The Anti-Defamation League and the law firm Gibson Dunn announced a partnership earlier this week to launch a nationwide legal network providing free legal services to victims of antisemitism.
The new Legal Action Network, which the ADL said comes in response to “a sustained surge of violence and hate toward Jews and Jewish institutions across the United States,” brings together 39,000 lawyers across 35 states, with 40 law firms agreeing to take client referrals or serve as co-counsel.
“For decades, victims of antisemitism have come to ADL to receive frontline services,” stated Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the ADL. “We are now dramatically expanding our capabilities to support more Jewish Americans by helping to provide direct access to legal support anywhere in the country.”
“Our goal is to pursue cases that have the potential to bring justice to those who experience acts of antisemitism,” he added.
Among the other law firms involved are Cooley, Covington & Burling, Morgan Lewis, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer.
Legal scholar, author and former Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz praised the collaboration. “I think it’s a great idea. I suggested it many years ago,” he told JNS. “I think it’s very important for lawyers to join together to present a united front against the bigotry and double standard.”
“We have to fight back by using our legal talents,” he said.
Dershowitz called the firms an “asset to the Jewish community,” saying the effort “juxtaposes with the fact that we don’t have the major media on our side.”
“I offer my help in any way I can. Many of them are my former students,” he said. “Doing good and doing well, that’s what I taught them.”
