We must address the entire judicial system that allows the police to go free and back to the streets, often receiving praise or awards after killing a Black or Brown man or woman.

NCBL WEBINAR

LEAP CLE MASTER SERIES

PART I

The National Conference of Black Lawyers’ Law Enforcement Accountability Project (LEAP) is a legal education program designed to train a cadre of lawyers to file civil suits in Federal Court on behalf of the victims of police misconduct and to educate community activists to know their rights, especially during these protests.

Those taking this training will receive CLE credits to maintain their license to practice law and are encouraged to work with members of their communities as legal advocates in the fight against police brutality.

Over the next 6 months, we will offer 10 regional virtual 4-hour training sessions across the United States, in the Southeast, Northeast, Southwest, Midwest, and West in cities, including:

Atlanta, GA | Houston, TX | Los Angeles, CA

New Orleans, LA | New York, NY | Jackson, MS

Washington, DC | Charlotte, NC

NCBL is a 501(c)3 organization. We are a diverse group of lawyers, law students, legal workers, judges, and community activists ranging in age, gender, and nationality who come together and volunteer our skills and services in the struggle to improve the criminal justice system and to fight for human rights and human dignity for people of color in the courtroom and in the streets.

From its inception in 1968, The National Conference of Black Lawyers identified police crimes visited upon Black, Brown, Native American people, and other racial minorities as a priority area of concern.

Our work continues as we witness the murder of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Tony McDade and many others in the unending litany of acts of state-sanctioned violence against our people.

Over its 50-year history, the NCBL has litigated a number of cases against the police and we have won many. However, winning often means more of our tax dollars going to pay the victims' families for police crimes. We learned, what many have come to realize today, that the police departments are not alone in their systemic racist practices.

NCBL LEAP FACULTY MEMBERS

Our distinguished faculty will also educate participants on the unique powers granted to the police across the country and how we must work together to change the racist practices engrained in the culture throughout the police departments. Police are the only representatives of governmental authority who are licensed to use physical force including deadly force to compel citizens to obey.

The most frequent targets are the powerless in society: racial minorities, the poor, the young, and people who challenge the existing social, economic, or political order. Long before Covid-19, this same population have had to resist the racial pandemic of white supremacy that is played out in forms of police misconduct, ranging from extortions of false testimony and filing false charges against the victims, underwritten ongoing acts of terror and the blatant refusal of the state to hold the perpetrators accountable.

MARGARET A. BURNHAM

NCBL LEAP FACULTY MEMBER

Margaret A. Burnham, Professor of Law and Africana Studies at Northeastern University and directs the Civil Rights & Restorative Justice Project, which conducts research on violence against Black Americans during the Jim Crow years.

BERNARD K. FREAMON

NCBL LEAP FACULTY MEMBER

Bernard K. Freamon, Professor of Law Emeritus at Seton Hall Law School; an adjunct professor of law at NYU School of Law; and an affiliate faculty member at George Mason University.

NANA GYAMFI

NCBL LEAP FACULTY MEMBER

Nana Gyamfi, President, National Conference of Black Lawyers, Executive Director of Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), and President of the National Conference of Black Lawyers.

LENNOX S. HINDS

NCBL LEAP MODERATOR

Lennox S. Hinds, Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University, International Human Rights Lawyer

GERALDINE HINES

NCBL LEAP FACULTY MEMBER

Geraldine Hines, Retired Associate Justice, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and a Huber Distinguished Visiting Professor, Boston College Law School.

IRVING L. JOYNER

NCBL LEAP FACULTY MEMBER

Irving L. Joyner, Professor of Law at North Carolina Central University School of Law. Professor Joyner has been engaged in litigation in the federal courts to challenge voter suppression laws and challenges to the redistricting plans for state and congressional legislative districts.

WILLIAM H. "BILLY" MURPHY, JR.

NCBL LEAP FACULTY MEMBER

William H. “Billy” Murphy Jr., Former judge in Baltimore, Maryland, Senior and Founding Partner in the law firm, Murphy, Falcon, Murphy law firm, with 40+ years of practice in and out of the courtroom.

THEODORE M. SHAW

NCBL LEAP FACULTY MEMBER

Theodore M. Shaw, Julius L. Chambers Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Civil Rights at the University of North Carolina School of Law at Chapel Hill.

DONALD M. TEMPLE

NCBL LEAP FACULTY MEMBER

Donald M. Temple, Practicing lawywer in the District of Columbia and metropolitan area federal courts, teaches and mentors aspiring law students, advises fellow lawyers, and supports social and economic empowerment efforts domestically and internationally.