THE HUMAN TRAFFICKING LEGAL CENTER
When survivors have lawyers, survivors have rights.
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Even after a trafficking survivor escapes, they face immense challenges. Whether or not they choose to engage with the justice system, survivors’ rights are violated at every stage throughout the process. Courts fail to provide compensation in criminal cases. Victims are held as material witnesses to force them to testify. Victims are prosecuted for crimes their traffickers force them to commit. Some become homeless. Courts fail to inform survivors that they can pursue civil cases. Some wait years to obtain T-visas, or other immigration relief to remain in the United States. No one should face the legal justice system without a lawyer. Foreign-born survivors of human trafficking and forced labor are especially vulnerable. We serve trafficking survivors seeking legal assistance for immigration, civil suits, and criminal victim-witness representation.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Training
Thank you for your interest in learning more about our work to secure justice for courageous survivors of human trafficking. HT Legal offers training on innovative legal remedies for survivors of sex trafficking and forced labor. We have trained pro bono attorneys, community-based NGO partners, victim advocates, law students, prosecutors, judges, and members of the general public.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
Catalogue for Philanthropy 2021
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Hours of legal assistance offered
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
The Human Trafficking Legal Center has spent more than 3,500 hours providing technical assistance to pro bono attorneys representing survivors of human trafficking.
Number of hours of training
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Training
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
The Human Trafficking Legal Center has spent more than 1,500 hours since its inception training lawyers, law enforcement, and community leaders.
Number of people trained
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Training
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
The Human Trafficking Legal Center has trained 5,000+ attorneys at top international law firms and educated 38,000+ community leaders on victims’ legal rights.
Number of cases referred to pro bono counsel
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Since 2012, we have referred 543 cases to pro bono counsel. In all, our work has contributed to more than $87 million in civil settlements and damages awards for trafficking survivors.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The Human Trafficking Legal Center has an ambitious goal - to provide every survivor of human trafficking access to justice to a pro bono lawyer.
The Human Trafficking Legal Center holds individuals, corporations, and governments accountable for human trafficking. But the organization does more than referrals and technical assistance on federal trafficking cases. Over the last decade, the Human Trafficking Legal Center has developed an array of tools to combat forced labor: petitions under the Tariff Act import ban, strategic litigation, data-driven research, advocacy, and coalition-building. Our vision is to pursue justice, upending the systems that allow forced labor and human trafficking to flourish. The organization works in coalition with partner organizations to maximize impact.
Advocacy and Impact: Exposing System Failures and Driving Policy Reform
The Human Trafficking Legal Center is a watchdog organization, exposing – and attacking – system failures. The organization monitors federal trafficking cases across the United States, using its comprehensive civil and criminal human trafficking case databases to spot trends. This data trove, which includes thousands of federal cases, allows the organization to identify policies that harm trafficking victims. Over the last few years, the data revealed a major systemic issue: the failure to award, and collect, restitution for trafficking survivors.
Criminal restitution provides trafficking survivors with the opportunity to gain financial independence, to rebuild their lives. The Human Trafficking Legal Center fought for – and won – an amendment to federal law to mandate that all assets forfeited from traffickers be used to pay restitution to victims. Sadly, years after the amendment became law, the government continues to fail to use forfeited assets to pay restitution to trafficking victims. The organization now works with survivors to claw these funds back from the U.S. Treasury. And we are succeeding.
The Human Trafficking Legal Center’s rigorous, data-driven advocacy shined a spotlight on the government’s failure to order and collect restitution, giving meaning to victim-centered prosecutions and creating systems for accountability.
Advocacy and Impact: Obtaining Justice for Trafficking Survivors
When prosecution fails, as it does so often in forced labor cases, trafficking survivors have the right to file civil suits in the federal courts. We are transforming the landscape of civil litigation. When the Human Trafficking Legal Center was first founded, there were only 60 civil cases brought by human trafficking survivors. As of December 31, 2021, trafficking survivors had filed 539 federal civil trafficking cases under the federal civil statute, winning $265,009.824 in civil damages awards and public settlements.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
CIVIL LITIGATION SUCCESS
The organization will refer civil cases to pro bono counsel and mentor attorneys handling these matters. Through these cases, trafficking survivors will be able to recover damages and rebuild their lives. The number of cases brought under the civil trafficking statutes will be monitored through the organization’s comprehensive civil case database.
CRIMINAL RESTITUTION
Restitution to trafficking survivors is essential, not just in the United States, but around the globe. This will require continued advocacy with the Department of Justice and use of the restoration and remission processes. It will be possible to measure this success with the release of data from the US Attorney General’s Report to Congress on Trafficking. Restitution in the federal courts, if done well, can provide a model for compensating victims in criminal trafficking cases.
HARNESSING TRADE REMEDIES
In the short-term, in addition to strategic litigation, the Human Trafficking Legal Center will work with workers’ rights and human rights organizations to press for enforcement of the U.S. Tariff Act. To facilitate that enforcement, we will work to file more Tariff Act petitions from across the globe. The Human Trafficking Legal Center will build capacity in the global south to increase the power of workers to use this remedy. The organization will support geographically diverse, rigorous, and impactful petitions, with the goal of triggering an end to forced labor for workers on the ground. Even in the short term, this work goes far beyond filing petitions and triggering WROs. We remain committed to ensuring that workers in supply chains benefit from Tariff Act enforcement.
The Human Trafficking Legal Center will also closely monitor implementation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). The organization is working with partners to respond to the request for public input under the UFLPA, with the goal of preserving, protecting, and strengthening the forced labor import prohibition.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
The Human Trafficking Legal Center is the only U.S. organization systematically training attorneys to pursue justice for trafficking survivors in civil courts. Part of the Human Trafficking Legal Center's strength is our network of attorneys, advocates, legal organizations and partnerships.
We train skilled attorneys at top international law firms to represent courageous trafficking survivors.
We bridge trafficking survivors and highly-skilled pro bono law firms. Through the generosity of powerful law firms, trafficking survivors can secure justice.
We mentor survivors and their pro bono attorneys step-by-step throughout the lengthy legal process.
We conduct cutting-edge research. The Human Trafficking Legal Center has built a comprehensive human trafficking case database. We meticulously track landmark cases in real-time as they develop.
We collect raw legal filings from every federal criminal and civil trafficking case in the United States. These repositories are critical resources for our pro bono attorneys, who use our databases to research similar cases, draft complaints, and file motions.
The Human Trafficking Legal Center also leads groundbreaking research to expose the federal government's failure to enforce mandatory criminal restitution for trafficking victims. Equipped with this data, we conduct outreach to federal prosecutors and victim advocates to fight for improved restitution outcomes for survivors.
We drive lasting change through strategic litigation, domestically and internationally.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
The Human Trafficking Legal Center strives to make civil litigation the norm. Our litigation work has more than tripled the number of trafficking civil cases filed since 2011.
The Human Trafficking Legal Center provides pro bono attorneys technical assistance step-by-step throughout the complex legal process. In more than 95% of these cases, survivors emerge victorious. Each victory emboldens more survivors.
We have trained more than 5,000 attorneys at top international law firms, placed hundreds of trafficking victims with pro bono legal assistance in over 500 cases, and educated over 38,000 community leaders on victims' legal rights.
Additionally, the Human Trafficking Legal Center has created the only comprehensive database on federal civil trafficking cases filed in U.S. federal courts. Access to the password-protected database is provided to pro bono attorneys handling trafficking cases for victims. The Human Trafficking Legal Center provides training and technical assistance for use of the database.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
THE HUMAN TRAFFICKING LEGAL CENTER
Board of directorsas of 02/24/2023
Lorelie Masters
Kathleen Peratis
Outten & Golden LLP
Lorelie Masters
Hunton & Williams LLP
David Rivkin
Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
Martina Vandenberg
The Human Trafficking Legal Center
E. Benjamin Skinner
Transparentem
Minky Worden
Human Rights Watch
Susan Petersen Kennedy
Kathy Vizas
TogetHER
Jose Lewis Alfaro
Lived Experience Expert
Pardis Madhavi, PhD
University of Montana
Valaree Moodee Lockman
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
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Equity strategies
Last updated: 11/23/2020GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.