This report, published for the 16th International Day of the Endangered Lawyer (24 January 2026), examines growing threats to the independence, safety, and professional freedom of lawyers in the United States. Traditionally seen as a strong rule-of-law democracy, the U.S. has been selected as the 2026 focus country due to escalating political, institutional, and administrative pressures on legal professionals.
The report documents a systematic pattern of interference with the legal profession, including executive orders targeting law firms, political retaliation against lawyers representing unpopular clients, sanctions affecting international legal work, surveillance and harassment of attorneys, and increasing politicization within the Department of Justice and the judiciary. It also highlights the chilling effect these measures have on legal advocacy, access to justice, public defense, immigration representation, and civil society more broadly.
Drawing on international legal standards—including the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, the ICCPR, and emerging global norms such as the Luxembourg Convention—the report argues that current trends in the U.S. risk undermining judicial independence, weakening democratic checks and balances, and eroding public trust in the rule of law.
The report concludes with a set of recommendations for U.S. authorities, international organizations, bar associations, civil society, academia, and the media, calling for urgent action to protect lawyer independence, restore institutional safeguards, and defend the rule of law.