Courtesy the American Bar Endowment
Lawyers have tremendous power to change people's lives through legal representation and systemic advocacy. At the Community Activism Law Alliance (CALA) in Chicago founded by Lam Ho in 2014, a group of lawyers and activists are changing how lawyers and communities work together. The CALA model of “community activism lawyering” shifts the practice of law from a transactional relationship focused on an individual client/case crisis to a transformative proactive partnership for systemic change. Lawyers serve individual clients; yet, with the promise of preventing future crisis, better systems are put in place to address critical community needs.