Legal Advocates for Safe Science and Technology (LASST)
A nonprofit that uses legal advocacy, including amicus briefs, impact litigation, and policy engagement, to mitigate catastrophic risks from advanced AI systems and biotechnology.
A nonprofit that uses legal advocacy, including amicus briefs, impact litigation, and policy engagement, to mitigate catastrophic risks from advanced AI systems and biotechnology.
People
Updated 05/18/26Director (Board)
Director (Board)
Director (Board)
Founder
Operations Director
Programs Director
Funding Details
Updated 05/18/26- Annual Budget
- $92,471
- Current Runway
- -
- Funding Goal
- -
- Funding Raised to Date
- -
Org Details
Updated 05/18/26Legal Advocates for Safe Science and Technology (LASST) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to using legal advocacy to make advances in science and technology safer for people and the planet. Founded in 2024 by Tyler Whitmer, a former partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan with over 15 years of commercial litigation experience, LASST aims to add legal advocacy to the toolkit of those seeking to ensure that technological advances benefit society without compromising safety. LASST's work is organized around three pillars: Research, Inform, and Advocate. On the research side, the organization conducts litigation surveillance to identify ongoing cases relevant to AI and biotechnology risks, performs fact-finding investigations including open records requests, and conducts legal analysis of how litigation could address emerging catastrophic risks. Through its Inform program, LASST works to expand pro bono engagement beyond climate law to include catastrophic risk mitigation, coordinating volunteer lawyers to contribute their expertise. Its Advocate program encompasses filing amicus curiae briefs to educate courts about technological risks, pursuing impact litigation designed to mitigate catastrophic risks, and engaging with government, industry, and academia on safety policy. LASST's most prominent initiative has been organizing the Not For Private Gain advocacy coalition, which successfully advocated to the Attorneys General of California and Delaware to protect OpenAI's charitable mission during its proposed corporate restructuring. Their advocacy helped convince OpenAI to abandon its original restructuring proposal and commit to continued nonprofit control. The organization also operates the AI Safety Whistleblower Legal Defense Fund, which provides grants to cover legal expenses, pro bono legal advice, and support coordination for individuals exposing dangerous practices in AI development. In the biosecurity domain, LASST has filed amicus briefs arguing that dangerous pathogen research should be subject to strict liability standards, working with scientific experts from Harvard, the Broad Institute, and King's College London. The team includes Programs Director Vivian Dong, a Harvard Law School graduate and former associate at Kellogg Hansen, and Operations Director Cortney Busch, who brings over 15 years of nonprofit operations experience in human rights and Effective Altruism. The board includes Amy Labenz (Director at Centre for Effective Altruism, former General Counsel and MIRI Chief Compliance Officer), Page Hedley (AI policy professional since 2016), and Laurens Prins (Dutch legal professional with international law experience). LASST is a fully remote organization registered in New York and offers a summer fellowship program for law students and legal professionals interested in technology law and policy.
Theory of Change
Updated 05/18/26LASST believes that the legal system is an underutilized lever for reducing catastrophic risks from advanced technologies. By filing strategic amicus briefs, courts can be educated about the risks posed by AI and dangerous pathogen research before precedent-setting decisions are made. Impact litigation can establish legal standards such as strict liability for unreasonably risky research, creating deterrent effects. Supporting AI safety whistleblowers with legal defense ensures that insiders can safely expose dangerous practices without career-ending retaliation, improving transparency at frontier AI labs. Policy advocacy to attorneys general and regulators can preserve nonprofit governance structures at AI companies, maintaining public interest oversight over powerful technologies. By mobilizing the legal profession's pro bono capacity toward catastrophic risk reduction, LASST aims to build a broader coalition of legally trained advocates working to ensure emerging technologies are developed safely.
Grants Received
Updated 05/18/26Projects
Updated 05/18/26
A LASST program that provides grants to cover legal expenses related to AI safety whistleblowing, prioritizing cases involving the safety or alignment of frontier AI systems, and offering pro bono legal advice and help finding additional support.
LASST’s project to research litigation involving pandemic‑potential pathogen research (PPPs and PEPPs) and file amicus briefs with scientific partners to educate courts and discourage unreasonably dangerous pathogen experiments.
Discussion
Key risk: As a small, new org with low current funding need, their impact hinges on winning rare, high-stakes legal actions and persuading courts to adopt novel standards, where misfires (e.g., losing on strict liability for pathogen research or AI governance cases) could set adverse precedent and make marginal dollars low-leverage.
Case for funding: LASST fills a neglected, high-leverage niche by rapidly deploying strategic litigation and amicus briefs on AI/bio risks—already demonstrating traction by mobilizing AGs to preserve OpenAI’s nonprofit control and standing up an AI Safety Whistleblower Defense Fund—so courts and regulators can impose safety guardrails (e.g., strict liability) when legislative routes stall.