ABOUT AGL

The law should protect you. Never scare you.

Breathe easy. The law isn’t the inaccessible, complicated, and intimidating monster that you might imagine it to be.

It’s there to help you. And so are we. We are the middlemen and women that facilitate communication between artists and lawyers, bring clarity to confusion, solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems, and kindness to sometimes domineering legal approaches by speaking your language and defending your artwork.

Vision Statement

Artists should enjoy greater levels of protections for their involvement in matters of general interest and contribution to public debate, essential in a free and open society.

Our approach

We are cultural rights defenders.

AGL have the skills necessary to solve complex legal issues and navigate international legal instruments to effectively protect the rights of creators active within a variety of artistic domains. In order to be able to offer artists the legal support they need and deserve, AGL partners include large law firms and networks of lawyers and experts. AGL is not a legal clearing house, simply matching artists with lawyers, the AGL team analyzes prima facie a case, designs a legal strategy, identifies the right support and supervises its implementation from the beginning to the end of the legal process.

We promote Pro Bono culture.

Money should never be the reason why an artist cannot afford legal support. This is crucial to us, Avant-Garde Lawyers. As members of a profession bound by ethical rules, we aspire to use the Law to ensure access to justice for artists in situations of increased vulnerability. It is in this spirit that we promote pro bono culture for the benefit of artists and artistic endeavors. Our work “translates” the law and makes legal processes related to art more transparent and accessible to artists. 

We respect art’s unique ontology.

We love art and our work respects and protects the creation process. We make sure the artistic intention is accurately presented in court. For each case we build an interdisciplinary team that works together to design unique legal strategies that challenge and re-think the status quo surrounding the legal protection of artistic expression.

We do legal advocacy.

We work worldwide with in-country lawyers. It is in a spirit of collaboration and exchange amongst lawyers from different jurisdictions, that we build trust and cohesion to create a long-standing global resources network with shared values and mission. With each case, we aim to offer an instrument that will impact not only the individual artist, but that also goes beyond, becoming part of a broader strategy to protect and expand the space for creative expression worldwide.

Our mission

AGL’s mission is three-fold:

> To ensure strengthened legal protection for artists.

> To promote an increased understanding of the right to freedom of artistic expression.

> To build a community of cultural rights defenders who collaborate together to defend artists’ rights.

What we do

  • provide specialized legal assistance to artists unable to afford it
  • ensure immediate support to at-risk artists by connecting them with local lawyers in our network and oversee the legal work for each case
  • for each case, design a legal strategy, build a team to implement it and supervise its execution
  • submit third-party interventions before international fora in cases dealing with freedom of artistic expression
  • design and deliver tailored courses to lawyers
  • maintain and grow our network of pro bono lawyers
  • generate exchange and facilitate cooperation between lawyers from different jurisdictions but also between artists and lawyers through our Art Law Forum