Convenings
The US Legal Empowerment Network is growing. We’re convening leaders so communities across the country have the tools to know, use, shape and transform the laws and systems that impact their lives. We will continue to gather and share legal empowerment strategies and tactics to rebuild and redefine democracy from the grassroots.
2026 National Convening
The first US Legal Empowerment Convening brought 150 practitioners, organizers, community members and scholars together and transitioned what began as a 2023 US Legal Empowerment Leadership Course into a high-functioning, national infrastructure for justice. Pivoting from a moment to a movement, those leaders formed a Network and organized the 2026 Convening, which catalyzed concrete operational partnerships that are already scaling successful models across the country.
The 2026 convening was co-facilitated by US and global presenters on topics including:
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- Legal Empowerment theory and history
- Community paralegal movements
- Community data collection
- Accompaniment
- Popular Education
- Collaborating across the law
- Community organizing and social movements
- Global and US case studies of legal empowerment in action
- Trauma and wellbeing sessions to center care and connection
US and global practitioners explored how legal organizing tools democratize the law and build community power.
Sessions highlighted the ways community paralegals–from jailhouse lawyers in prison to tenant organizers in the Midwest–are not lawyers, but trusted neighbors who help their community members understand and use their rights, navigate complex systems, and take collective action to challenge injustice and repair harm.
Others reflected on how community collected data can be a tool for organizing and help secure binding worker-created standards; how to build neighborhood defense networks where communities are trained on law, organizing, and mutual aid to defend themselves and their communities from ICE enforcement; and ways legal education can serve as a form of empowerment to build youth and community power and knowledge.
How to get involved
Meet Us
Get to know the US Legal Empowerment Network.
Explore Our Events
Learn about the first US Legal Empowerment Convening.
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