Letter from the Chairman

Chairman
John G. Levi

Across the country, low-income Americans seek out their local legal aid programs funded by the Legal Services Corporation for help with civil matters that go to the very heart of their safety and security.  They are fighting to avert foreclosure, or to escape domestic violence.  They are grandparents seeking legal guardianship of a grandchild in need of life-saving surgery, or they are veterans returning from overseas and facing legal issues.

LSC-funded programs are not alone in being swamped with requests for civil legal assistance.  State and local courts—especially housing and family courts—are overwhelmed with low-income individuals who are appearing without a lawyer.

Much is at stake.  Access to justice is essential in our democracy, and civil legal assistance provides important support for the orderly functioning of the civil justice system.  More than 60 million Americans are eligible for LSC-funded services, living at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty line.  Our ability to assure these individuals that the legal system works for them, too, continues their faith in our democracy.

The current LSC Board has focused on the needs of clients and the resource constraints that affect the delivery of civil legal assistance.  The Board convened an Executive Directors Roundtable to hear directly about priorities in the field.  We have received presentations on the delivery of legal assistance in urban, rural and Native American communities.  In an era when every dollar counts, we support and encourage partnerships and we enlist significant donations of pro bono services from private practitioners.

Our 11-member bipartisan Board was appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and the members come from every region of the country.  They are dedicated to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of LSC-funded programs and to championing innovations that enhance legal services provided to clients.  You may read more about our members of the Board on the Board of Director’s web page.

More than three decades ago, my father, Edward H. Levi, in his farewell address as Attorney General of the United States, said that the values on which our country was founded “can never be won for all time—they always must be won anew.”   Every day, legal aid attorneys across our nation can be counted on to ensure that their clients are treated with fairness and dignity in the resolution of their civil legal problems and that low-income Americans have a place to turn for help in managing their civil legal needs.

The work of LSC-funded programs has never been more important, and we thank them for the invaluable service they are performing on behalf of the nation.

--John G. Levi
(Bio)