“Public defenders are poorly paid, they have excessive caseloads, work under generally poor working conditions, and often feel a lack of influence on real criminal justice reform,” Carla Katz, an assistant professor at Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, told The Legal Intelligencer in February. “These are attorneys that are defending constitutional rights and ensuring everybody gets a vigorous defense. Unionizing brings not only the things like better wages, reductions in caseload, but those things bring stability not just to the public defenders, but also to their offices and the community.” These unions offer an excellent example of the simple truth that (most) unions exist to lift people up, and to contribute to the public good—whether that’s by helping to ensure public health and safety, allowing people to live with dignity and engage in their communities, participating directly in mass politics, and so on. Understandably, there are a lot of nasty stereotypes about lawyers, but the legal workers involved in this kind of work are trying to get—and keep—people free."