AFJ Law Gives Nonprofits Free Legal Help Under Pressure

Nonprofits that speak out are spending more of their time defending their right to do it. Alliance for Justice says it is done watching small groups carry that burden alone, and on October 15 it announced a new answer: AFJ Law, a program that pairs small nonprofits with free lawyers when lawsuits, regulation, or political pressure come for their work.

According to the announcement, the program gives direct pro bono legal services to nonprofits facing growing legal, regulatory, and political threats. The lawyers on the team come out of social justice movements, and the work centers on the two pressure points that trip up small organizations most: what advocacy is allowed, and how to stay within the compliance rules for charitable nonprofits. In an AFJ posting about the program's staffing, the organization describes AFJ Law as a new initiative designed to strengthen legal capacity within movements and provide strategic legal support to groups advancing policy goals.

What AFJ Law does for small groups

The pilot is deliberately aimed at the groups least able to pay for help. It serves nonprofits incorporated or operating in Washington, D.C. with annual budgets under $5 million, a bracket where one serious legal threat can eat a whole year's operating funds. For those groups, AFJ Law offers ongoing support rather than one-off advice, so a board can check in before a campaign launch instead of calling a lawyer after a cease-and-desist letter arrives.

Alliance for Justice president Rachel Rossi said the moment demanded the change. Nonprofits are being forced to devote more time and resources to defending their right to speak, organize, advocate, and serve their communities, she said, and in that climate access to trusted legal counsel cannot be a luxury. The idea, as she described it, is to let organizations protect themselves without choosing between managing legal risk and pushing their missions forward. When nonprofits understand their rights, they are better equipped to fight for the people and communities they serve. The program centers on the two pressure points that trip up small organizations most: what advocacy is allowed, and how to stay within the 501(c)(3) compliance rules.

Why the program exists now

Legal pressure works even when it loses in court. AFJ Law program director Deepa Padmanabha, who joined Alliance for Justice in 2025 after fourteen years at Greenpeace USA, made that the center of her case for the program. Failed lawsuits still drain money, eat staff time, and make organizations cautious about what they say next, she said. That chilling effect is the real target: the program asks how a group keeps advancing its mission while serious threats are pending, and its job is not just to flag risk but to help navigate it without unnecessarily limiting advocacy.

Padmanabha knows the terrain from the inside. At Greenpeace USA she served as an in-house attorney and helped lead the organization's defense against major lawsuits aimed at silencing its advocacy. The announcement positions AFJ Law as an extension of that work, aimed at groups that cannot staff a legal department of their own. It is the same squeeze that shows up wherever advocacy meets power: street movements absorb the risk, as in the protests that turned violent in Marseille this month, while accountability fights grind through the courts, as in the Mexico case where the killers of three surfers were just sentenced.

The pilot so far

AFJ Law began quietly. It started working with clients through a pilot in March 2026, and by the first of this month it had taken on sixteen clients across thirty legal matters. The early roster mixed AFJ member organizations, groups referred through professional networks, and organizations referred by existing clients, a sign the demand was already spreading by word of mouth before the public launch.

AFJ Law's first client was DC Justice Lab. Its chief executive, Clinique Chapman, described what the help meant in practice. Leading a nonprofit through a hostile legal environment means making hard calls without knowing exactly how things will unfold, she said. Having counsel that understands both the law and the realities of advocacy meant her team did not have to navigate those moments alone. Chapman said the support gave her the confidence to lead with courage and protect her organization, so it could keep advocating for a racially just criminal legal system in Washington.

What comes next

AFJ Law complements a longer-running effort. Alliance for Justice already runs its Bolder Advocacy program, which trains nonprofits and foundations on the laws governing advocacy and offers technical assistance and resources. The new program adds the missing piece: direct representation and ongoing counsel for groups under fire.

The next move is geographic. Alliance for Justice says it will expand AFJ Law into Texas, drawing on relationships and a presence it has built with nonprofits in the state. The pilot stays focused on the capital for now, but the announcement reads as an open invitation: the legal threats facing advocacy groups are national, and the organization is betting that free, movement-savvy counsel can keep small groups in the fight instead of scaring them out of it.