Clients have included political activists, people who have been wrongfully arrested and imprisoned, or subjected to excessive force; and criminal defendants.
In the aftermath of the 1968 Democratic National Convention held in Chicago, where hundreds of people were arrested and criminally charged during massive protests, a group of lawyers decided they wanted to work in and with the movement for social and political change.
PLO lawyers took the lead in investigating the case and exposing as a lie the police story of a shoot-out with people in the apartment.
[9] PLO lawyers joined with other attorneys to file a civil case for damages on behalf of the prisoners and against the state correctional system.
In the 1970s the office agreed to represent Puerto Rican defendants who were part of the independence movement: Oscar Collazo, Andrés Figueroa Cordero, Irvin Flores, Lolita Lebrón, and Rafael Cancel Miranda.
[14] The office also represented other militant proponents of Puerto Rican independence, fighting subpoenas issued against supporters of Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN) fugitives and other pro-independence activists.
In 1980, when 11 alleged FALN members were arrested and charged with numerous criminal offenses including seditious conspiracy, they refused to recognize the authority of the U.S. courts.
in 1985, PLO began to represent an alleged member of the Macheteros, a clandestine pro- Puerto Rican independence organization, who was charged, with others, in Hartford, Connecticut with conspiracy to rob Wells Fargo of $7.3 million.
Oscar López Rivera, did not accept the release offer, as it required him to serve an additional ten years and did not include all of the prisoners.
The decision of the New York Puerto Rican Day parade to honor Rivera generated controversy, with some sponsors withdrawing their support.
In the 1980s PLO continued this work, joining in protests against U.S. involvement in Central America, South Africa, and the Middle East.
In the 1990s PLO worked with AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), coordinating legal observers at demonstrations and providing representation in criminal and civil courts.
PLO participated in the criminal defense where most charges were thrown out, and then filed and successfully litigated civil rights complaints on behalf of several of the demonstrators.
[17] People's law Office is involved in defending members of the Occupy movement[18] and demonstrators arrested during the May, 2012, protests at the Chicago NATO summit.
[27] PLO has represented and obtained money damages for many clients who were falsely arrested or convicted, including Kenny Adams, one of the Ford Heights Four.
These four innocent men spent a total of 65 years in prison for a crime which they did not commit; they eventually obtained a record $36 million settlement.
[28] the 8-year-old boy who was notoriously charged with the murder of Ryan Harris on the basis of a confession he allegedly gave to detectives, where fuller investigation established that there was semen on the body which came from a repeat sexual offender;[29] Miguel Castillo, convicted of murder, where PLO was able to establish he was in jail on another charge at the time of the killing;[30] Ronald Jones, who was sentenced to death where DNA subsequently established his innocence;[31] Larry Mayes, an Indiana man imprisoned for almost 20 years for rape where DNA showed he was not the rapist, and investigation showed that the eyewitness had been secretly hypnotized;[32] Jerry Miller, who served almost 25 years before DNA proved that another man, who had subsequently committed several other assaults, was the perpetrator of a rape;[33] and George Jones, accused of rape and murder, where PLO lawyers established the existence of secret Chicago Police Department files containing exculpatory information, which in this case contained the name of the likely real killer.
In the Wilson case, PLO generated substantial evidence that Burge and his detectives routinely tortured criminal defendants to obtain confessions.
In recent years, PLO has been representing more and more people from LGBTQ communities, who have been targeted or punished in the criminal legal system because of their gender identity or sexual orientation.
This has included representing a lesbian who was sentenced to death for murder, where the focus of the prosecution sentencing argument was that she was a "hard core lesbian"; representing several transgender and gender non-conforming people who have been illegally and unconstitutionally strip searched, harassed or discriminated against while in police custody; and defending gay men who are falsely accused of engaging in public sex acts.
PLO has worked on such issues as the struggle for independence of the Palestinian and Puerto Rican peoples, the Attica prisoners, providing legal support for progressive groups, and fighting against government brutality and repression.