New England Legal Foundation (NELF)

The group says it frequently represents small businesses that have exhausted their resources to resist governmental action. The foundation represents clients without charging legal fees. ³

Background

The New England Legal Foundation is a Boston, Massachusetts-based organization that says it promotes free enterprise and addresses policy and constitutional concerns related to economic freedom. ¹

The foundation opposes laws and regulations that it claims interfere with economic liberty and involve government taking without just compensation, as well as laws and regulations the group claims “have no rational likelihood of achieving their stated purpose.” ³

Martin J. Newhouse was the first president of the New England Legal Foundation. ⁴

In 2023, President Joe Biden nominated NELF board member Michael Delaney, a Democrat and former New Hampshire attorney general, to the Boston-based U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals. He had sat on the board’s committee that vetted amicus briefs for the group, sometimes opposing President Biden’s policies. ⁵

Litigation and Amicus Briefs

The New England Legal Foundation focuses on economic cases and stays clear of social issues. It has litigated in the U.S. Supreme Court as well as state supreme courts in New England. ⁴

The group brings litigation, files amicus briefs in separate cases at the appellate level, is involved in regulatory comments, puts on educational conferences, and its members write op-ed pieces. For amicus briefs, the group says it selects cases that “can make policy, legislative history, textual, or empirical arguments which are not featured, or at least not emphasized, in the parties’ own briefs.” ^{3 6}

The NELF has filed legal briefs supporting mandatory arbitration clauses, opposed the issuance of a New Hampshire clean-water regulation, and challenged California’s policy allowing union organizers to enter commercial firms. ⁵

The NELF supported coal companies in a 2021 U.S. Supreme Court case when several states challenged the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) climate regulations. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the EPA. The NELF has also filed briefs siding with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Facebook, Uber, and Deutsche Bank. ⁵

Funding

For the first time in 2022, the New England Legal Foundation raised more than $1 million in donations. ⁷

The Sarah Scaife Foundation contributed $135,000 to the NELF in 2022. ¹

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund contributed $57,550 to the NELF in 2022. ¹

Leadership

Daniel B. Winslow is the president of the New England Legal Foundation, which he first joined in October 2021. He was previously chief legal counsel to then-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R). He was also previously a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and was on the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, the House Ethics Committee, and the House Rules Committee. He previously was a Massachusetts state trial court judge for eight years. ²

Ben Robbins is the senior staff attorney for NELF. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He was a judicial law clerk for Justice Herbert P. Wilkins of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. He was later an assistant attorney general for Massachusetts. ²

Maria Karatalid is the director of finance and operations and has worked for NELF since 1992. Previously, she worked for multiple CPA firms as an auditor and tax accountant. ²

Equalizer Institute

The Equalizer Institute is a free legal clinic for entrepreneurs in underrepresented populations run by the New England Legal Foundation. ⁷

The Equalizer Institute says it focuses on small businesses run by women, “people from the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities,” disabled people, first-generation and new Americans, veterans, and students. ⁸

The Equalizer Institute advises on such areas as real estate, permitting, workforce development, and intellectual property. ⁸

The institute opened its first legal clinic in Boston, and in 2024, had plans to expand to all six New England states over the next several years. Each clinic is supposed to have four in-house attorneys. The institute also plans to partner with law schools to teach third-year law students how to launch new businesses as counsel for entrepreneurs. The staff counsel will provide pro bono support. ⁸