The National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) is the oldest and largest national, nonprofit membership organization devoted to advocating equal justice for all Americans [1] and was established in 1911.
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The National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) is the oldest and largest national, nonprofit membership organization devoted to advocating equal justice for all Americans [1] and was established in 1911.
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and its Equal Protection Clause provides equal justice under law. Beginning in the late 1800s and throughout the early years of the 20th century, the American legal profession expressed its commitment to the concept of free legal assistance for poor people in the form of legal aid societies and bar association legal aid committees.
The first legal aid society, The German Society of New York, was founded in 1876 to protect German immigrants from exploitation. Subsequently, the agency's protection was extended to others and in 1890 it became the Legal Aid Society of New York. [2] In 1888, the Ethical Culture Society of Chicago established by the Bureau of Justice was the first agency to offer legal assistance to individuals regardless of nationality, race or gender. Other municipalities followed suit, and in the first decades of the 20th century most major cities had opened legal aid societies. [3]
In 1911, legal aid societies joined together to form the National Alliance of Legal Aid Societies. Arthur von Briesen of the Legal Aid Society of New York was the first president of the organization that became the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) in 1949. [4]
The concept of free legal assistance for the poor was promoted by the publication of Reginald Heber Smith's Justice and the Poor in 1919. Smith challenged the legal profession to consider it an obligation to see that access to justice was available to all, without regard to ability to pay. "Without equal access to the law," he wrote, "the system not only robs the poor of their only protection, but places in the hands of their oppressors the most powerful and ruthless weapon ever invented. [5]
As a result of Smith's book, the American Bar Association created the Special Committee on Legal Aid Work. By the middle of the 20th century, virtually every major metropolitan area had some kind of legal aid program. However, the system established was not suffice in meeting the needs of the poor and in the early 1960s a new model for legal services programs emerged. This new model was based on the philosophy that legal services should be a component of an overall anti-poverty effort. The Ford Foundation was one of the original supporters of this model.
Subsequently, in 1964 came the passage of the Economic Opportunity Act, which launched the war on poverty and mandated federal funds to be allocated for the first time to fund legal services to the poor. However, this law did not specifically provide for legal services and it took many years and attempts to finally devise a federal construct to support legal aid for the low-income community. After years of research and advocacy, the Legal Services Corporation Act was enacted in 1974 by President Richard Nixon. This program flourished and has evolved over the years to become the organization nationally recognized as the Legal Services Corporation.
Over the years legal aid has evolved into a comprehensive program that provides legal assistance to low-income people regardless of race, ethnicity or gender. NLADA is the only national membership organization devoted exclusively to ensuring legal representation for individuals who cannot afford an attorney.
NLADA serves the equal justice community in two major ways: providing products and services and as a national voice in public policy and legislative debates on the many issues affecting the equal justice community. NLADA also serves as a resource for those seeking more information on equal justice in the United States.
In recent years, the NLADA has honored individuals and organizations with a variety of awards at its annual conferences. Awards range from the Mary Ellen Hamilton award, which recognizes a client of a legal aid or defender organization, to the Clara Shortridge Foltz Award, which honors organizations that have pioneered important innovations in the field. Notable recipients of NLADA awards include former Attorney General Janet Reno, Bronx Defenders attorney David Feige, Forensic social worker Cessie Alfonso, [6] San Francisco lawyer Tanya Neiman, and Hillary Clinton. [7]
Legal aid is the provision of assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. Legal aid is regarded as central in providing access to justice by ensuring equality before the law, the right to counsel and the right to a fair trial. This article describes the development of legal aid and its principles, primarily as known in Europe, the Commonwealth of Nations and in the United States.
The Legal Aid Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit legal aid provider based in New York City. Founded in 1876, it is the oldest and largest provider of legal aid in the United States. Its attorneys provide representation on criminal and civil matters in both individual cases and class action lawsuits. The organization is funded through a combination of public grants and private donations. It is the largest recipient of funding among regional legal aid providers from the New York City government and is the city's primary legal services provider.
The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) is a publicly funded, 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation established by the United States Congress. It seeks to ensure equal access to justice under the law for all Americans by providing funding for civil legal aid to those who otherwise would be unable to afford it. The LSC was created in 1974 with bipartisan congressional sponsorship and the support of the Nixon administration, and LSC is funded through the congressional appropriations process.
Florence Wagman Roisman is the William F. Harvey Professor of Law at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. She is best known for her work in low-income housing, homelessness, and housing discrimination and segregation. In the fall of 2006, Roisman was the Skelly Wright Fellow at Yale Law School.
Paul M. Igasaki was the Chair and Chief Judge of the Administrative Review Board at the U.S. Department of Labor. Previously he was the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Equal Justice Works, a national organization that advances public interest law through fellowships, loan repayment programs, pro bono programs, conferences and other methods. Prior to joining Equal Justice Works, he was executive director of the Rights Working Group, a unique nationwide coalition of groups and individuals committed to ensuring liberty and justice for all.
The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland is a legal aid society in Cleveland, Ohio established in 1905. It helped pioneer a nationwide legal aid movement whose leaders held to a simple but profound principle: that rich and poor alike are entitled to equal treatment under the law.
Texas RioGrande Legal Aid formerly Texas Rural Legal Aid (TRLA) is a nonprofit agency that specializes in providing free civil legal services to the poor in a 68-county service area. It also operates a migrant farmworker legal assistance program in six southern states and a public defender program in southern rural counties of Texas. Established in 1970, TRLA is the largest legal aid provider in Texas and the second largest in the United States.
Equal Justice Works is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that focuses on careers in public service for lawyers. Equal Justice Works' stated mission is "to create a just society by mobilizing the next generation of lawyers committed to equal justice."
Legal aid in the United States is the provision of assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system in the United States. In the US, legal aid provisions are different for criminal law and civil law. Criminal legal aid with legal representation is guaranteed to defendants under criminal prosecution who cannot afford to hire an attorney. Civil legal aid is not guaranteed under federal law, but is provided by a variety of public interest law firms and community legal clinics for free or at reduced cost. Other forms of civil legal aid are available through federally-funded legal services, pro bono lawyers, and private volunteers.
Justice and the Poor is a book on law and ethics first published in 1919, promoting the concept of free legal assistance for the poor. It was written by Reginald Heber Smith, director of the Boston Legal Aid Society.
Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF), also known as Advocaten Zonder Grenzen or Lawyers without Borders, is an international NGO, active in the human rights and development sector. Created in 1992 by a group of Belgian lawyers, ASF’s main objective is the realisation of institutions and mechanisms that facilitate access to independent and fair justice systems that ensure legal security and guarantee fundamental human rights for everyone.
Barbara Ruth Arnwine served as the executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law from 1989 until 2015. Born in southern California, Arnwine is a graduate of Scripps College and Duke University School of Law. After graduating from Duke Law School, she stayed in Durham and worked for the Durham Legal Assistance Program and as a Reginald Huber Smith fellow. She moved on to the legal service's head office in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1979, working on affirmative action policies, reviewing contracts, and legal aid programs. In the 1980s she served as executive director of the Boston Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights.
Charles Henry Dorsey, Jr. was born in Baltimore and attended St. Catherine Academy in Baltimore and Epiphany College, a Josephite seminary, in New York from 1947–48. He transferred from Epiphany College to Loyola College in September 1949. He was the first black undergraduate student to enroll in Loyola College.
The Central Virginia Legal Aid Society (CVLAS) is a nonprofit organization that provides free legal assistance in civil matters to low-income and elderly residents in central Virginia.
Joyce London Alexander was a US district court magistrate judge. She was the first African American to be appointed Chief Magistrate judge in the United States.
Martha Jane Bergmark is an attorney, civil rights advocate, and writer from Mississippi. Bergmark is best known for her work promoting civil justice through civil legal aid organizations at the local, state, and national level. Currently, Bergmark is executive director of Voices for Civil Justice.
Charles Addison Gessler was an American criminal defense attorney who specialized in death penalty litigation. Gessler worked as a deputy public defender for the Los Angeles County Public Defender's office for thirty-two years. Gessler handled several high-profile cases, including representing Lyle Menéndez, G. Gordon Liddy and Vaughn Greenwood.
Lillian Johnson is an attorney and civil justice advocate in Arizona. In 2011, Johnson was honored as an Obama White House Champion of Change.
Tanya Marie Neiman was an American lawyer and activist based in San Francisco. For over 20 years, she was director of the Volunteer Legal Services Program of the Bar Association of San Francisco, now known as the Justice & Diversity Center, "one of the largest and most innovative legal services programs in the country to serve lower-income people".
Cecilia "Cessie" Alfonso is an American forensic social work, domestic violence prevention and response, and organizational development consultant and activist who has protested against the Vietnam War and the use of the death penalty in the United States to prosecute criminals and in support of improved civil rights for women and the LGBT community.
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