Solidarity Fund

A mutual aid program to support my work with everyday people who need free or low-cost access to legal information.

I started The Everyday Lawyer to make legal knowledge accessible to everyday people. Although one of my goals is to sustain a livelihood from this work, that’s never been the end destination.

My other goals, and the reason I started this Solidarity Fund, are to provide high-quality, online legal resources for people who work and to partner with entrepreneurship initiatives near me to uplift the local entrepreneurship community in Baltimore.

Bridging The Gap

As this work continues to evolve, here are some of the things I know to be true:

 

  • The law is a uniquely gatekept industry. Access to legal knowledge is basically nonexistent for everyday people and therefore many people are unaware of their rights and the potential opportunities the law could create for them. This is intentional. 

  • Entrepreneurs in the small business economy have the unique ability to create ventures that generate wealth for themselves and their surrounding communities, but they often lack the resources (financial and operational) to grow and scale. This is especially true for entrepreneurs who are black and other people of color. 

  • The people who need my legal education services the most usually can’t afford to pay for them. 

  • A lot of full-time employees are not aware of their rights or ability to negotiate things like employment offers, severance packages, and taking leave. That needs to change.

  • A lot of people are scared of or feel uneasy about the law.

  • Everyone deserves to have the information they need to understand the law regardless of their ability to pay for it.

  • The more legal knowledge that can be pulled from behind expensive paywalls and made available to the general public, the better off we are as a society. 

 
 

Solidarity Fund Goals

My goals for the Solidarity Fund are threefold:

 

  1. To offer my 1:1 services to folks who can’t afford them more often

  2. To offer my expertise to the local Baltimore entrepreneurship community without having to worry about the very boring but very real equation that is opportunity cost (doing free work means less time for paid work and jeopardizes my financial needs)

  3. To give myself time to develop the free and low-cost legal knowledge resources that the community needs and has asked for without also having to worry about constantly selling to make the money I need to pay bills.

 
 

Because here is something else I know:

The original definition of sacrifice is to give up what no longer works to stay close to what is sacred.

 

And making legal knowledge accessible to the masses feels sacred to me.

But it doesn’t work for me to do it without receiving what I need financially to pay my bills and live comfortably.

So to do this work sustainably, I need your support.

Specifically, I am asking for 9 months of financial support at $3,000 per month via solidarity donations. 

You can set up recurring donations using the button below to support me. All donations go directly towards helping me pay for rent, groceries, healthcare needs, student loans from law school, and other basic needs. 

The suggested donation levels are $100, $250, or $500. 

A Note for Potential Donors

Please note that while I welcome any and all donations, I have no intention of adding to the financial struggle of folks who already have trouble paying their monthly bills. 

Ideal supporters of The Everyday Lawyer Solidarity Fund may fall into one or more of the categories below:

  • You come close to or fully max out your 401k or a similar investment fund contribution each year;

  • You have an account or money you set aside for travel;

  • All of your bills, including credit cards, are on autopay;

  • You don’t really have a grocery budget; you just buy the food you need;

  • It’s common for you to go out to dinner and/or “treat yourself“ a few times a week.


If that’s you…

And you believe in what I’m doing at The Everyday Lawyer, I’d be delighted and extremely grateful to receive your financial support. 

For questions, please feel free to submit a contact form →