Kudos to American Lawyer Magazine today for boldly challenging Big Law to boost its support for civil legal aid.
Kudos to American Lawyer Magazine today for boldly challenging Big Law to boost its support for civil legal aid. With solid reporting to support Editor-in-Chief Kimberly Kleman’s editorial, ALM’s cover story, How Big Law Is Failing Legal Aid, by Susan Beck, calls on the nation’s largest law firms to increase contributions from current levels – now amounting to less than one-tenth of one percent of revenue – to a quarter of a percent. That would be a great start. It would increase total spending on civil legal aid (now almost $1.4 billion) by about $250 million.
But, as Susan Beck’s cover story makes clear, if we’re serious about fulfilling our nation’s promise of justice for all, we must double our investment in civil legal aid. It is heartening to learn that, with collective annual revenue of $100 billion, the AmLaw200 firms could generate $1 billion in support for civil legal aid by contributing just 1 percent of revenue. Today, ALM has launched a long-overdue conversation and proposes key action steps to help us meet our responsibility as a legal profession.
The cover story quotes many voices of our civil legal aid community, including legal aid attorneys, clients, judges, private attorneys, and national leaders of the legal aid sector. We at Voices were pleased to be a resource to the reporter and to you.
The editorial and cover story are part of “A Special Report: The Justice Gap,” which includes these segments:
Cover Story: How Big Law Is Failing Legal Aid, by Susan Beck
Editorial: Big Law and Legal Aid, by Editor-in-Chief Kimberly Kleman
Fellowships Are Another Way to Support Legal Aid, by Susan Beck
And, related:
Pro Bono Report 2015: Treading Water
Geographic coverage: NATIONAL
Tags: Funding: Private/Foundation, Pro Bono