A formation of legal workers in service of frontline-led climate justice.
The Just Transition Lawyering Network (JTLN) is a growing formation of attorneys, legal workers, and scholars committed to supporting Black-, Brown-, and Indigenous-led movements advancing climate justice and a just transition away from extractive systems.
JTLN exists to transform how law is practiced in this moment of climate crisis. Rather than positioning legal expertise as the driver of change, the Network centers movement leadership, community governance, and frontline visions for repair, accountability, and collective survival in line with Global Climate Reparations.
Just Transition Lawyering Network welcomes licensed attorneys, legal workers, law professors, and law-trained practitioners to join its growing community. Apply today.
Support the development of shared legal infrastructure advancing Global Climate Reparations. Make a donation to Taproot Earth today.
Just Transition Lawyering Network builds shared infrastructure for values-aligned lawyering rooted in solidarity, humility, and movement accountability. The Network supports legal practitioners to:
Accompany frontline movements advancing land, water, energy, and climate justice
Translate legal and policy tools into accessible resources for organizers and communities
Share strategies, lessons, and political analysis across regions and practice areas
Practice law in alignment with movement timelines rather than institutional pace
Through convenings, shared learning, and resource development, JTLN helps legal workers move from transactional support toward transformational partnership.
JTLN is a space for licensed attorneys, legal workers, law professors, and law-trained practitioners applying their skills across fields who believe:
Climate justice requires systemic change, not isolated wins
Law must serve community-defined futures
Repair and accountability are central to climate solutions
Legal workers have a responsibility to challenge extractive systems, including within the legal profession itself
JTLN works alongside frontline movements globally, with deep roots in the U.S. Gulf South and Appalachia and expanding connections worldwide. Our work builds on the legacy of the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy and Taproot Earth’s partnerships through the Just Transition Lawyering Institute (JTLI), while continuing to cultivate new regional and issue-based relationships.
Why does JTLN work? Because the climate crisis is a legal crisis. It cannot be solved by law alone. JTLN works because it recognizes that movements lead and lawyers support.
This approach aligns directly with We Choose Now, affirming that those most impacted must shape the systems that govern their lives, and with Global Climate Reparations, which demands repair, redistribution, and accountability at every level.
Explore this archive of resources magnifying insights and frontline visions supportive of climate justice and climate reparations. ● Explore this archive of resources magnifying insights and frontline visions supportive of climate justice and climate reparations. ●
A training and community-building program for lawyers committed to aligning their legal practice with the principles of just transition.
JTLI supports attorneys in shifting from extractive legal frameworks toward regenerative, equity-centered economies that sustain people and the planet.
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A Black woman-led organization advancing a Just Transition Framework by resourcing and supporting Black frontline communities navigating climate crisis. The project connects vision to strategy to action, ensuring frontline leaders have the tools to transform extractive systems into regenerative, cooperative, and democratic economies.
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A vision-led, place-based framework for building economic and political power to move from an extractive, profit-driven economy to a regenerative one rooted in equity and care. While transition is inevitable, justice requires intentional reorganization of systems shaped by white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, and exploitation.
Learn More
SERIES
Listen to this Q&A hosted by members of the Just Transition Lawyering Network, featuring insights from its leaders and scholars advancing just transition through legal practice.
How do you define 'Just Transition'?
What's JTLN three years into the future?
What's your connection to 'Just Transition'?
Who should see themselves as part of JTLN?
SERIES
Listen to this curated series of lectures presented by the Just Transition Lawyering Institute and led by distinguished legal scholars, law professors, and practitioners specializing in public international law, environmental law, and international human rights.
Settler Colonialism, Racial Capitalism, and the Struggle for Environmental Justice
Natsu Taylor Saito, J.D., M.Ed
Colonialism, Capitalism, and Climate Change
Dr. Angela Harris, J.D., M.A.
Stopping Extractive Industry Expansion
Adrienne Bloch, J.D.
Explore key milestones marking JTLN’s growth and the growth of JTLN and its role in advancing movement-aligned lawyering for climate justice and a just transition.
Organized and hosted a Fortify Clinic in support of Taproot Noire and Gulf South to Appalachia frontline formations.
Mobilized and hosted a Fortify Clinic in solidarity with Gulf Coast frontline communities during the Katrina 20 Week of Action.
Organized and hosted a Fortify Clinic, bringing lawyers and frontline organizations together for strategic legal support.
Convened a national summit examining the intersections of climate crisis, racial injustice, and legal strategy.
Officially launched the Just Transition Lawyering Network (JTLN) as a formation of Taproot Earth.
Delivered legal clinics through the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy to support communities recovering from Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Have a question for Just Transition Lawyering Network? Contact us at jtln[at]taproot.earth.
