Fund the Merritt Civil Rights Fellowship

Train the lawyers who will stand with families when no one else will.

When a family loses someone to police violence, a wrongful conviction, or a system designed to look away — they need a lawyer who knows how to fight. And they need the next generation being trained to fight after them.

That is what your gift funds.

The Practice Behind the Program

Civil rights attorney Lee Merritt has represented the families of George Floyd, Botham Jean, Atatiana Jefferson, Jordan Edwards, Ahmaud Arbery, and dozens of others whose names became national turning points. The Merritt Civil Rights Fellowship places undergraduate and law-bound students inside that practice for an intensive Dallas summer of trial advocacy, civil rights litigation, and public voice.

What Your Gift Funds

Every Fellow comes to Dallas at no cost to them. Donor support covers:

• Housing for the full program

• Stipends so students can show up to the work instead of a second job

• Travel to Dallas and to the National Bar Association Convention

• Training, faculty, and courtroom access — including a public demonstrative mock trial before a sitting judge

• Mentorship from attorneys, judges, investigators, and movement leaders who shape civil rights practice nationally

A Program With a Bench Behind It

Fellows train alongside The Collective — a national group of civil rights and trial attorneys who guest-teach, coach mock trial, and open their practices to the cohort. Members include Cannon Lambert (Chicago), Adanté Pointer (Oakland), Harry Daniels (Atlanta), Emeka Igwe (Philadelphia), and Jaaye Person-Lynn (Los Angeles), among others.

Why Donors Give

The fight for constitutional policing, accountability, and equal protection depends on a pipeline. Lawyers who know how to build a civil rights case from intake to verdict. Lawyers who carry that craft into the next decade of this work.

Every gift you make underwrites that pipeline. Every Fellow you fund is one more advocate trained to do this work at the level it demands.

Ways to Give

• One-time gift of any amount

• Monthly partner — sustaining support that lets us plan future cohorts with confidence

• Sponsor a Fellow — fully underwrite one student’s summer

• Corporate or foundation partner — contact partnerships@leemerrittesq.com

Stay Connected

Follow @themerrittfellows to watch the cohort’s activities unfold across the five-week program, and join us at the Public Mock Trial + Advocates’ Dinner, open to supporters by invitation.

Give today. Fund the next generation of civil rights lawyers

The Merritt Civil Rights Summer Fellowship