ABOUT:
how we work

Our Mission

The Detroit Justice Center (DJC) is a non-profit law firm working alongside communities to create economic opportunities, transform the justice system, and promote equitable and just cities.

Our Values

• We are committed to individual and collective liberation—and recognize the two as inseparable.
• We come to this work with a sense of responsibility, and a deep desire to use our training and talents to serve our community.
• We work with our clients in a way that cultivates dignity and autonomy. We respect and honor each person’s humanity, we seek to understand their stories and circumstances, and we hold their freedom dreams as sacred.
• We are committed to democratizing access to the law. We regard clients as partners in our mission. Rather than serving as gatekeepers, we aim to share tools so that people can understand, navigate, and transform disempowering systems.
• We approach our work with a sense of joy, creativity, and purpose. We are nimble problem-solvers who look for innovative ways to respond to our community’s needs and expand our collective understanding of what is possible.
• We value our relationships above all. We work at a pace that allows us to build deep trust with our partners and clients. We reach out to others for support and direction, and we communicate with self-awareness, empathy, and humility. Should conflicts arise, we are committed to calling each other in using practices that restore rather than punish.
• We are hopeful; we believe that the best possible outcome is attainable and we work toward it.
• We help our clients gain economic independence, and work to redistribute power and wealth. We work toward a society in which abundance is shared for the collective good.
• We take our cues from movements that are fighting for racial justice and economic equity.
• We are committed to cultivating the leadership of marginalized individuals and groups, including Black people, people of color, indigenous people, immigrants, women, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, people involved in the criminal legal system, and people who have loved ones currently or formerly in the criminal legal system.
• We value the collective wisdom of intergenerational experiences, and harness the power it brings to our work.
• We seek a balance of “defense, offense, and dreaming.” We must do what we can to alleviate present suffering. We are also committed to transformational change and building a template for a more just society. It is not enough to focus on what we are fighting against; we must focus on what we are fighting for. We invite people to dream of a better future and to work toward it with us.

*With thanks to Law for Black Lives and People in Education for being sources of inspiration as we define and refine the values that guide our work.*

Defense, Offense, Dreaming

We work with a three-prong approach to racial and economic justice that we categorize as “Defense, Offense, and Dreaming.” “Defense” consists of our direct services and advocacy around issues that our clients face in their day-to-day lives. In our defense work, we are fighting against a criminal legal system that keeps people locked in cycles of poverty by providing counsel and advocating for policy changes that would have an impact on our clients’ lives. “Offense” is the work of ensuring that communities can build towards a more just and equitable future together through mechanisms like community land trusts, co-operative economic structures and community reinvestment. Our “Dreaming” work focuses on narrative shifting work which envisions a future where every life is valued equally and includes the work of our Just Cities Lab as well as our artist residency.

Movement Lawyering is not a specific type of law, rather a specific way of doing your job as a lawyer. DJC’s attorneys all practice movement lawyering as much of the ethos of movement lawyering is embedded in our values. It is lawyering in a way that centers relationships and the people organizing on the ground. It is about relationship building, building trust with people; thus building the community first, then the institution to hold it. The key to movement lawyering is asking people what they need, delivering, and repeating. Movement lawyers make space for, bolster, protect, and build power of organized people. Our work is based on the theory of change that sustainable social change occurs when directly impacted people take collective action, lead their own struggles and gain power to change the conditions of oppression. Our work is in service to movements, and we recognize the importance of decentering attorneys as experts, or relying on litigation or other legal strategies at the expense of direct organizing.

We see our work in the lineage of abolitionist thinkers and consider Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s framework of “abolition as presence” in all aspects of our work. While we fight to end incarceration and policing for the safety and well-being of our communities, we must also focus on what we are building in place of those systems. This is why we ask community members what they would build instead of jails and prisons, or what they would like to see police department budgets spent on to keep their communities safe. For us, abolition is a lived practice centered around meeting the needs of everyone equally, where equity is a cornerstone and not an afterthought.

It is important to us that our work as movement lawyers extends to the next generation, which is why we host a summer movement lawyering internship with like-minded organizations across the country. We know that most law students don’t receive robust training in movement lawyering as part of their education, and we seek to supplement their education with practical skills and tools that we use in our own practice. We also work with the National Conference of Black Lawyers to bring new lawyers into the fold in local gatherings.

Unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate interns for the 2024 school year.