Tobacco Control Legal Consortium

The Tobacco Control Legal Consortium is America’s award-winning legal network for tobacco control policy. Drawing on experts in its eight affiliated legal centers, the consortium works to assist communities with tobacco law-related issues, ranging from smoke-free policies to tobacco control funding laws to regulation of flavored cigarettes. 

The consortium’s team of legal and policy specialists provides legislative drafting and policy assistance to community leaders and public health organizations.  We are experts in designing, enacting and implementing laws that are evidence-based, workable, effective and legally sound.

We come to the aid of state and municipal attorneys with legal research and analysis when tobacco control laws are challenged, and write influential friend-of-the-court (amicus curiae) legal briefs in key tobacco cases before the highest courts of the nation. 

Cited by researchers in 2008 as a national model for delivering cost-effective legal services to public health departments, the consortium has helped health leaders write and develop more than a hundred tobacco control laws across the U.S., ranging from smoke-free policies to tobacco control funding laws to regulation of flavored cigarettes.  The consortium received the 2004 National/Regional Collaboration Award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Directors of Health Promotion and Education.

Major Funders

• American Cancer Society
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Partners

• American Heart Association
• American Lung Association
• Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights
• Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
• Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• National Association of County and City Health Officials
• National Association of Local Boards of Health
• Tobacco Technical Assistance Consortium

Affiliated Organizations 

California

Technical Assistance Legal Center (TALC)
A project of Public Health Law & Policy

Marice Ashe, J.D., MPH, Director

TALC is a project of the nonprofit Public Health Law & Policy and is funded by California tobacco tax money (Proposition 99) through the California Department of Public Health’s Tobacco Control Program. Founded in 1997, TALC focuses its efforts on policy change. The organization’s mission is to be a resource for communities that want to change their social environment through the adoption of local policies to reduce the availability of tobacco products, protect the public from exposure to secondhand smoke and to minimize the visibility of tobacco advertising in communities. This mission is achieved by providing help to tobacco control programs, city attorneys, county counsels, and others working on various tobacco-related policies.

Colorado

Tobacco Advocacy Resource Partnership

The Technical Assistance Resource Partnership provides training, technical assistance, and legal support, to local health agencies and advocates throughout the state. The center’s focus for 2006–07 includes ensuring successful implementation of the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act and developing strategies to provide smoke-free workplaces for casino employees and smoke-free housing in multi-unit dwellings.

Maryland

Legal Resource Center for Tobacco Regulation, Litigation & Advocacy (LRC)
University of Maryland School of Law

Kathleen Dachille, J.D., Director

LRC, founded in 2001, is affiliated with the University of Maryland’s School of Law and receives funding from the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Office of Health Promotion, Education and Tobacco Use Prevention through State MSA funds. LRC’s mission is to provide legal assistance to county and local governments and community groups on such issues as regulatory development and evaluation of policy strategies designed to reduce tobacco use.

Massachusetts

Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI)
Northeastern University School of Law

Mark Gottlieb, J.D., Executive Director

PHAI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization housed at Northeastern University School of Law. With over 25 years of experience, PHAI receives funding from local, national and international organizations. PHAI attorneys provide legal assistance and education for local, state and federal lawmakers, and for non-governmental public health organizations. PHAI researches and promotes public health law to reduce the use of and exposure to tobacco products both throughout the world.

Michigan

Smoke-Free Environments Law Project (SFELP)
The Center for Social Gerontology, Inc.

Jim Bergman, J.D., Director

The Smoke-Free Environments Law Project (SFELP), created in 1999, is a statewide project which provides information, legal research, consultation and advice for units of government, tobacco control and related groups, businesses and individuals of all ages in Michigan on policies and practices to protect people from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke and to address the legal requirements and liability issues related thereto. SFELP, funded largely by the Tobacco Section of the Michigan Department of Community Health, is a program of The Center for Social Gerontology Inc., which is a research, training and social policy organization focusing on issues which promote the individual autonomy and well-being of older persons.

Minnesota

Public Health Law Center

Doug Blanke, J.D., Director

The Public Health Law Center is a legal center at the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minn. Created in 2000, the center provides legal technical assistance to Minnesota communities and helps union leaders address tobacco and health as an issue of workers’ health and safety. Other initiatives of the center include a report on the barriers to international tobacco litigation, policy analysis on regulation of Internet cigarette sales, legal research on the accessibility of tobacco industry documents, a study of youth access enforcement patterns, and analysis of tobacco industry documents, as well as regulation of secondhand smoke, workers’ rights, international regulation of tobacco and global litigation.

New Jersey

Tobacco Control Policy and Legal Resource Center
New Jersey GASP (Group Against Smoking Pollution)

Karen Blumenfeld, J.D., Executive Director

Through its Tobacco Control Policy and Legal Resource Center, New Jersey GASP provides counsel and legal information for litigation, regulation, and legislation. The center offers model ordinances, information about legislation in New Jersey and elsewhere, updates on tobacco-related litigation, as well as a searchable database of local laws. New Jersey GASP is a nonprofit advocacy organization that has worked since 1974 to create smoke-free workplaces, public places, and schools, as well as children’s home environments, particularly by helping to create local policy and legislation.

New England Law | Boston

Center for Public Health and Tobacco Policy

Micah Berman, J.D., Director

On January 1, 2010, New England Law | Boston opened its Center for Public Health and Tobacco Policy, a policy resource center for New York State’s tobacco control efforts.  Funded by a grant from the New York State Department of Health, the Center works with the Department of Health and communities around New York to develop policies to reduce the availability of tobacco products, protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke, and minimize or remove tobacco advertising.