The Project 

The Seattle Movement Lawyering Project will elevate the voices and visions of black organizers in Seattle through local movement lawyering bootcamps aimed to deepen and strengthen analysis, skills, and relationships between community lawyers and black-led organizing efforts.

NICK ALLEN

Nick Allen is the Directing Attorney of the Institutions Project at Columbia Legal Services. He started at CLS in 2010 as an Equal Justice Works Fellow working to address legal financial obligations (LFOs) in Washington State. Following the completion of his fellowship, he was hired as a staff attorney in the Institutions Project, which represents persons in Washington’s jails and prisons as well as persons returning from those institutions. At CLS, he engages in systemic advocacy, including policy work on LFOs and juvenile sentencing, and class action litigation addressing conditions of confinement for prisoners in Washington State.

Nikkita Oliver

Nikkita Oliver is a Seattle-based creative, teaching artist, attorney, and organizer. Her writing has appeared in the South Seattle Emerald, Crosscut, and the Stranger. Olivers holds a J.D. and Masters of Education from the University of Washington. She is also the case manager for Creative Justice, an arts-based alternative to incarceration, and has worked for arts organizations such as Writers in the Schools and the Arts Corp. Nikkita is the recipient of the Gender Justice Power Award (2017), Seattle King County NAACP Leadership Award (2017), Community Legal Services Imagine Justice Visionary of the Year (2017), the University of Washington Women’s Law Caucus Outstanding Achievement as a Young Lawyer Award (2017), the Seattle Office of Civil Rights Artist Human Rights Leader Award (2015), and the 2014 Seattle Poetry Slam Grand Champion. She has opened for Cornel West and Chuck D of Public Enemy and performed on The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert. Follow Nikkita on Twitter @NikkitaOliver.