Every month, we give the Amicus Mundi Award to a lawyer in our community to recognize their dedication to fighting for the causes they believe in.
With the midterm elections fast approaching, this month’s award recipient is a lawyer who volunteered to help empower local nonprofits to engage and mobilize their communities to vote.
Congratulations, Katherine Mirassou!
The big picture: A recently-barred lawyer from California, Katherine volunteered with the Democracy Capacity Project to help create state-by-state guides to help local nonprofits navigate their state’s laws around voter engagement and turn out the vote in the midterms.
State laws vary considerably across the U.S., but they regulate much of the democracy-promoting work that nonprofit organizations do, including running voter registration drives, assisting voters with applying for a vote by mail ballot, organizing GOTV programs, and much more.
A passion for social justice: After spending several years working after getting her undergraduate degree, Katherine says she was drawn to practicing law by her interest in social justice issues.
Katherine started volunteering as a data entry volunteer for a local immigrants rights organization, but that experience would soon turn into a legal internship with the same group.
But once the pandemic made volunteering more difficult, Katherine says she missed giving back to her community and sought out online opportunities to volunteer.
Empowering nonprofits to engage voters: That’s how Katherine found We The Action and the Democracy Capacity Project, who were recruiting lawyers to research state election laws.
“I read the project description and it really seemed like something I wanted to be a part of,” Katherine says. “It was an opportunity to not only help out, but to expand my knowledge.”
The ‘magic sauce’: Katherine would eventually take on a larger role for the Democracy Capacity Project, creating training materials for other volunteer lawyers to help them better conduct their legal research and understand where to look for state-specific legal information.
“Smaller non profit organizations often struggle to find free, publicly-available, practical advice about how to comply with state laws surrounding their democracy-promoting work,” said Sue Zachman, Founder and Director of the Democracy Capacity Project. “Katherine brought such enthusiasm and a kind of ‘magic sauce’ to the work! She quickly became a leader in this project — helping us design both our volunteer data collection process and the content of the nonprofit-facing resource itself!”,
Take a look for yourself: — 19 state guides are already live on the Democracy Capacity Project’s website!
These free resources empower nonprofit organizations operating in those states to design and run civic engagement, democracy support, and Get Out the Vote programs while complying with complex state laws and regulations governing those activities.
You can get involved too: Katherine emphasizes that whatever your availability, organizations are willing to work around your schedule and get you the training you need to get up to speed.
“Even if you’re really busy, organizations are willing to work around your schedule,” she says. “Every group I’ve worked with has been so grateful for any time you can offer them.”
Want to join Katherine in helping nonprofits engage voters? Click here to sign up for the Democracy Capacity Project’s Local Democracy Task Force!
On behalf of 43,000+ volunteer lawyers: Thank you, Katherine!
You’re also invited to join We The Action and the Transgender Law Center for a lunch and learn panel discussing how lawyers can better partner with and protect trans people. Lawyers of all expertises and experience are welcome — and please share with your network too!