A community of LGBTQ+ legal professionals and allies across Northern Virginia — building connection, visibility, and professional excellence. On the record, and out in the open.
We foster connection, visibility, and professional excellence among LGBTQ+ legal professionals and allies — creating opportunities for community, development, and advocacy. Through collaboration, inclusion, and engagement, we strengthen our profession and the communities we serve.
Everything we do ladders up to one outcome: a profession where LGBTQ+ practitioners thrive, and allies know how to stand with them.
Rooms where you belong — and a profession in service.
Mixers, bar events, and standing meetups that turn colleagues into a circle you can actually call — plus pro bono drives, clinics, and volunteering that show up for the communities we’re part of.
Sharpen the craft.
CLEs, panels, and skills programming on the issues moving our practice and our people forward — plus mentorship that connects seasoned practitioners with newer attorneys and students finding their footing.
Know your rights — and a bench that shows up.
Legal resources, referrals, and know-your-rights programming for the LGBTQ+ community and people living with HIV — helping our community be out and protected, and putting our skills where they’re needed most.
NOVA OutLaw brings together attorneys, judges, paralegals, law students, and the staff who keep the work moving — everyone with a stake in a more open profession. We’re local by intent: the Northern Virginia legal community is big enough to matter and small enough to know each other.
And allies aren’t an afterthought here — they’re on the masthead. If you believe the bar is stronger when it’s inclusive, you have a seat. Visibility is a team sport.
The + in LGBTQ+ is there by design. It’s the room we keep for every identity our letters don’t spell out — nonbinary, intersex, questioning, and everyone still finding the words. Here, no one is an afterthought.
However you come to the law, there’s a way in. Membership is open — pick the path that fits where you are.
Attorneys, judges, paralegals, and legal staff in any practice area, public or private.
Future counsel building community early — with mentors who’ve walked the road.
Colleagues and friends who show up, speak up, and help make the profession ours together.
Add your name to a network that has your back — for the next mixer, the next CLE, the next mentee, and the long work of a more inclusive profession.