Chu joined the nonprofit from the National Women's Law Center, where she was vice president for strategy and policy. Before that, she served as vice president of policy and research for the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Anna Chu
Here, Chu discusses We The Action's work, where pro bono attorneys are needed most and why she believes equal access to democracy and justice is not yet a reality. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What are your goals for We The Action as you enter this new position?
I think the goal is very aligned with the core mission of We The Action and what we're built to do. I think I want to start with just saying very bluntly, very straightforwardly, that equal access to democracy and justice just doesn't exist right now. And I think we've seen time and time again that the system is actually stacked against communities of color, against low-income people, against non-English speakers, against other historically marginalized groups. And I start there because I believe that lawyers have a very special role in helping close that gap. Understanding the law, knowing how to navigate it, knowing how to fight for and protect our rights — that is such a special and powerful tool. But I think what is difficult and hard sometimes is for lawyers to know how to use their skills and knowledge and help advance social justice. I've been the lawyer at the law firm who wanted to do projects outside my day-to-day job that would help the community, that would give back, but it was really actually hard to easily find those opportunities. And at the same time, I've been at nonprofits where we're strapped for time, we're strapped for capacity and just a few hours of help from a good pro bono attorney would have made a world of difference. And so what We The Action was built around is to connect the lawyers to the issues they care about. And the whole goal behind that is that, through this, we can help, hopefully, close some of those gaps in access to democracy and justice.
What do you want lawyers to know about We The Action?
I think the interesting thing that surprised me and that I loved learning when I got here is that pretty much every issue that we've seen in the news, any pressing emergency or crisis or event that's happened, there have been We The Action lawyers who have worked behind the scenes on the issue. I think that's a great thing. For the lawyers and for your readers, no matter what their expertise is, or how many hours they can volunteer ... they can give, they can come to us and find the issues and causes that they care about and plug in.
And so we've worked on things like election protection. We've had lawyers give more than 170,000 hours to actually doing election protection work, whether it be staffing a nonpartisan election protection hotline or actually going out there and going to the polls. And we've also had lawyers work on sexual harassment issues. I know #MeToo has been something that's come up over the years. We actually had a We The Action attorney in Missouri work closely with a local organization to research the state law on sexual harassment [and] actually helped draft a law that would tighten the protections on sexual harassment and then advise the organization on strategies to pass it. And that's amazing to me. And so there's so many issues of the day, there's so many urgent needs, and there's so many ways to plug in, and I just want the lawyers to know that no matter where they're coming from, we have the opportunities.
For what sort of issues do you tend to see the highest need for lawyers within your organization?
Our model is very much based on the service and partnership model with boots on the ground, and so if there is a nonprofit organization out there working on an issue, then we are there to help them meet the needs. But I think there's a few things that always come up. Immigration work is always top of mind. There's a lot of work to be done to support immigrant communities, whether it is reuniting families that are separated [at] the border or supporting Afghan refugees applying for visas or humanitarian aid. That is not going away — it's been with us, and it's a lot of work that requires a lot of attorneys.
At the same time, there's always work around protecting the election. It is not the case that everyone can easily exercise their right to vote. That's a problem. Every election cycle that comes up, there's a high need for attorneys to help protect the vote, to help provide information, whether it's research for organizations on what are the voting rights in certain states or whether it's actually going to the polls or staffing election protection hotlines. Those are clearly high needs, but as a society, we're not there yet on racial justice. And so there's a lot of work, I think, that remains on those issues.
There's a lot of good work happening right now. For example, I would love to point out a project that we have with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, where they're really leading the charge in helping people with prior felony convictions restore their right to vote. And so our attorneys, our volunteer attorneys, have actually partnered with Florida Rights Restoration Coalition to help re-enfranchise voters. And so this is a hard question to answer because there's so much need across the board, but that's what we're built to do — to help meet those needs.
Going forward, what issues do your organization find most pressing?
I think, in addition to a lot of the issues I talked about in terms of supporting the immigrant community, election protection, [and] racial justice, I'd be remiss to say that there's not more to do on reproductive rights, health and justice. Our reproductive rights are under assault since the U.S. Supreme Court passed its [Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization
] decision overturning Roe v Wade . And so We The Action right now is actually working with providers, patient advocates and other organizations to help them access volunteer legal support. I think there's a lot more ... to be done in that area in the upcoming years, especially as we're seeing the complicated patchwork of state laws created as a result of the Supreme Court's decision. So there's a lot happening, and we are working with the partners to find the solutions.How does We The Action bridge the gap between people needing representation and lawyers who are willing to provide help in a way that optimizes the amount of outreach you can make happen?
We work with a variety of nonprofit organizations. So as I mentioned in the example with Florida, our partners on the ground in Florida are working directly with people who need help in restoring the right to vote. But that's a huge endeavor, and that's a lot of work, a lot of legal hours they need. What we do is we bring in legal support and legal help from across the nation to help do the research to help us navigate the labyrinth of red tape and fees and other rules that ... a person has to cross before actually being enfranchised. And so that's what we do. We are doing an incredible amount of outreach to organizations across the country, like letting them know the services we provide, and we're also doing outreach to lawyers across the country because we want to be there to help both of these communities and be that bridge between the two.
--Editing by Alanna Weissman.
All Access is a series of discussions with leaders in the access to justice field. Questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.
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