Volunteer

Justice Lab relies on the dedication and generosity of pro bono attorneys, Community Partners, and other volunteers who make this project possible. 

We work with private sector law firms, legal clinics, grassroots organizations, and directly-impacted individuals to empower communities of color to combat police violence and misconduct.

Justice Lab volunteers serve in a variety of roles: from helping with legal intake and investigations, to serving as Community Consulting Experts who provide boots-on-the-ground knowledge and expertise to legal teams. Here is an overview of the ways volunteers can contribute to this effort, and how you can get involved.

Attorneys & Legal Professionals

In partnership with the ACLU of Louisiana’s Justice Lab, law firms spearhead challenges to racially-motivated stops and seizures by bringing individual actions under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as any other applicable laws. Attorneys also work as intake volunteers responsible for reaching out to potential plaintiffs and documenting their stories.

Participating law school legal clinics are responsible for appealing unfavorable constitutional and qualified immunity decisions that result from the trial court actions spearheaded by the law firms in the network. Legal clinics are organized to focus on distinct localities and/or police districts in Louisiana, and will be put in touch with the law firm(s) that brought related trial court actions.

Read more about becoming a law firm or legal clinic partner.

More information for intake volunteers.

Community Partners

At Justice Lab, we recognize that litigation is not the only way to support directly impacted people. We also need the community’s input in order to develop resources that will meet the community’s needs. We want to facilitate bringing together those in our community who have been or want to be further engaged in this work in order to empower directly impacted people and their families.

A Justice Lab Community Partner is anyone who has been directly impacted by racist policing practices or misconduct, or anyone committed to supporting directly impacted people and their families. A Community Partner can be: an organization; a business; a directly impacted person or their family; an activist; a member of the legal community; an artist, photographer, or writer; or anyone who can provide or facilitate a service for a directly impacted person.

Read more about how to become a Community Partner.

Community Consulting Experts

To ensure that the cases Justice Lab litigates stay rooted in community and the larger goals of the movement for racial justice, the ACLU of Louisiana’s Justice Lab aims to pair each Justice Lab law firm partner with a local consulting expert—who has both lived and experienced injustice at the hands of law enforcement in or around the locality of a specific case. These Community Consulting Experts (CCEs) will provide localized boots-on-the-ground expertise that will inform Justice Lab litigation and trial strategy.

Learn more about becoming a community consulting expert.

Stay Informed

Report Police Misconduct