Eric Tirschwell, director of litigation for Everytown Law.

Most litigators are—forgive the expression—hired guns. They can advocate zealously without necessarily believing down deep in the moral rightness of their clients' conduct.

But for the litigators at Everytown Law, the two are intertwined.

Over the past three years, the gun safety advocacy group has been building a formidable in-house team, growing from one lawyer to 15 full-time litigators.

Headed by Eric Tirschwell, the former co-chair of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel's white collar practice, Everytown Law boasts former federal and state prosecutors along with alums of firms including Paul Weiss; Skadden; Weil Gotshal; O'Melveny; Jenner & Block; and Arnold & Porter. A former Supreme Court clerk is due on board in a few weeks.

Noting that no major social movement has succeeded without engaging in the courts, Tirschwell says the litigation team "compliments our strategy in the statehouse" to reduce gun violence.

In recent months, they've notched some notable victories, fighting in courts across the country to enforce and defend gun safety laws, empower cities to act to prevent gun violence at the local level, and to hold the gun industry accountable by representing survivors of gun violence.

"There's a tremendous amount of work to be done," Tirschwell said. "The gun industry and lobby over the years have put in place very significant barriers to accountability. We're figuring out how to knock them down or maneuver around and through them."

But he's careful to call their efforts "gun safety" and not "gun control."

"It's not about taking away responsible, law-abiding citizens' guns," Tirschwell stresses. "It's keeping guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them."

Everytown Law is part of the non-profit Everytown for Gun Safety. It was created in in 2013 when Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which was co-founded (and funded) by Michael Bloomberg merged with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

The litigators have been active at the municipal level, helping cities including Pittsburgh, Seattle, Albuquerque, Boulder and Columbus, Ohio to defend their gun safety laws against legal challenges.

Everytown litigators also joined forces with Florida cities and counties after the state legislature passed a firearms preemption law that would have allowed local officials to be personally fined or removed from office if they tried to implement local gun control measures that were later found to be preempted.

Working with Proskauer Rose, the Everytown lawyers in July helped convince the Florida Circuit Court in Leon County to find the penalties unconstitutional.

Kansas City, Missouri is another battleground. Earlier this month, Everytown teamed up with the city to sue Nevada-based gun maker Jimenez Arms, multiple current or former Kansas City-area licensed firearms dealers, an alleged gun trafficker and an alleged straw purchaser over the trafficking of handguns into the Kansas City area.

It's the first time a U.S. city has filed a lawsuit against the gun industry in more than 10 years.  The suit alleges that gun trafficking has created a public nuisance by contributing to the violent crime epidemic in Kansas City.

Also in Kansas City, Everytown and local counsel Williams Dirks Dameron LLC are representing the parents of Alvino Dwight Crawford in a lawsuit against some of the same targets, alleging that they contributed to Alvino's shooting death in 2016.

"We're pressing down at every level to address gun violence," Tirschwell said. "When I wake up each morning and head to work, my job is to think of ways to use the courts and the justice system to prevent gun violence. It's an energizing job description."