The Legal Action Center (LAC) uses legal and policy strategies to fight discrimination, build health equity, and restore opportunity for people with arrest and conviction records, substance use disorders, and HIV or AIDS.

Since their founding in 1973, LAC has utilized a multi-pronged approach to achieving their mission, which includes: direct legal services, impact litigation, policy advocacy, education and training, and coalition-building.

LAC's free legal services are offered through their New York City office to individuals who have arrest or conviction records, substance use disorders, HIV, or AIDS and face discrimination in health care, employment, housing, education, and more. LAC's impact litigation establishes important precedents to defend the civil rights of our constituents on a broader scale. Similarly, their policy advocacy at the national, state, and local levels helps to protect access to health care, opportunity, and justice for all.

And all LAC's work is interconnected - their work with individuals informs their advocacy priorities, while their movement with partners and policy-makers helps to elevate the services and resources they are able to provide.