2008 ANNUAL REPORT - National Lawyers Guild

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
2008 ANNUAL REPORT

Design
Ian Head
djianhead@gmail.com
Photo Credits
Cover photo: Michel Angela Martinez; Page 3: Courtesy of Marjorie Cohn; Page 4: Patricia Maxfield
Page 5: Courtesy of NLG Minnesota Chapter; Page 6: Jess Hand; Page 7: Sergio Ortiz; Page 9: Kelly Bellis
Page 10: Courtesy of Joshua Moscowitz; Page 11: Michel Angela Martinez; Page 12: Jonathan Behm (http://flickr.com/photos/jcbehm/)
Page 15: Courtesy of Ian Head; Page 16: Melanie Bilenker; Page 17: Joan Hill; Page 19: Alan Pogue; Page 24: Carol Sobel
Page 25: Roxana Orrell; Page 27: Cody Doran

A Letter from the President
Seventy-one years ago, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt wrote to our founders:
“It is a time for progressive and
constructive thinking...I have every
confidence that your deliberations will affect the
welfare of your own profession and the wellbeing
of the country at large.” Indeed, at that
founding convention of the Guild in 1937, we
committed ourselves to a view of “the law as
an instrument for the protection of the people,
rather than their repression.” We have always
lived by this creed and continue to do so now,
perhaps with greater visibility than ever before.
This past year has seen the Guild recognized
nationally and internationally as being in the
vanguard of progressive lawyering. As they did
in 2004, the FBI and local law enforcement preemptively
targeted protest, made illegal arrests
and used excessive force against demonstrators
at the Democratic and Republican National
Conventions. The Guild’s large legal teams in
Denver and St. Paul worked tirelessly to defend
them and protect their civil liberties. When
asked if they wanted lawyers from other
organizations, many protestors said, “No, we
want the Guild!”
I testified before the House Judiciary Committee’s
Subcommittee on the Constitution,
Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in May on
the administration’s interrogation policy and
torture. The Guild and the International Association
of Democratic Lawyers issued a white
paper on the law of torture and accountability
of those who were complicit in approving
torture of persons in U.S. custody. The paper
analyzes the legal issues underpinning the call
by the NLG to prosecute and dismiss from their
jobs people like then Deputy Assistant Attorney
General John Yoo and others who helped set the
administration’s policy that has resulted in the
torture and abuse of prisoners. Our call for the
dismissal of John Yoo received enormous support
from the public and resulted in the Dean
of Berkeley Law School issuing a press release.
The Guild is currently in the process of expanding
our multimedia presence on the web. Our
goal is to create a broader, more interactive
community of both current and prospective
members. Lawyers Guild press releases on significant
issues are picked up and used by a large
number of media outlets and other progressive
organizations.
Marjorie Cohn, President
We launched a formalized program of engaging
in litigation in the name of the Guild. A
number of lawsuits are already under way. As
we begin filing more suits on behalf of the
Guild we will increase the educational and
political impact of our work.

The NLG: Trusted, Respected, In Demand
While waiting at a stoplight in
St. Paul one evening during
the Republican National
Convention, a young activist
shouted to us from the street. I responded that
everyone in the car was from the National Lawyers
Guild. He ran over, declaring with enthusiasm,
“I have to give you a big hug!” and flung
his arms through the open window.
and other countries told us this year that they
are surprised that a bar association like the
Guild exists and how delighted they are to have
become our friends. Within our organization,
young members are playing leadership roles in
forging such relationships. If gross injustice exists,
there are few limits to our joining in others’
quests for legal and moral
redress.
activists, young and old, who express their
disdain for current government policies despite
the increased risk of being targets for exercising
their fundamental right to dissent. That
they sing our praises, whether in person or on
a blog, means that we are staying true to our
founders’ ideals.
Throughout the convention protests, response
to the Guild name was equally passionate. We
are trusted, respected and sought after as an
organization with a proud history, and current
track record, of defending individuals and
groups whom the government has spied on,
infiltrated, and vilified for exercising their First
Amendment rights. Our reputation continues
to be that of a legal organization far different
from all others.
This reputation extends beyond our borders.
Recognition for our unique reputation as an
organization of “people’s lawyers,” students
and legal workers continues to grow with each
delegation or individual initiative brought in
our name. Lawyers from Pakistan, Cuba, Japan
The Guild has received broad
media exposure over the past
year that provides a snapshot
of the range of issues we have
taken up. From representing
domestic activists falsely
labeled “terrorists” by the
government, to holding local
law enforcement accountable,
to organizing on behalf
of union staff at a law school,
the Guild continues to set
the standard for people’s
lawyering.
I appreciate the trust we
have earned from the many
Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director

Law for the People in 2008
Across the country and beyond, from
the halls of Congress to meeting
with government leaders on the
other side of the world, Guild members
forged a formidable presence in defending
civil rights and upholding the law.
Victory for Women Prisoners
In a landmark victory for prisoners’ rights, this
past February a Michigan jury awarded more
than $15 million in damages to over 450 female
prisoners who alleged they had been sexually
assualted by male employees of the Michigan
Department of Corrections over a five-year period.
The case, Neal v. the Michigan Department
of Corrections, was filed by Deborah LaBelle,
Richard Soble, Patricia Streeter, Molly Reno,
Michael Pitt, Shannon Dunn, Peggy Goldberg
Pitt, Cary McGehee, Ronald Reosti, and Ralph
Sirlin.
Government Surveillance
The government continues to keep a watchful
eye on the Guild. From 1940 to 1975, the FBI
carried out a covert surveillance of the Guild
and its members. The Bureau turned over copies
of approximately 400,000 pages of its files
as part of a lawsuit brought by New York City
chapter lawyers. The copies were donated in
1997 to the Tamiment Library and Robert F.
Wagner Labor Archives at New York University,
and were made public in late 2007. The New
York City Chapter itself continues to be the
target, more recently, of invasive governmental
misconduct. It is resisting subpoenas to force
disclosure of privileged attorney-client and attorney
work product information based upon
its representation of the 1,800 people arrested
and detained during the 2004 Republican
Naitonal Convention. Daniel L. Meyers, the
Chapter’s President, says: “Our history both
informs and inspires our work today. As long as
the government continues to issue subpoenas
for clearly protected information, the NYC
Chapter will continue its longstanding tradi-
In Support of Pakistani Lawyers
In fall 2007, Guild chapters across the country staged protests
in solidarity with Pakistani lawyers who were being oppressed
as their government shut down the legal system. There were
strong showings in New York City, Boston, Portland and Minneapolis
(left), among others. Soon after, the Guild organized a
delegation to head to Pakistan to build on strategies in support
of persecuted Pakistani lawyers.
Left: Minneapolis NLG board member Peter Henner addresses an
audience at a protest in support of Pakistani lawyers.

Green Scare
When the FBI began using terms like “eco-terrorism,”
labeling the animal rights movement the number one
domestic terrorism threat and issuing subpoenas to
environmental and animal rights activists, the Guild
responded. The
Green Scare Hotline
was created
in 2006 to provide
legal support to
animal and environmental
rights
activists who are
arrested, harassed
or subpoenaed by
local or federal law
enforcement. Since
its inception, the
hotline has connected
callers with
experienced attorneys,
and provided
a barometer of the
scope of FBI activities
nationwide.
Beth Baltimore
“Taking calls from targeted activists provided me
with a better understanding of government tactics of
repression, and the important role attorneys play in
times of crisis. It allowed me to become involved with
the Guild nationally while I was still a law student,” says
Beth Baltimore, who graduated from Brooklyn Law
School this past year. While at school, Beth monitored
the Green Scare Hotline for two years.
tion of safeguarding First Amendment
protected material.”
Military Recruiters
Guild lawyers in the Bay area worked
with other community activists to put a
voter initiative on the November ballot
to regulate the location of both public
and private military recruiters through
zoning restrictions. NLG Berkeleybased
lawyer Sharon Adams said, “The
city has the power to regulate the areas
where businesses can locate, and even
to decide what kinds of businesses can
locate in what areas. We believe that
the military recruiters...lie to the young
men and women about the benefits of
being in the military. All we are doing
is using zoning laws to do what zoning
laws are uniquely designed to do—to
regulate the location of recruiters by
prohibiting them from being in or near
neighborhoods, schools and parks.”
Testifying Before Congress
On May 6, 2008, National Lawyers
Guild President Marjorie Cohn testified
before the Subcommittee on the
Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil
Liberties of the House Judiciary Committee
at a hearing titled “From the
Department of Justice to Guantánamo
Bay: Administration Lawyers and Administration
Interrogation Rules.”
Just a month before, the National
Lawyers Guild called for John Yoo to
be tried as a war criminal for his role
in writing memos justifying the use of
torture. We also urged the University of
California Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School
of Law to dismiss him for conspiring to
facilitate the commission of war crimes.
The Guild called on Congress to repeal
the provision of the Military Commissions
Act that would give Yoo immunity
from prosecution for torture committed
from September 11, 2001 to December
30, 2005.
In her Congressional testimony, Guild
President Marjorie Cohn said, “John
Yoo’s complicity in establishing the
policy that led to the torture of prisoners
constitutes a war crime under the
U.S. War Crimes Act.”
The NLG issued a white paper explaining
why all those who approved the use
of torture and committed it — whether
ordering it, approving it, or giving purported
legal advice to justify it — are

subject to prosecution under international
and U.S. domestic law.
Legal Observing in Japan
The National Lawyers Guild monitored
an escalation of force by Japanese police
against protestors of the Group of 8
Summit (G8 Summit) in the Japanese
island of Hokkaido, as well as in Sapporo,
Tokyo and other parts of Japan.
The Guild teamed up with WATCH, a
Japanese legal network created to document
police and government misconduct
during the anti-G8 protests.
Reporting from Japan, Dan Spalding,
Legal Worker Vice President of the
Guild, wrote: “Labor and peace movement
leaders were concerned that, for
organizing these protests, the police
would arrest them search their homes
and interrogate their family members.”
Japanese law permits police to hold and
interrogate suspects for 23 days without
formal charges. They are often interrogated
for 12 hours in a row, and forced
to sit on their knees all day while in
detention.
Freeing the Great Lawn
In a resounding victory for free speech
rights, Guild members at the Partnership
for Civil Justice (PCJ) won a
landmark settlement agreement with
the City of New York that struck down
key provisions of controversial and
unconstitutional regulations aimed at
restricting access to the Great Lawn of
Central Park. The National Council of
Arab Americans and the ANSWER Coalition
were the plaintiffs in the lawsuit,
brought when the groups refused to
acquiesce to the City’s denial of permits
for mass action during the 2004
Republican National Convention. The
City must now create a constitutionally
valid permitting scheme for protests in
Central Park and must complete a feasibility
study that includes what efforts
can be undertaken to increase its availability
for rallies and demonstrations.
The suit was brought by the PCJ attorneys
Carl Messineo and Mara Verheyden-Hilliard,
as well as Carol Sobel.
Verheyden-Hilliard and Sobel are both
co-chairs of the Guild’s Mass Defense
Committee.
Warrantless Wiretapping
One of the most significant threats to civil liberties has
been the government’s warrantless wiretapping program.
Guild members Steven Goldberg and Ashlee Albies,
along with Zaha
Hassan, Lisa Jaskol,
Tom Nelson and Jon
Eisenberg, worked
tirelessly this past year
in representing the
Al-Haramain Islamic
Foundation and
two of its attorneys.
The Foundation is
the U.S. branch of a
global Muslim charity
organization that
was under investigation
for alleged
links to terrorism. The
plaintiffs had reason
to believe, based
on an inadvertently
disclosed top secret
document, that they
Ashlee Albies
had been subject to illegal surveillance. They filed a
legal challenge to the wiretapping program as a violation
of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 2006.
In 2007, the Ninth Circuit refused to dismiss the case,
instead remanding it to district court to decide whether
the classified document could be used as evidence in
the plaintiffs’ case. The district court judge, in an order allowing
plaintiffs to file an amended complaint based on
non-classified evidence, strongly criticized the government
and the wiretap program.

Mass Defense
Individuals and organizations trust and rely
on the National Lawyers Guild to monitor
large assemblies and smaller gatherings to
ensure that infringements of First Amendment
liberties do not go unchallenged. Our
unique legal observer program sends trained
observers to monitor law enforcement at rallies
and marches in an effort to create a safe atmosphere
for people to express their political views.
In addition, Guild members frequently take the
lead in representing those arrested and mounting
legal challenges to unconstitutional law
enforcement policies.
Sit-in at Des Moines
In a case that attracted national attention, Guild
member Sally Frank represented three of five
defendants charged with trespass for a sit-in at
Senator Grassley’s office in February 2007 as
part of a campaign to protest the war in Iraq.
In July 2007, a jury in Des Moines acquitted
the five of trespass. On May 21, 2008 a judge
dismissed charges of obstructing a federal office
that had also been filed against the activists in
federal court, finding them not guilty despite
their admission that they had refused an order
by a U.S. Department of Homeland Security
officer to leave the office. The five argued that
they had a First Amendment right to have their
grievances heard by the Senator, and that he
had refused to hear it. A local newspaper noted
that the verdict suggested that the jurors agreed
that the peace and justice activists’ freedom of
speech, right to assemble, and right to have
their grievances heard by their elected representative
had been abridged by their arrest and
removal from Senator Grassley’s office. The notguilty
verdict, the first following several trespassing
convictions over recent years by members
of the group, was considered a victory of mass
proportions.
Upholding Public Assembly in Florida
On May 18, 2007 the Guild settled a lawsuit
challenging parade and public assembly laws in
Fort Lauderdale. The U.S. District Court approved
a settlement agreement which prohibits
the City from enforcing ordinances allowing
officials to restrict political demonstrations on
public sidewalks and streets. The laws included
an exemption allowing “bona-fide religious
sects or organizations,” but not political groups,
to freely assemble and had no time limitation
on processing permits for parades and assemblies.
They also granted unlawful discretion
to government officials to deny permits based
on disagreement with the views expressed, and
unreasonably regulated the items that could be
used to convey a political message. Guild members
Carol Sobel, Robert Ross, Mara Shlackman
and Andrea Costello worked with lawyers from
Southern Legal Counsel and with the ACLU of
Florida.
Changing Law Enforcement Policy
On May 10, 2007, the Guild and attorneys
from the Mexican American Legal Defense and
Educational Fund (MALDEF), filed a class action
lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles on
behalf of the community groups who organized
a May Day immigrants’ rights rally at MacArthur
Park. The event, held in the city’s heavily
Latino immigrant community, was disrupted
by the Los Angeles Police Department when
riot-gear clad officers swept through without
warning and ordered everyone to leave the park.
To date, videos of the rally and police action
have failed to substantiate the police claims of
provocation for the massive and brutal police
response. The suit seeks changes in how the Los
Angeles Police Department responds to demonstrations,
as well as damages for all of the peaceful
participants in the rally who were brutalized
by the police and chased from the park.

Free to Protest in Maine:
Assisted by Guild attorney Lynne Williams, twelve political activists won their case after they were arrested for protesting inside Senator
Susan Collins’s office. Historian Howard Zinn wrote to the legal team after the verdict: “In the Viet Nam years when juries began aquitting
defendants we knew the tide had turned in public opinion, and this was being reflected in the courtroom.”

Student Work
Law students are one of the most active
elements of the National Lawyers
Guild today, as well as being—quite
literally—the future of the organization.
They bring new ideas and energy to our
collective work, informed by their experiences
from other contemporary movements. Over the
past several years, the number of NLG student
chapters has grown from 70 to over 100.
Disorientation
Law school can be a challenging time for
progressive students, so from the time they step
on campus, incoming students are welcomed
by their student chapter. Each year we organize
“NLG Disorientation Week” at law schools
to coincide with the school’s official orientation
period. We distribute the Disorientation
Handbook, a guide to crafting an individualized,
enriching law school experience that applauds
incoming students’ decision to use their law
school education and career for social change.
“Knowing that other students have been there
before helps progressive students navigate the
difficult experience of being a 1L,” said one
Guild student member. “The Handbook was a
huge motivating factor in my making it through
the first year.”
In addition to maintaining a much needed
progressive voice at law schools, Guild students
play a vital role in all aspects of the NLG’s
work, often being some of the most active
members in national committees and local organizing.
In the process, students are exposed to
thousands of experienced lawyers using the law
for social change.
“I view the Guild as a way to get students
In New York City, Cardozo
law students worked on
prison issues with the “Drop
the Rock” coalition during
2008.
Pictured: Cardozo NLG members
Jason Greenberg, Jaya Vasandani
and Joshua Moscowitz with Robert
Gangi (second from right), director
of the Correctional Association.

directly involved in the community,
whether through legal pro bono work
or other service,” says Eric Sirota of the
University of Illinois, whose chapter cosponsored
a week-long trip to conduct
relief work in New Orleans, as well as
Know Your Rights workshops at a local
battered women’s shelter.
Death Penalty Abolition
The National Office helps chapters
across the country coordinate events
for the annual March 1 Student Day
Against the Death Penalty (SDADP).
We send packets to each chapter and
help them organize speakers, rallies, film
screenings and press releases to local media.
This year, Drexel University hosted
an exonerated death row inmate along
with a representative of Murder Victims’
Families for Reconciliation as part of
their SDADP events.
Legal Observing
Guild law students are central to legal
observer programs. For example, students
from the University of Denver
were integral to the success of the Guild’s
People’s Law Project (PLP), formed to
protect the right to dissent outside of
the Democratic National Convention in
Denver. Heather Skrypek and Shannon
Carson commented on their experience,
“The PLP has allowed us to implement
the knowledge we have gained in the
classroom to support a cause we deeply
believe in. This summer we have had the
opportunity to work alongside some of
the brightest and most passionate attorneys
in Denver.”
Looking to the Future
The National Office strives to show
students that becoming a peoples lawyer
remains a viable alternative to the corporate
track. Students who get involved in
national committees and regional chapters
often see young lawyers who are now
full-time civil rights, immigration or
labor lawyers, maintaining the principles
of the NLG while making a living.
“I want the Guild to provide students
with something I have felt a distinct lack
of — a community dedicated to supporting
social justice and leftist change,”
says University of North Carolina law
student Miriam Haskell.
Student Organizer Michel Martinez works hard to
make sure the Guild remains a presence on campuses
across the country. “It is inspiring to see Guild
students active beyond their campuses, making
direct contributions toward progressive change,”
says Michel.

Monitoring the National Conventions
For over a year the Guild’s Denver and
Minneapolis Chapters readied for the
2008 political conventions, anticipating
the full array of unlawful police
practices that we witnessed in 2000 and 2004.
Lawyers were on call during and after the conventions,
our members set up hotlines to track
arrestees, and we submitted many pre-event
legal challenges to restrictions to the exercise of
free speech. Lawsuits challenging unconstitutional
government actions are being brought in
order to ensure that we stop these practices.
Minneapolis
The crackdown on lawful dissent was nothing
short of astonishing. At the Republican Convention,
Guild members witnessed the culmination
of years of tracking, spying and gathering
information on independent media and activists.
Officers in riot gear burst into organizers’ and
journalists’ houses brandishing semi-automatic
weapons and seized computers, journals, video
equipment and political pamphlets. NLG attorneys
were handcuffed and others were forced
onto the floor.
Confidential informants, on behalf of law
enforcement, infiltrated the RNC Welcoming
Committee. In what appears to be the first use
of criminal charges under the 2002 Minnesota
version of the PATRIOT Act, Ramsey County
Prosecutors charged alleged leaders of the Committee
with Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance
of Terrorism. Affidavits released by law enforcement
(which were filed in support of search
warrants used in several raids the weekend preceding
the RNC) alleged that members of the
group sought to kidnap RNC delegates, assault
police officers with firebombs and explosives,
and sabotage airports in St. Paul. There has
been no corroboration of these allegations with
physical or other evidence.
“These charges are an effort to equate publicly
stated plans to blockade traffic and disrupt the
RNC as being the same as acts of terrorism.
This both trivializes real violence and attempts
to place the stated political views of the defendants
on trial,” said Minneapolis NLG President
Bruce Nestor. “The charges represent an
abuse of the criminal justice system and seek
to intimidate any person organizing large scale
public demonstrations potentially involving
civil disobedience.”
Denver
Under the leadership of Guild members Brian
Vicente, Thom Cincotta, Hans Meyer, and Tim
Quinn, the Colorado Guild prepared for over a
year before the Convention to recruit volunteer
attorneys and legal observers. On numerous
instances, observers were present to dissuade
police misconduct, and to record it when it
happened. On one night of mass arrests, Guild
attorneys rushed to a temporary warehouse jail
and demanded to meet with arrestees. When
Denver judges decided, without any notice to
the public, to keep the courts open overnight
and began bringing arrestees still covered in
pepper spray to arraignments, Guild attorneys
and law student volunteers worked 10 - and
14-hour overnight shifts at the county court
providing legal advice and representation to
each arrestee.
Post-convention, the Colorado Guild organized
Guild representation for dozens of arrestees
with criminal cases, assisted with the filing of
internal affairs complaints, collecting evidence
and preparing for possible civil cases.

Supporting Jailhouse Lawyers
“The Jailhouse Lawyers [Handbook] sent by you
to me will be the ONLY updated legal information
that inmates in my ‘barracks’ will have easy
access to.” – Inmate in Arkansas.
Since 2003, groups of volunteers meet
weekly at the Guild office to mail
prisoners the Jailhouse Lawyers Handbook,
published jointly with the Center
for Constitutional Rights. In 2008 our pool of
dedicated volunteers grew even larger.
In the past year we have expanded the goals of
the program and begun tracking the requests
as well as sending short surveys to prisoners
who receive the Handbook. We have received
40% of the surveys back and already they are
revealing pertinent information on the kinds of
abuses inmates are dealing with:
• 47% of the inmates stated that they requested
the Handbook because they have been
denied medical care
32% stated that they requested the Handbook
because they have been abused or
harassed by the correctional officers
• 24% said that they requested the Handbook
because their religious beliefs had been
violated
• 88% of the inmates stated that they plan on
filing or continuing with their Section 1983
claim after having received the Handbook
The need for the Jailhouse Lawyers Handbook
continues to grow. We are still only able to fill
around 25% of the requests we receive. Each
Handbook costs a little more than $2 to send,
and we have raised around $600 this year by
adding an optional $2 donation line on our
membership forms. We hope we can garner
more donations to fill this gap.
Beyond providing legal help to prisoners, the
program has energized local law students and
community members. Alissa Hull, a law student
at the City University of New York Law School,
began as a volunteer last year and is now taking
over as volunteer coordinator of the weekly
sessions.
“I was inspired by the positive impact the
Handbook seemed to have on prisoners’ lives
and their struggle to protect their Constitutional
rights,” Alissa says. “The lack of free or
low cost legal materials and sub-standard law
libraries in jails and prisons is acutely felt by
inmates and makes the Handbook an invaluable
resource.”
“It’s a simple but effective program,” says former
NLG staffer Ian Head, who co-edited the
Handbook in 2003. “We’ve heard from prisoners
that the Handbooks are highly sought-after.”
We receive frequent letters of appreciation from
inmates, such as this note from one in a California
correctional facility:
“I would like to thank you very much for what
you lawyers are doing! Sometimes in this environment,
it’s easy to forget there are people who
care. So THANK YOU.”
To read the Handbook, visit jailhouselaw.org
and download a free copy in PDF format.

Justice for Pakistani Lawyers
“The Pakistan Justice Coalition’s commitment
to the lawyers’ movement
stems from our ethical and professional
obligation to support our counterparts
in their efforts to practice our
shared profession with integrity.”
Ryan Hancock, Mid-Atlantic VP of the
National Lawyers Guild.
On November 3, 2007, Pakistan’s
President Pervez Musharraf
declared a state of emergency,
suspended the constitution, shut
down the judicial system and arrested en mass
lawyers, judges and members of civil society.
In response, a delegation of Guild members
including Radhika Sainath, Kerem Levitas, Saba
Ahmed, Kathy Johnson, David Gespass, Enoka
Herat, Ryan Allen Hancock, Shahid Buttar, and
Devin Theriot-Orr ventured into the political
turmoil of Pakistan to defend the rule of law.
During their two-week stay, they traveled extensively
throughout Pakistan, interviewed over
60 jurists, lawyers, political party representatives,
elected officials, civil servants, journalists,
students, activists, among others.
The Guild was the only legal organization that
sent a delegation of lawyers and law students to
Pakistan during martial law. Upon their return
they released a report: Defending Dictatorship:
U.S. Foreign Policy and Pakistan’s Struggle for
Democracy and established the Pakistan Justice
Coalition (PJC) which has organized action
days nationwide in which many Guild members
have participated.
Specifically, PJC hosted a speaking tour featuring
Hamid Khan, Pakistan constitutional scholar; Sahibzada
Anwar Hamid, former Vice President of
the Supreme Court Bar Association; and Shahid
Buttar and Ryan Hancock of NLG. The elevenday
tour addressed over 1,000 people in 24 audiences
from a wide range of institutions, including
government representatives from the Department
of State and House Committee on Foreign Affairs;
bar associations in New York and Philadelphia;
policy analysts at the U.S. Institute of Peace,
and the Center for Strategic and International
Studies; journalists from BBC, NPR, Voice of
America, local newspapers and international and
Pakistani media; legal academic communities at
NYU, Columbia University, the University of
Pennsylvania, Rutgers-Camden, American University
Washington College of Law and Brooklyn
Law School; and Amnesty International.
Due in a large part to the Pakistan lawyers’ movement,
on August 18, 2008, Pervez Musharraf
resigned as president of Pakistan. Even though
Pervez Musharraf may be gone, Pakistan’s struggle
for an independent judiciary and the rule of
law continues. Each member of the delegation
continues to support and organize for the lawyers’
movement in their home towns.

International Delegations
In 2008, Guild members continued to forge strong
bonds with international legal and human rights
organizations, especially in places negatively
affected by United States foreign policies.
Egypt
Former Guild president Bruce Nestor represented
the Guild in a human rights delegation
to Egypt organized by the Muslim American
Society. The delegation investigated the use of
military tribunals by the Egyptian government
against members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Noting the importance of the trip, Nestor said:
“Such ties and interactions between groups
such as the Guild and the legal profession, civil
society organizations, and opposition political
movements in others countries, will become
even more important to the degree that the
United States government continues to ally
itself with narrow, corrupt military regimes in
the Islamic world.”
Cuba
This spring the NLG Labor and Employment
committee undertook its ninth international
conference and research trip to Cuba. Guild
members linked up with over 100 labor lawyers
from around the world at a conference titled
“In Defense of Labor Rights and Social Security
and in Opposition to Neoliberal Policies” to
discuss workers rights and to brainstorm about
cross-border collaborations. In the days following
the conference, delegates conducted field
research through workplace visits and interviews
with Cuban labor leaders and workers. Delegates
renewed their pledge to work towards
normalization of relations with Cuba.
Venezuela
Members of the Guild’s Massachusetts chapter
served as official international observers of the
December 2, 2007 referendum on amendments
to the Venezuelan Constitution. After two days
of training they spent 15 hours visiting polling
stations to observe their openings and closings,
vote counts, and paper audits. They also
arranged and attended various other meetings
to build upon past Guild work in Venezuela.
As delegate Judy Somberg says, “The Guild
has made many friends in Venezuela starting
with our 2006 delegation and will continue
to deepen our ties with future trips which will
specifically look at labor issues in Venezuela and
the role of U.S. aid.”

Political Prisoners
The Guild advocated publicly this
past year for justice in several longstanding
political cases. Dr. Sami-Al
Arian, who was arrested on charges
of aiding terrorism in 2003, was released on bail
in early September for the first time since his
arrest. Although a Florida jury in 2006 refused
to find him guilty of a single count of the 17
charges against him, the federal prosecutor continued
to hold him in punitive detention and
to violate their no-cooperation agreement by
calling Al-Arian before several grand juries.
Past NLG president Peter Erlinder, Al-Arian’s
counsel in the 4th and 11th Circuit Courts of
Appeal, said of this practice: “The duplicity of
the Justice Department and the failure of the
courts to recognize basic contract-law principles
in this case is an example of how politically-motivated
‘war on terror’ prosecutions are distorting
the American legal system.” Al-Arian, who
was under house arrest, faces pending criminal
contempt charges for refusing to appear before
the grand jury. Defense attorneys filed a petition
for habeas corpus with the court, challenging
his continued unlawful detention by Immigration
and Customs Enforcement.
The Guild believes that politics also influenced
the June 5 federal appeals court decision
upholding the convictions of five Cuban
patriots accused of spying in the United States.
The so-called Cuban Five gathered information
on U.S.-based exile groups planning terrorist
actions against their island nation and submitted
their findings to the FBI a decade ago. In
turn, the government arrested them, meting out
harsh prison sentences, including life terms. Despite
lack of any evidence against the Five, two
judges on a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit
Court of Appeals upheld the most serious
charges. The Guild has submitted amicus briefs
in the case of the Five, a case on which longtime
member Len Weinglass is an attorney. The NLG
has organized many educational events on this
political influences that resulted in the Five’s
convictions.
In late March, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal v.
Martin Horn. In a 118-page written decision,
two of the three judges denied the defense’s
Batson v. Kentucky claim, namely that the prosecution
was motivated by racial discrimination
when it struck blacks from the panel of prospective
jurors. Dissenting from the opinion, Justice
Thomas Ambro questioned why the court chose
this case to announce a new procedural requirement
and wrote that he would have ordered a
hearing and required the prosecution to explain
its challenges of black jury panelists. “It is
merely to take the next step in deciding whether
race was impermissibly considered during jury
selection in this case,” he wrote.
Executive Director Heidi Boghosian said, “This
decision is a somber reminder that the criminal
justice system has been unable to eradicate the
continuing impacts of racism. Despite evidence
that racial bias influenced all stages of Mumia
Abu-Jamal’s trial and appeals, an award-winning
journalist has been denied the chance to prove
the extent to which overt racial animus colored
his day in court.”

Donors
Without members’ generous commitment of money, time and thought, we could not carry on the work that we do.
Between August 2007 and July 2008, the following individuals made contributions in support of the National Lawyers Guild.
$25,000 +
Cathy Connealy
The CS Fund
$10,000 – 24,999
Sally Frank
The Maverick Lloyd Foundation
Jeanne Mirer
$5,000 – 9,999
Peter Erlinder
The Funding Exchange
Tim Hoffman
Barbara Kessler and Richard Soble
Karen Jo Koonan
Jody LeWitter and Marc Van Der Hout
Jonathan Moore
$1,000 – 4,999
Anonymous
Carol Hope Arber
Michael Avery
Dorothy Bender
Robert Burton
Marjorie Cohn
Karen R. Cordry
Ted Dooley
James Douglas
Barbara Dudley
Linda Fullerton
Steven Goldberg
Martha and Leon Goldin
Frances Goldin
Cynthia Heenan
The Isabel Johnson Hiss Bequest
William Houston
Craig Kaplan
Caroline Knight
Richard “Terry” Koch
Jeffrey Mackler
Holly Maguigan
Brian McInerney
Carlin Meyer
NLG New York Chapter
NLG Pittsburgh Chapter
NLG San Francisco Chapter
NLG Washington DC Chapter
Isabel Posso
Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky &
Lieberman, PC
Francis Rachel
Michael Ratner
Jennie Rhine
Matt Ross
Jon Schoenhorn
Frances Schreiberg
Ryan Senser
Carol Sobel
Judy Somberg
John Spragens, Jr.
Norton Tooby
Doron Weinberg
Theresa Wright
Ellen Yaroshefsky
$500 – 999
Yousef Abudayyeh
Florian Bartosic
Stephen Bedrick
David Borgen
Brian and Gillian Campbell
Jessie Cook
Edelstein, Payne & Haddix
Antony Falco
Jeffrey Frank
Peter Gardiner
Paul Gattone
David Gespass
William Goodman
Hadsell & Stormer
Toby Hollander

Abdeen Jabara
Kaplan, O’Sullivan & Friedman, LLP
Kazan, McClain, Abrams, Lyons & Greenwood
Cathy Kornblith
Erika Kreider
Jeffrey Lake
Barrett Litt
Mary Jo Long
William Monning
Darrel Mortimer
National Jury Project Midwest
NLG Connecticut Chapter
NLG Labor and Employment Committee
NLG National Immigration Project
NLG Portland Chapter
Roxana Orrell
Jerome William Paun
Jack and Janet Roach
John Rodgers
Robert Schmid
Justin Schwartz
Nancy Shafer
Southern Poverty Law Center
Diane Thompson
UC Davis Immigrant Detention Project
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard
Jerry Wallingford
Doris Brin Walker
Barbara Zeluck
$250 – 499
AFL/CIO
Bernard Aisenberg
Daniel Alterman
Maria Elena Andrade
George Appell
Dana Biberman
Vivienne Blanquie
Ruth Callard
Constance Carpenter
Center for Constitutional Rights
Fred Cohen
Committee for County Progress
Curtis Cooper
Vijaya Dharmapuri and Steven Bernhaut
Edward Elder
Farmworker Justice Fund
Garnett Harrison
Amanda Hawes
Helen Hershkoff
Nancy Hormachea
Immigrant Legal Resource Center
Robert Jobe
David Kairys
Kennedy, Jennik & Murray, PC
James Klimaski
William Leibold
Richard Lipsitz
Daniel Livingston
Emily Maloney
National Organization of Legal Services Workers
NLG Cornell Law School Chapter
NLG Los Angeles Chapter
NLG Massachusetts Chapter
David Nawi
Susan Orlanksy
Jeff Petrucelly
Sandra Pettit
Lillian Pollak
Ramona Ripston
Renee Quintero Sanchez
Peter and Toshi-Aline Seeger
Joan Simon
Stanley Simon
Eric Smith
Michael Steven Smith
Susan von Arx
United Electrical Radio
Allen Weinrub
Peter Weiss
Mary Zulach
$100 – 249
ACLU Immigrants Rights Project
ADCO Foundation
Lee Adler
Joan Andersson
Jessica Barksdale
Antoine J. Bastien van der Meer
Asian American Legal Defense
Sherryl Beamon
Brenna Bell
Phyllis Bennis
Gerald Blank
Patty Blum
Earl Bower
Renee Bowser
John Brittain
Margaret Cammer

Ellen Chapnick
Constitutional Litigation Associates
Claudia Davidson
Alvin Dorfman
Rochelle Dorfman
Marianne Dugan
Shelia Dugan
Ruth Emerson
Michael Fahey
Henry Feldman
Solomon Fisher
The Fort Point Gang
Walter Gerash
Terry Gilbert
Ranya Ghuma
Abby Ginzberg
Greg Gladden
Bruce Goldstein
Ira Gollobin
Janice Goodman
Nancy Grim
Evalena Hackman
Polly Halfkenny
Louise Halper
John Hardenbergh
Paul Harris
Joan Hill
Kristin Hoffman
Barbara Honig
Mary Howell
The Impact Fund
Susan Jordan
Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing & Feinberg LLP
Louis Katz
Dorothy Keller
Kenneth Kreuscher
Ellen Lake
Sylvia Law
John Lee
Simone Levine
Betty Levinson
Jessica Long
Kay Madden
Lynn Marcus
Sean McAllister
Martha McCluskey
Courtney McDermed
Metcalf, Kaspari, Howard, Engdahl & Lazarus, P.A.
Midnight Special Law Collective
Ken (Winston) Miller
Heather Mills
National Immigration Law Center
NLG Chicago Chapter
NLG Colorado Chapter
NLG Disability Rights Committee
NLG Lewis & Clark Law School
NLG Mass Defense Committee
NLG New Jersey Chapter
NLG The United People of Color Caucus
NLG University of Wisconsin Law School
NYSDA Immigrant Defense Project
Bruce Nestor
Robert Pauw
Clayton Perry
Robert and Carolyn Phelan
Kathryn Popper
John Powell
William Quigley
Deborah Rand
Tina Rasnow
Julia Robbins
Emily Roberson
Stephen Rohde
Rosenberg Fund for Children, Inc.
James Roth
David Saldana
Nina Segre
Ilyce Schugall
Susan Scott
Fred Slough
Slough Connealy Irwin & Madden LLC
Deborah Smaller
Deborah Smith
Judy Smith
Richard Solomon
Judy Stearns
Nancy Stearns
Joseph Stein
Mark Taylor
Rebecca Thornton
William Tilton
Susan Tipograph
Lee Tockman
Stacy Tolchin
Erica Tomlinson
Laurie Traktman
Darci Van Duzer
Elaine Wender
Ellen Widess

Wendy Wilson
Bernard Wolfsdorf
Barbara Wolvowitz
Sarah Wunsch
Eva and Joe Zirker
We would also like to thank the great number of
donors who supported us with gifts under $100.
Thank you for your important endorsement of our
work.
If there is a problem with your listing, please
accept our apologies and contact us so that we
may correct the error. Call Cecilia Amrute,
Development Associate, at (212) 679-5100, ext. 14,
or frontdesk@nlg.org.
Bay Area Sustainers
NLG members in the Bay Area chapter who contribute
$500 or more do so with the understanding that a
portion of their gift will go to support the Guild’s
national work. These Sustainers maximize the impact
of their gift by supporting progressive legal work in their
community and by helping us to organize the work
done locally into a nation-wide legal movement for
social justice. We are grateful to these members for the
vital support they provide to the National Office.
Cristina Arguedas
Mike Baller
Andrea Biren and Rick Beal
Bogatin, Corman & Gold
David Borgen
Anne Brandon
Dale Brodsky
Allan Brotsky
Kathryn Burkett Dickson
Carpenter & Mayfield
Jeffrey Carter
Richard Doctoroff
Milton Estes
Ted Franklin
Jeremy Friedman
Linda Fullerton
Furtado, Jaspovice & Simons
Nina Gagnon Fendel
Gordon Gaines and Phyllis Gaines
Abby Ginzberg
Goldstein, Demchak, Baller, Borgen & Dardarian
Larry Gordon
Greenstein & McDonald
Terry Gross
Joseph Gross
Stuart Hanlon
David Hettick
Luke and Marti Hiken
Nancy Hormachea
Kazan, McClain, Abrams, Lyons, Greenwood &
Harley
Karen Jo Koonan
Cathy Kornblith
Andrew Krakoff and Jeannie Sternberg
Judy Kurtz
Clyde Leland
Leslie Frann Levy
Lewis, Feinberg, Lee, Renaker & Jackson
Miles Locker and Jane Dressler
Nancy Lowenthal
Latika Malkani and Ray Cardozo
Chris Miller and Pam Allen
Heather Mills
Susan Mooney
Ann Noel and Isaac Cohen
John O’Grady
Jennie Rhine and Tom Meyer
Barbara Rhine and Walter Riley
Matthew Rinaldi
Patti Roberts
David Rockwell and Nancy Smith
Leslie Rose and Alan Ramo
Deborah Ross
Matt Ross
Stephen Schear
Brad Seligman and Sara Campos
Dan Siegel
Siegel & LeWitter
Simmons & Ungar
Debbie Smith
Sundeen, Salinas & Pyle
Norton Tooby
John True
Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale
Mark Vermeulen
Rick Warren
Weinberg & Wilder
David Weintraub
Ellen Widess
Steve Zieff

2007 Financials
Net assets as of December 31, 2006 $132,960
Change in net assets $ -45,062
Net assets as of December 31, 2007 $ 87,989
Grant revenue $478,430
Membership dues $136,216
Merchandise revenue $ 2,827
Convention revenue $ 94,603
Royalties and publications $ 81,911
Interest income $ 45
Program $742,980
Fundraising $ 2,944
General and Administrative $ 93,170

National Executive Committee
President
Marjorie Cohn
Executive Vice Presidents
Russell Bloom
Judy Somberg
Treasurer
Roxana Orrell
National Vice Presidents
Mercedes Castillo
David Gespass
Dan Gregor
Legal Worker Vice President
Daniel Spalding
Jailhouse Lawyer Vice Presidents
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Mark Cook
Paul Wright
Student Vice Presidents
Jake Martinez
Robert Quackenbush
Regional Vice Presidents
Thom Cincotta
Sally Frank
Peter Goselin
Ryan Hancock
Cynthia Heenan
Peggy Herman
D’ann Johnson
Kenneth Kreuscher
Katherine Shepherd
Rebecca Thornton
Lynne Williams
COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVES
Disability Rights
Aaron Frishberg
Robin Stephens
Drug Policy
Shaleen Aghi
Guild Practitioner
Peter Erlinder
International
Jim Lafferty
Jeanne Mirer
Labor and Employment
Polly Halfkenny
Mass Defense
Carol Sobel
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard
Military Law Task Force
Dan Mayfield
National Police
Accountability Project
Brigitt Keller
Next Generation
Ashlee Albies
Brenna Bell
Queer Caucus
Katy Clemens
Sara Sturtevant
TUPOCC
Anne Befu
Zafar Shah
NATIONAL OFFICE STAFF
Executive Director
Heidi Boghosian
Development Associate
Cecilia Amrute
Publications Manager
Ian Head
Membership Coordinator
Ian Brannigan
Student Organizer
Michel Martinez
Communications Coordinator
Paige Cram

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
NATIONAL OFFICE
132 NASSAU STREET, ROOM 922, NEW YORK, NY 10038
212 679-5100 FAX 212 679-2811
WWW.NLG.ORG / NLGNO@NLG.ORG
All tax-deductible charitable gifts to the National Lawyers Guild must be made payable to the National Lawyers Guild Foundation.