on funding eligibility, application processes, timelines, and acceptable projects under the new federal legislation, which reached 600 municipalities across 25 states. We also published our Disadvantaged Communities Report (DAC Report), which provides the legal definition of DAC in every state, existing state climate equity policies, and contact information of relevant state decision-makers to help facilitate J40 implementation.

Researching Intersectional Civil Rights Issues

With support from over 40 law firms and coalition partners, we published 6 reports and policy recommendations on the criminalization of ballot selfies, the role of police in schools, proposed state policies for implementing federal climate funding, gender-affirming healthcare, election day state holidays, and the racist roots of corporal punishment in schools. Moreover, we completed extensive research and analysis on several other racial justice issues, such as automatic expungement fees and juvenile solitary confinement, for which we will issue additional reports in the coming year.

Defending Migrants’ Rights at the Border & Throughout the U.S.

Our Project Corazon team responded to the growing humanitarian crisis at the southern border that is going unnoticed by many Americans, such as in Reynosa, where over 6,000 migrants are living in camping tents on the streets without access to running water and protection from dangerous cartel activity.

Our team helped over 1300 asylum seekers secure life-saving parole, many of whom were vulnerable LGBTQ+ individuals, those with medical conditions, third-language speakers, and pregnant women.

Training Local Governments on Renewable Energy

Our Climate Change program continued training local governments on exciting new renewable energy tools, training 42 municipalities from 24 states. We’ve determined that each city that implements a new renewable energy tool can remove at least 55,986 metric tons of CO2 emissions from the atmosphere in the result, roughly equivalent to taking 12,176 gas vehicles off the road.

Helping Asylum Seekers Find Safety

Project Corazon oversaw the wind down of the MPP policy in Matamoros, helping hundreds of clients gain admission into the United States after many waited in the Matamoros refugee camp for more than a year. We also worked with a coalition of border organizations to secure humanitarian parole for 1,789 asylum seekers from Title 42.

Fighting to End Child Labor

Our Lawyers for Racial Justice initiative produced a report on the lack of regulatory protections for child farmworkers and its racially discriminatory impact on children of color. The report details both the history and information of child farmworkers in the US and calls for additional safety regulations at both the state and federal levels.

Defending the Right to Vote

We also produced a report on some of the legal barriers that still exist to prevent people from exercising their civic duty, and how those barriers have a disproportionate impact on voters of color. The report recommends that states require that employees have time to vote without penalty or loss of wages.

Serving a Closed Border

When COVID-19 hit, the Trump Administration used a policy known as Title 42 to block asylum seekers from their internationally-recognized right to seek safety within the borders of the U.S. Project Corazon responded by continuing to provide remote legal services to the camp in Matamoros and securing humanitarian parole for vulnerable clients. 

Taking a Stand for Climate Justice

L4GG partnered with Great Lakes Environmental Law Center to research the availability of clean, affordable drinking water in 14 underserved communities surrounding Detroit, Michigan and partnered with Midwest Environmental Advocates to research and enforce tribal treaty rights in Wisconsin.

Helping Micro-Businesses Survive the COVID Pandemic

After the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, L4GG launched the COVID-19 Small Business Remote Legal Clinic, offering pro bono legal consultations to small business owners and nonprofit leaders. We launched 11 regional clinics and since then have mobilized 932 lawyers from 114 law firms and corporate legal departments to help 2,149 small businesses and nonprofits.

Fighting to End Systemic Racism

In late spring 2020, we launched our Lawyers for Racial Justice initiative to conduct research and analysis into U.S. legal and policy frameworks that are contributing to systemic racism. Since launching the program, we’ve worked with more than 347 attorneys from 51 law firms and corporate legal departments on researching state and federal policies. 

Responding to MPP / Remain in Mexico

When the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) or “Remain in Mexico” policy was expanded to include the Matamoros, MX / Brownsville, TX border crossing, L4GG built a weekend legal assistance program, sending dozens of pro bono volunteers each weekend to provide legal assistance to hundreds of asylum seekers.

Mobilizing after ICE Raids

In a matter of weeks, mobilized more than 100 lawyers from 13 law firms and provided more than 50 detained migrants with legal assistance after a series of ICE raids on poultry plants in Mississippi.

Launching Full-time Matamoros Clinic

After it became clear that full-time services were needed to help thousands of families stranded in Matamoros, L4GG established the only full-time legal clinic for asylum seekers at the Matamoros, MX / Brownsville, TX border crossing.  

Protecting the Most Vulnerable

Since establishing the clinic, we’ve defended the human rights of 8,420 asylum seekers, and have focused our efforts on helping especially vulnerable asylum seekers, including those with medical psychological conditions, disabilities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and third-language speakers. 

Creating Renewable Energy Guidance

We completed our first three “State Profile” resources to give cities in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri guidance on how to reach 100% renewable energy and presented those legal resources to over 200 local decision-makers at the Global Climate Summit in San Francisco in partnership with the Sierra Club. 

Responding to Family Separation

In response to the family separation crisis at the border, L4GG founded Project Corazon, our immigrants’ rights initiative, with the support of nearly 40 large law firms. 

Sending Lawyers to the Border

We launched the Project Corazon Travel Fund to support the travel expenses of legal workers going to the border and asylum seekers flying to their families upon release. We have since mobilized 256 lawyers to travel to the southern border and to detention centers providing legal assistance to 13,336 migrants. 

Providing Representation to Detainees

We developed and implemented a remote Credible Fear Interview representation project with RAICES, an immigration organization in Texas, to mobilize 212 lawyers from 41 law firms and provide legal representation to 1,568 asylum seekers detained at Karnes Detention Center in Texas. 

Organizing to “Rise Above” 

L4GG organized and co-hosted “Rise Above,” a two-day conference for more than 1,000 attendees, featuring speakers from the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, Emily’s List, Planned Parenthood, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the State Innovation Exchange, and dozens of other organizations.

Responding to the Muslim Ban

We responded in force to the Muslim Ban, deploying hundreds of attorneys to airports across the country, partnering with immigrants’ rights organizations and airport coalitions to coordinate legal support efforts, and helping defend the rights of thousands of immigrants. In one case, L4GG volunteers helped to get a four-month-old baby from overseas into the U.S. for desperately needed heart surgery.

Mobilizing for Dreamers

We mobilized more than 5,400 lawyers in response to the September 2017 rescission of DACA, training more than 1,500 lawyers in just 72 hours and connecting thousands of volunteer lawyers with legal clinics. Our initiative helped immigration organizations nationwide meet the 2017 renewal deadline for thousands of Dreamers, and planted the seed for our future immigration work.

Increasing renewable energy

In response to the Trump administration withdrawing from the Paris Accord, L4GG established the Climate Change Program to help local governments transition to Renewable Energy (RE). Since then, L4GG has assisted city leaders and organizations from 24 states implement critical climate tools to increase RE and reduce carbon emissions at the local level in the absence of federal leadership.

Fighting for human rights and equal justice

We established Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) to respond to anticipated threats to human rights and the rule of law. We brought more than 125,000 lawyers and concerned community members together to fight for human rights and equal justice. 

In November and December of 2016, tens of thousands of lawyers provided suggestions, feedback, and support to develop the infrastructure required to help L4GG evolve from a social media community into a high-impact nonprofit organization.