Founded | 1876 |
---|---|
Type | Non-profit |
Location | |
Services | Legal representation, class action litigation |
Fields | Legal aid |
Key people | Charles K. Lexow, Steven Banks, Twyla Carter |
Website | legalaidnyc.org |
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. [1] 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. [2] 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. [3]
The Legal Aid Society was founded in 1876 in New York to defend the individual rights of German immigrants who could not afford to hire a lawyer. A large donation from the Rockefeller Family in 1890 enabled the organization to expand its services and include individuals from every background. [1] It was renamed the New York Legal Aid Society in 1890. [4] The society is governed by a board of directors. On December 2, 2010, Richard J. Davis was elected chairman of the board.
The Legal Aid Society provides a range of civil legal services, as well as criminal defense work, and juvenile representation in Family Court. The organization's primary purpose is to provide free legal assistance to New Yorkers who live at or below the poverty level and cannot afford to hire a lawyer when confronted with a legal problem. [19] It handles more than 200,000 indigent criminal cases every year, serves as attorneys to more than 30,000 children and represents families, individuals and community groups in more than 30,000 cases. Legal Aid also conducts major class action litigation on behalf of thousands of welfare recipients, foster children, homeless families, elderly poor, inmates at Rikers Island and other prisoners.
The Legal Aid Society is the city's primary provider of criminal legal aid contract attorneys, along with New York County Defender Services in Manhattan, Brooklyn Defender Services in Brooklyn, Bronx Defenders in the Bronx, Queens Defenders in Queens, and the Neighborhood Defender Service in northern Manhattan. [21] For New York City in fiscal year 2014, Legal Aid handled 225,776 cases for $102.5 million in compensation from the city (an average of $454 per case). [21]
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.
A public defender is a lawyer appointed to represent people who otherwise cannot reasonably afford to hire a lawyer to defend themselves in a trial. Several countries provide people with public defenders, including the UK, Belgium, Hungary and Singapore, and some states of Australia. Brazil is the only country in which an office of government-paid lawyers with the specific purpose of providing full legal assistance and representation to the needy free of charge is established in the constitution. The Sixth Amendment to the US Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, requires the US government to provide legal counsel to indigent defendants in criminal cases. Public defenders in the United States are lawyers employed by or under contract with county, state or federal governments.
The Criminal Court of the City of New York is a court of the State Unified Court System in New York City that handles misdemeanors and lesser offenses, and also conducts arraignments and preliminary hearings in felony cases.
In criminal law, the right to counsel means a defendant has a legal right to have the assistance of counsel and, if the defendant cannot afford a lawyer, requires that the government appoint one or pay the defendant's legal expenses. The right to counsel is generally regarded as a constituent of the right to a fair trial. Historically, however, not all countries have always recognized the right to counsel. The right is often included in national constitutions. Of the 194 constitutions currently in force, 153 have language to this effect.
Charles K. Lexow was the Commissioner of Supreme Court Records and the oldest Republican District Leader in New York City in 1928 when he died.
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.
Arthur Lawrence Liman was an American lawyer and partner at the New York firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Liman served as the chief counsel for both the New York state commission for the Attica Prison riot in 1971 and the investigation of the Iran-Contra Affair in 1987.
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.
Frank Moss was an American lawyer, reformer and author. He was involved in many of the reform movements in New York City shortly before the start of the 20th century up until his death. As a longtime assistant to District Attorney Charles S. Whitman, he was involved in several high-profile criminal cases such as the Rosenthal murder trial in which police detective Charles Becker was found guilty of murder and executed.
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.
The National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) is the oldest and largest national, nonprofit membership organization devoted to advocating equal justice for all Americans and was established in 1911.
The Bronx County Hall of Justice is a courthouse at 265 East 161st Street, between Sherman and Morris Avenues in the Concourse section of the Bronx in New York City. The ten-story, 775,000-square-foot (72,000 m2) building includes 47 New York Supreme Court and New York City Criminal Court courtrooms, 7 grand jury rooms, and office space for the New York City Department of Correction, the New York City Department of Probation, and the district attorney.
Orison Swett Marden, Jr. was a New York City lawyer, a leader of the Legal Aid Society, and a president of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, and the New York City Bar Association.
The Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship is a full-tuition public service scholarship for students at New York University School of Law. It is widely considered to be the most prestigious public interest scholarship for law students in the United States.
The New York County Lawyers Association (NYCLA) is a bar association located in New York City.
Arthur von Briesen was a lawyer and philanthropist. He was president of the Legal Aid Society from 1889 to 1916.
The Bronx Defenders is a public defender office located in the South Bronx neighborhood of New York City. At the Bronx Defenders, criminal defense lawyers work together with civil lawyers, family defense lawyers, immigration lawyers, non-attorney advocates, social workers, and investigators to help their clients address the full range of legal and social issues that can result from criminal charges.
In the United States, a public defender is a lawyer appointed by the courts and provided by the state or federal governments to represent and advise those charged with a crime or crimes who cannot afford to hire a private attorney. Public defenders are full-time attorneys employed by the state or federal governments. The public defender system is one of several types of criminal legal aid, the most common other system being appointed private counsel paid for by the government.
Archibald R. Murray was an American lawyer born in Barbados, who was the first African-American Attorney-in-Chief of The Legal Aid Society, the first African-American President of the New York State Bar Association, and the second African-American Chairman of the Executive Committee of the New York City Bar Association.
Carey R. Dunne is an American attorney. He is known for leading the criminal investigation of Donald Trump for the office of the Manhattan District Attorney until his resignation from the case, alongside his colleague Mark F. Pomerantz, in February 2022. In that role, Dunne successfully argued Trump v. Vance before the United States Supreme Court in May 2020; the court held that President Trump was required to comply with a state grand jury subpoena for his tax returns. Prior to his service at the DA's Office, Dunne was a longtime partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell, where he specialized in white collar criminal defense. Dunne is a past president of the New York City Bar Association.
At a meeting of the Directors of the Legal Aid Society yesterday afternoon ex-Supreme Court Justice Charles E. Hughes was elected President unanimously to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Arthur von Briesen. Mr. Hughes has been a member of the Legal Aid Society from its early days, and became an Honorary Vice President in 1911.
Arthur von Briesen, one of the most prominent American citizens of German birth, who was long active in local and national affairs as a lawyer and philanthropist, died suddenly yesterday of
Because of his German name Arthur von Briesen, for more than twenty-five years head of the Legal Aid Society, refused at the society's annual meeting yesterday to accept the Presidency for another year. After some pleading, however, he decided to withhold his decision, and if no other selection could be agreed upon, to serve, but only for one more year. ...
Holland, Rupert Sargent (June 1907). "Defending the Rights of the Poor". The World's Work: A History of Our Time . XIV: 9091–9042. Retrieved July 10, 2009.