Introducing the ACLU of Louisiana's Inaugural Law Firm Challenge
April 1 — May 7, 2024
Support the future of the Justice Lab.
The ACLU of Louisiana launched the Justice Lab—a litigation, policy, and organizing project that holds police accountable for unconstitutional actions against people of color - in the summer of 2020. With your pro bono support, our small affiliate has filed 67 cases against police since our launch. We’ve had 80 legal victories, including 28 qualified immunity wins, and we have secured $500,000 in settlement funds for our clients, all of whom would not have had legal representation but for the Justice Lab. Together, your firms and the ACLU of Louisiana have fractured legal doctrines that protect police at the expense of Black families and communities.
We launched the Justice Lab with seed funding raised during New Orleans’s annual giving day campaign, GiveNOLA Day, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. All of our organization’s revenue is made through individual and institutional donations. The ACLU of Louisiana is committed to this project for 10 years, and we are confident that the outcomes we achieve together will change the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the Deep South. This year, as we continue litigating, we will launch a self-empowerment clinic for the hundreds of people whose cases we haven’t been able to take. Our goal is to use the learnings and legal arguments from our current cases and share them widely, to empower Black and brown communities to litigate cases on their own.
Our inaugural Law Firm Challenge will power the future of Justice Lab by expanding the ACLU of Louisiana’s legal team. If all 20 of our pro bono law firm partners participate in our Law Firm Challenge, totaling a collective gift of at least $200,000, we will be able to hire 2-3 new attorneys to help launch our Justice Lab self-empowerment clinic and ensure continued impact in the cases we litigate with partners like you.
Join the Law Firm Challenge.
GiveNOLA Day 2024 is on May 7, 2024. Your firm’s philanthropic support of our campaign in the amount of $25,000, $20,000, $15,000, $10,000, or $5,000 (based on firm size and resources), will not only empower our affiliate’s growth, it will build a culture of giving among all of the ACLU of Louisiana’s partners. This culture will be essential to us meeting the challenges that we face in the most incarcerated state in the nation. While policing may no longer be top of mind in privileged communities and funding for policing work is challenging to secure, people of color across the South continue to face injustice at the hands of police every single day.
The firms listed on this page act as pro bono partners in active Justice Lab cases, or cases that are pending on appeal. Your firm’s support will be recognized on our public leaderboard on our website, across the ACLU of Louisiana's social media channels, in a paid ad in Law360, and in a press release that you may repurpose to meet your needs. Top givers in each tier will receive our GiveNOLA Day Law Firm Champion Award, and will be recognized at an ACLU of Louisiana Pro Bono Firm Convening with partnering firms and Justice Lab clients in December.
All law firm gifts should be made or pledged in writing by May 1, 2024, and all pledges should be paid by December 15, 2024. We will include all giving in our GiveNOLA Day campaign total, which will undoubtedly make this our most successful GiveNOLA Day yet and empower the future of the Justice Lab Program for years to come.
Challenge Tiers
Local/Regional Firms
- Kuchler Polk Weiner LLC
- Barrasso Usdin Kupperman Freeman & Sarver LLC
- Aaron & Gianna PLC
- Miller Nash LLP
National Firms
- Reid Collins & Tsai LLP
- Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough
- Freedman Normand Friedland LLP
- Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
- Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer US LLP
- Akerman LLP
International Firms
- Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati P.C.
- Linklaters LLP
- IceMiller LLP
- Sidley Austin LLP
- Kelley Drye & Warren
- Covington & Burling LLP
- Latham & Watkins
- White & Case LLP
- Cooley LLP