Akilah Lane J.D. ’09 speaks outside the Montana Capitol building in Helena during a March 2021 rally protesting proposed laws that activists say violate the civil rights of LGBTQ people. Photo by Eric Seidle, used with permission from the Daily Montanan.
As a Black woman working on social justice causes in predominantly white Montana, Akilah Lane J.D. ’09 knows what it’s like to face adversity. “My many life experiences motivated me to seek meaningful change for communities who have been historically marginalized,” she told Santa Clara Law Magazine. “I went to law school hoping to someday be a civil rights attorney.” Today, as a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana, that’s just what she is. This year, she’s helping fight a discriminatory state law that requires trans people to provide proof of surgery to change their gender on identifying documents.