Giving Compass' Take:

• Lornet Turnbull shares the stories of lawyers who are volunteering to protect civil liberties and the increase in law school applications that followed the 2016 election. 

• How can other professionals donate their skills to worthy causes? 

• Find out how Washington state is working to provide more affordable legal counsel. 

To train a new generation of lawyers to fight for the rights of immigrants after the 2016 elections, Claire Thomas started an asylum clinic at the New York City law school where she taught.

In Seattle, Michelle Mentzer retired five years early as an administrative law judge so she could volunteer as an attorney with the ACLU.

And in Texas, Anna Castro traded her full-time job for contract work so she could prepare to attend law school to better serve her community.

The country is seeing a wave of legal activism as attorneys and attorneys-to-be have risen to defend civil liberties from the policies of the Trump administration and an increasingly conservative judiciary.

A third of more than 500 pre-law students said the results of the 2016 election influenced their decision to become lawyers, according to a survey by Kaplan Test Prep.

Shortly after the election, Lawyers for Good Government mobilized 125,000 lawyers, law students, and activists nationwide, with the goal of defending democratic institutions and resisting “abuses of power and corruption.” Among their many actions was a disciplinary complaint with the Alabama State Bar Association against U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions for perjury.

And the migrant crisis on the Mexican border sparked activism among a group of women lawyers who formed Lawyer Moms of America. In addition to engaging lawmakers, they are collecting airline miles and hotel points, and raising money to bring separated families together.

Read the full article about volunteer attorneys by Lornet Turnbull at YES! Magazine.