KEYNOTE SPEAKER

S. Lee Merritt, Esq. is a human rights advocate, community organizer, civil litigator and founding partner of Merritt Law Firm, LLC, and Grassroots Law Project. Beginning his legal practice in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with the Cochran Firm, Lee Merritt has led the fight for justice in some of the nation’s preeminent cases and has been at the forefront of the national dialog surrounding police violence, systemic oppression, and racial justice. 

Merritt’s practice spans the nation representing victims of injustice from Philadelphia to his hometown of Los Angeles, California. In 2020 Merritt took on the case of twenty-five-year-old Ahmaud Arbery— a South Georgia jogger who was shot to death by a group of white vigilantes for jogging while black. Merritt helped guide the slain jogger’s mother to securing the arrest, conviction, and sentences of Life Without the Possibility of Parole for each of the men involved in the heinous crime. 

Merritt doesn’t only represent his clients in the courtroom where he has recovered millions from civil rights violators— but advocates for justice for families across the country at the international level.  Merritt has represented the families of Atatiana Jefferson, Botham Jean and George Floyd and many others before the United States Congress and the United Nations. 

In 2022 Lee Merritt launched a campaign for the office of Texas Attorney General campaigning under the slogan “Together, We Are Powerful!” During his campaign Merritt was able to build coalitions across the State of Texas fighting against voter suppression, advocating to end mass incarceration and state sanctioned violence, and standing for the constitutional rights of every Texan. After ending his campaign in a primary run-off Merritt continued the work of advocating for the people of Texas and across the U.S. in the courtroom and as a community organizer and activist.