2026 Youth Defender Leadership Summit
October 28 – October 30
Training, Strategizing, Building Community
Each fall since 1997, the Gault Center hosts the only national gathering and training for youth defenders and advocates. The Youth Defender Leadership Summit brings together hundreds of youth defense attorneys and advocates from every state, DC, and Puerto Rico, and offers an invaluable space of inspiration, collaboration, and collectivity where novel strategies to strengthen youth rights are born and activated. Summit is a longstanding space dedicated exclusively to the specialization of youth defense, offering a home for youth defenders to participate in cutting-edge training workshops, develop and share strategies to better defend youth rights, learn from experts, and connect as a community to work collectively to strengthen youth rights. We convene leading legal minds, advocates, system decision-makers, and community leaders to focus deeply on the unique legal, developmental, and systemic issues impacting young people
This intentional focus creates space for more rigorous dialogue, practical skill-building, and innovative problem-solving—grounded in the realities of youth defense practice and driven by a shared commitment to advancing justice for young people.
Summit inspires and energizes youth defenders and advocates, who often face staggering caseloads, limited resources, and a juvenile legal system fraught with racial, ethnic, and other bias. Our goal each year is that defenders leave Summit with renewed courage to keep fighting, the knowledge they have a youth defense community standing firmly behind them, and a deeper understanding of the incredible importance of their work and the power of collective action.
To bring this vision to life, each year, Summit translates these priorities into a thoughtfully curated experience that brings people together to learn, challenge ideas, and collectively move work forward.
This year, we are convening in beautiful Detroit Michigan. Join us in a city shaped by generations of organizers and visionaries who believed that lasting change is built through collective action, innovation, and bold visions for justice. Registration opens July 1.