, a co-founder of the National Lawyers Guild
1930s On December 1, 1936, nearly 25 East Coast lawyers met at the
City Club of New York to discuss creation of a new group counter to the conservative
American Bar Association.
United Auto Workers general counsel
Maurice Sugar was instrumental in calling the meeting. Lawyers present included:
Morris Ernst, Robert Silberstein and Mortimer Reimer of the Lawyers Security League, ACLU attorney
Osmond Fraenkel,
IJA-US founder
Carol Weiss King, and union lawyer Henry Sacher. The group agreed on an aim to unite "all lawyers who regarded adjustments to new conditions as more important than the veneration of precedent, who recognize the importance of safeguarding and extending the right of workers and farmers upon whom the welfare of the entire nation depends, of maintaining our civil rights and liberties and our democratic institutions". The group elected
Frank P. Walsh, member of the
New York State Power Authority, as its first president. Individuals particularly instrumental in the creation of the organization included
Harold I. Cammer and George Wagman Fish, among others. Other founding members included
Frank P. Walsh, Albert Wald,
Morris Ernst,
Jerome Frank, as well as the general counsels of the
American Federation of Labor and the
Congress of Industrial Organizations. Another co-founder was
Abraham Unger of New York City. Another early member was
Bartley Crum, defender of the
Hollywood Ten. The first Executive Secretary of the organization was Mortimer Riemer.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a letter of support: I am sure that the results of this meeting will be worth while. It is a time for progressive and constructive thinking, and having known most of you intimately for many years, I have every confidence that your deliberations will affect the welfare of your own profession and the well-being of the country at large. I send to you my hearty felicitations and warm personal regards. The National Lawyers Guild was the nation's first
racially integrated bar association. Before mid-March 1937, within two weeks of its founding, the NLG formed chapters in New York City, Newark, Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, St. Louis, and Chicago. including Riemer and
Joseph Brodsky of the CP's
International Labor Defense auxiliary. In 1937,
Allan R. Rosenberg joined the NLG and remained a member as late as 1956 during his second appearance before HUAC. In 1937,
Ferdinand Pecora was a founding member of the NLG. In 1944 the Special House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) chaired by
Texas Congressman
Martin Dies Jr. published a brief history of the NLG in its massive and controversial "Appendix — Part IX" cataloging so-called "Communist Front Organizations" and their supporters. This report charged that the NLG, despite being promoted as a "professional organization of liberal lawyers" had proven itself by its actions to be "just one more highly deceptive Communist-operated front organization, primarily intended to serve the interests of the Communist Party of the United States..." The document charged that "the National Lawyers Guild has faithfully followed the line of the Communist Party on numerous issues and has proven itself an important bulwark in defense of that party, its members, and organizations under its control." Particularly damning in HUAC's eyes was the NLG's reversal of position on the
war in Europe after the
June 22, 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union by the forces of
Nazi Germany, with an October resolution by the previously anti-war organization offering "unlimited support to all measures necessary to the defeat of Hitlerism" and supporting the
Roosevelt administration's policy of "'all out aid' and full collaboration with Great Britain, the Soviet Union, China, and other nations resisting Fascist aggression."
1950s In January 1950, the NLG published a report for US President
Harry S. Truman that accused the FBI of "systematic search by illegal methods" into the politics of thousands of private citizens, reported the
Washington Post. The report focused on FBI methods used against Soviet spy
Judith Coplon. The report recommended that the President stop such practices. It also recommended that the President appoint a committee of private citizens to investigate the FBI. Contributors to the report were NLG president
Clifford J. Durr, Frederick K. Beutel,
Thomas I. Emerson,
O. John Rogge, James A. Cobb,
Joseph Forer, and Robert J. Silberstein. On September 21, 1950, HUAC responded with
Report on the National Lawyers Guild: Legal Bulwark of the Communist Party. The HUAC report accused the NLG of playing a part in "an overall Communist strategy aimed at weakening our nation's defenses against the international Communist conspiracy." The report advocated that Guild members be barred from federal employment in light of the organization's alleged subversive character. From 1951 to 1954,
Earl B. Dickerson served as the first black president of the National Lawyers Guild. Dickerson was instrumental in contesting the proposed classification of the National Lawyers Guild as a "subversive organization". In 1954, the NLG New York chapter elected Frank Serri as president. Other officers included: Hubert T. Delany, Osmond K. Fraenkel, Leo J. Linder, Harold M. Phillips, David L. Weissman,
Julius Cohen, and Simon Schachter. Directors included:
Bella Abzug, Gloria Agrin, Michael B. Atkins, Benjamin H. Booth, Edward J. Cambridge,
Harold Cammer, William B. Cherevas,
George H. Cohen,
Frank Donner, Issac C. Donner, Stanley Faulkner, Royal W. France, Nathan Frankel, Doris Peterson Galen, Murray Gordon,
Charles Haydon, Lazaar Henkin, Bernard L. Jaffe, H. Leonard King, Rhoda Lakes, Mendel Lurie, Edward J. Malament, Stanley J. Mayer, Basil Pollitt,
Samuel Rosenberg, Arnold E. Rosenblum, Barney Rosenstein, Simon Rosenstein, Mildred Roth,
Harry Sacher, Arthur Schutzer, Elias M. Schwarzbart, Moses B. Sherr, Kenneth L. Shorter, Leonard P. Simpson, Lorna Rissler Wallach, and Henry R. Wolf.
1970s–1990s Again in 1974, the US Government determined that the NLG could not be declared subversive. In 1977, at the request of Arab-American lawyers, the NLG sent a delegation to the occupied Palestinian Territories and published its findings in a 1978 report: "Treatment of Palestinians in Israeli-Occupied West Bank and Gaza". In 1989 the FBI admitted its continued efforts to investigate and disrupt the NLG in the period from 1940 to 1975. The NLG mounted a campaign on her behalf. In November 2007, the NLG passed a resolution calling for the
impeachment of then President
George W. Bush and Vice President
Dick Cheney.
2010s In 2011, the NLG defended the
Occupy movement in the United States, making use of
temporary restraining orders on behalf of encamped activists in an effort to forestall the forced dispersal of their sites by law enforcement. Charging that the Occupy movement was the subject of a "coordinated national crackdown", NLG lawyers filed actions in
Boston, New York City,
San Diego,
Fort Myers,
Atlanta, and other cities seeking the temporary prohibition of site removal efforts. On October 8, 2023, one day after the
Hamas-led
attack on Israel, the NLG International Committee published a statement, which stated that "[a]t this historic moment" they reiterate the rightfulness of the Palestinian struggle against "occupation by all available means, including armed struggle", based on
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 37/43. On that day, the NLG declaration spoke of "illegal military occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing", and "urge[d] the United States to stop enabling and arming Israel’s perpetration of its atrocities." ==Structure==