People’s Law Office is a law firm that represents left-of-center activists and those who are allegedly victims of police misconduct, unlawful arrests, or are subjects of other government abuses. People’s Law Office was founded in 1969 in order to represent Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party, a communist African-American militant organization that engaged in violent revolutionary activity, including murdering police officers. ^{1 2}

People’s Law Office is a member of the National Lawyers Guild, a far-left association of attorneys, law students legal workers, and jailhouse lawyers that supports left-of-center protestors, including alleged members of the often-violent Antifa movement. ^{3 4}

History and Activities

People’s Law Office is a Chicago, Illinois-based law firm focused on defending those who are allegedly victims of police misconduct, who claim to have been wrongfully convicted or arrested, or have been subject to other governmental abuses. ²

People’s Law Office, which describes itself as a “collective, whatever that meant; not a firm in any event,” began in 1969 when lawyer Denis Cunninham represented Fred Hampton, a leader of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party, a communist African-American militant organization that engaged in violent revolutionary activity, including murdering police officers. ^{1 5}

Throughout its history, People’s Law Office continued to work with the Black Panther Party as well as other radical-left organizations. An example of its work was its effort to release four Puerto Rican nationalists who attempted to murder members of Congress inside the U.S. House of Representatives in 1954. ^{6 7}

People’s Law Office files lawsuits on behalf of clients against the Chicago Police Department and other law enforcement agencies and claims to have recovered $110 million in damages for its clients. As of May 2025, its main practice areas include police misconduct, false arrests, wrongful convictions, police shootings, strip searches, jail suicides, unlawful searches, grand jury defense, defense of left-wing political activists, prison conditions and parole issues, federal criminal defense, and capital defense litigation. ^{2 8}

People’s Law Office states that it opposes “tough on crime” and “law and order” policies, which it claims create “the mass incarceration of people of color.” People’s Law Office also focuses on LGBT-identifying people, especially because “many of these LGBTQ clients have been people of color who face intersecting forms of discrimination and oppression.” ⁹

Additionally, People’s Law Office opposes the death penalty, asserting that the “death penalty is never justified in this country and that it is used as a general instrument of oppression and as a political stratagem by politicians to deflect attention from real issues of injustice.” ¹⁰

Atlanta “Cop City” Protests

At least two individuals associated with the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) were among those arrested on March 5, 2023 and charged with domestic terrorism in connection with a protest at the site of a planned future police and fire training center in Atlanta, Georgia. The center had been dubbed as “Cop City” by protesters, some of whom allegedly turned violent and attacked police officers and construction equipment with rocks, bricks, fireworks, and Molotov cocktails. ¹¹

One of those arrested and charged – Tom Jurgens – was employed as a staff attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which subsequently released a statement claiming that he was arrested “while acting – and identifying – as a legal observer on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG),” and that his arrest “is not evidence of any crime, but of heavy-handed law enforcement intervention against protesters.” ¹² Jurgens was released on bail soon after his arrest, and the SPLC expressed confidence “that the evidence will demonstrate he was a peaceful legal observer.” ¹³ In its own statement, the NLG criticized the arrest of the alleged rioters as “part of ongoing state repression and violence against racial and environmental justice protesters, who are fighting to defend their communities from the harms of militarized policing and environmental degradation on stolen Muscogee land.” It claimed that the arrests made it “beyond clear that policing is the true threat to community safety” and stated that the “NLG remains in solidarity with the movement to Stop Cop City.” ¹⁴

In September 2025, it was announced that planned RICO charges initially filed against 61 activists and protesters by Georgia State Attorney General Chris Carr had been dropped by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kevin Farmer. Following a series of hearings with defense attorneys for those arrested, as well as a motion filed on behalf of Jurgens, Judge Farmer released a statement alleging “At this time I do not find the attorney general had the authority to bring this Rico case.” According to Judge Farmer and The Guardian, A.G Carr had pursued RICO charges after the district attorneys for DeKalb and Fulton counties refused to do so, and in addition “the state had no authority, and for which the attorney general would have required special permission from Georgia governor Brian Kemp…[but] No such permission was sought or given.”  ¹⁵ Brad Thompson,  an employee of the People’s Law Office and one of the defense attorneys for the case, released a statement following Judge Farmer’s announcement, stating, “This week’s decision “exposes that the indictment was fundamentally flawed from the outset.” ¹⁵

Leadership

As of May 2025, attorneys and staff working at People’s Law Office included Loudes Arias, Kris Clutter, Ben Elson, Janine Hoft, Joey Mogul, Tayleece Paul, Nora Snyder, Jan Susler, Flint Taylor, and Brad Thomson. ^{16 1}

Elson had been a partner at the People’s Law Office since August 2005, the year he graduated University of Wisconsin Law School. ^{17 18}

Taylor, another partner at People’s Law Office, was a founding member of the organization in 1969 and became a partner in 1972. Taylor was the lead lawyer in defense of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton. ¹⁹

National Lawyers Guild

People’s Law Office is a part of the National Lawyers Guild, a far-left association of attorneys, law students, legal workers, and jailhouse lawyers that supports or legally represents left-of-center protestors, including alleged members of the often-violent Antifa movement. ^{20 4}

In coordination with the National Lawyers Guild, People’s Law office represented Vietnam War draft dodgers and those arrested during the protests surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. ²¹

1. “Early Days.” People’s Law Office. Accessed May 30, 2025. https://peopleslawoffice.com/about-civil-rights-lawyers/history/early-days/.
2. “About Us.” People’s Law Office. Accessed May 30, 2025. https://peopleslawoffice.com/about-civil-rights-lawyers/
3. “People’s Law Office and the National Lawyers Guild.” People’s Law Office. Accessed May 30, 2025. https://peopleslawoffice.com/issues-and-cases/criminalization-of-glbt-people-in-the-us/. ; https://peopleslawoffice.com/about-civil-rights-lawyers/history/peoples-law-office-and-the-national-lawyers-guild/.
4. Andy Ngo. Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy. Center Street. 2021. Page 59.
5. Pearson, Hugh. The Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. 1994. https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Panther-Newton-Price-America/dp/0201483416
6. “Representing the Panthers in Downstate Illinois.” People’s Law Office. Accessed May 30, 2025. https://peopleslawoffice.com/about-civil-rights-lawyers/history/representing-the-panthers-in-downstate-illinois/.
7. “Support for the Puerto Rican Independence Movement and the Puerto Rican Community.” People’s Law Office. Accessed May 30, 2025. https://peopleslawoffice.com/about-civil-rights-lawyers/history/puerto-rican-independence-movement/.
8. “Practice Areas.” People’s Law Office. Accessed May 30, 2025. https://peopleslawoffice.com/areas-of-practice-civil-rights-lawyers-criminal-defense/.
9. “Criminalization of LGBTQ People.” People’s Law Office. Accessed May 30, 2025. https://peopleslawoffice.com/issues-and-cases/criminalization-of-glbt-people-in-the-us/.
10. “Death Penalty.” People’s Law Office. Accessed May 30, 2025. https://peopleslawoffice.com/issues-and-cases/death-penalty/.
11. Joe Schoffstall. “Two ‘Cop City’ Domestic Terror Suspects Linked to Left-Wing Legal Group That Shields Antifa.” Fox News. March 8, 2023. Available at: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/two-cop-city-domestic-terror-suspects-linked-left-wing-legal-group-shields-antifa
12. “NLG and SPLC Statements on Arrest of Legal Observer.” Southern Poverty Law Center. March 6, 2023. Available at: https://www.splcenter.org/presscenter/nlg-and-splc-statements-arrest-legal-observer
13. “SPLC Statement on Release of Legal Observer.” Southern Poverty Law Center. March 7, 2023. Available at: https://www.splcenter.org/presscenter/splc-statement-release-legal-observer
14. “NLG Condemns Atlanta Arrests on March 5.” National Lawyers Guild. March 7, 2023. Available at: https://www.nlg.org/nlg-condemns-atlanta-arrests-on-march-5/
15. Pratt, Timothy. “Prosecutors’ ‘Cop City’ case collapses as judge tosses Rico conspiracy charges.” The Guardian, September 13, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/13/cop-city-case-georgia-prosecutors
16. “Attorney and Staff Bios.” People’s Law Office. Accessed May 30, 2025. https://peopleslawoffice.com/about-civil-rights-lawyers/attorney-staff-bios/.
17. “Ben H. Elson.” People’s Law Office. Accessed May 30, 2025. https://peopleslawoffice.com/about-civil-rights-lawyers/attorney-staff-bios/ben-elson-2/
18. “Ben Elson.” LinkedIn. Accessed May 30, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-elson-96b38157/
19. “Flint Taylor.” People’s Law Office. Accessed May 30, 2025. https://peopleslawoffice.com/about-civil-rights-lawyers/attorney-staff-bios/flint-taylor/.
20. ^[1] “People’s Law Office and the National Lawyers Guild.” People’s Law Office. Accessed May 30, 2025. https://peopleslawoffice.com/issues-and-cases/criminalization-of-glbt-people-in-the-us/.https://peopleslawoffice.com/about-civil-rights-lawyers/history/peoples-law-office-and-the-national-lawyers-guild/.
21. “People’s Law Office and the National Lawyers Guild.” People’s Law Office. Accessed May 30, 2025. https://peopleslawoffice.com/about-civil-rights-lawyers/history/peoples-law-office-and-the-national-lawyers-guild/.