ON FEBRUARY 5, 2017, Tom Brady marched the New England Patriots down the field in overtime, scored the game-winning touchdown, overcame a 25-point deficit, and won Super Bowl LI. That day proved one thing: Great offense wins games.

In public interest law, going on offense means winning the right cases to establish important legal precedent on your issues. But winning those cases doesn’t happen by accident. It takes organizational strategy, dedicated attorneys and clients, and an ability to adapt and adjust when the plan falls apart.

IMAGINE WINNING THE SUPER BOWL—a feat that takes years of practice, strategy, and teambuilding. Now, imagine that your victory influences the rules of the entire sport in the next season.

That’s what a Supreme Court victory means in public interest law. The odds of getting the Supreme Court to take a case are low. Out of more than 6,000 cases that get submitted to the Court, it accepts only 70 to 80 cases a year. But if you can win, you just advanced liberty in every court across the country.

So how did Pacific Legal Foundation gain a better Supreme Court record than the ACLU in the last seven years? Our playbook.

How PLF builds the right case:

IDENTIFY A CLEAR INJUSTICE

You know a true injustice in your gut. Issues like racial discrimination, government censorship, or government depriving someone of their property or livelihood are fundamentally wrong. These injustices make a good Supreme Court case because you don’t need a law degree to know they demand action.

ASSESS THE STATE OF THE LAW

What laws are creating the injustice your’e battling? Are the legal principles that control the dispute deeply entrenched and difficult to overturn? Or is the law unsettled and ambiguous, capable of being moved to a position that more strongly and clearly supports liberty?

Public interest litigation has the greatest impact in cases where there is clear injustice for an individual or class of people, but the law governing their rights is unsettled. If there’s too much precedent to battle, it likely can’t be changed through the courts. But if a case is too easily resolved, then a victory won’t actually move individual liberty forward.

REPRESENT A SYMPATHETIC CLIENT WHO NEEDS OUR HELP AND PREPARE THEM FOR A FIGHT

Potential clients must need our help and have a case that’s capable of setting legal precedent that will help thousands of others. A public interest client—just like their attorney—must also be ready for years of litigation, media exposure, public scrutiny, and potentially huge losses of time, property, and privacy.

MAKE IT A NATIONAL ISSUE

To earn a Supreme Court victory—or get a case to the Supreme Court in the first place—the law often must be prepped for change. Making an issue a national concern through consistent, strategic litigation in multiple jurisdictions; writing; and outreach to the public prepares a legal issue for prime time.