The Legal Empowerment Fund is a new funding opportunity launched by California ChangeLawyers. The Fund was created as a response to the deepening public consciousness about the importance of law on social justice issues and the need for lawyers of all backgrounds to rise to the challenges posed by the ongoing racial reckoning and the lack of equal justice under the law.
The Fund adopts a broad-based approach to harnessing the power of lawyers for good. Specifically, the fund seeks to: foster movement lawyering; build the capacity of smaller and newer legal organizations; and support new, diverse leaders in the legal profession.
2021 was the first year of the Fund and is a pilot program for ChangeLawyers. For this inaugural launch, and with the support of other funders- a total of $512,500 was granted to 13 organizations across the State of California. We hope this fund will have deep impacts for the community and we intend to grow the program throughout increased partnerships in 2022.
