Celebrating Five Years of the Rural Justice Collaborative!

May 17, 2018

The Rural Justice Collaborative turns five years old today! In celebration of this major milestone, today we wanted to look back on the history and impact of this important and innovative program.

In 2012, members of the Association of Pro Bono Counsel met with then-Vice President Joe Biden to discuss access to justice issues. During the meeting, the Vice President challenged the private sector to increase its involvement in providing pro bono legal help for people in need. Rising to the challenge, APBCo initiated the IMPACT projects (“Involving More Pro Bono Attorneys in Our Communities Together”), a nationwide group of initiatives which seek to engage pro bono resources to increase access to justice for low income people.

One of these projects was the Rural Justice Collaborative (or RJC), which launched in 2013 with funding and support from Cooley LLP and staffing from OneJustice. The first clinic was held five years ago today in Napa, where volunteer attorneys from Cooley LLP and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP assisted eleven clients with filing and renewing their DACA applications.

Since that first clinic, RJC has hosted 117 clinics that have helped over 1100 people in a variety of legal areas – including immigration, naturalization, DACA applications, housing, and expungement of criminal records. The nearly 1000 attorneys who have volunteered with RJC have provided thousands of hours of free legal help. RJC volunteers regularly travel to rural areas around Northern California, including Petaluma, Oakley, Gilroy, South Lake Tahoe, and Pittsburg Bay Point, among others.

Volunteer attorneys and a client at a recent RJC clinic in Sonoma County

The attorneys who volunteer their time with RJC are simply remarkable. Many, in fact, are repeat volunteers who are happy to help whenever (and wherever) needed. Lusik Gasparyan, who manages RJC in the San Francisco office, enjoys getting to work with the committed volunteers who volunteer with RJC. “I love meeting the volunteers that come to RJC clinics and learning about their experiences and passions,” she says. “They make genuine connections with the clients and treat the clients with empathy and respect.” She goes on to describe one RJC volunteer in particular who, despite working two jobs, comes to every RJC clinic she can. “She greets folks with a hug and a huge smile. People like her make every legal clinic a success.”

RJC’s clinics have been critical in response to the new challenges facing immigrants in Northern California – including the rescission of DACA and the surge in immigration enforcement. Given this need, all of this year’s RJC clinics have focused on immigration legal issues and DACA applications. It’s no exaggeration to say that the legal help clients receive can often have a dramatic impact on their futures. As a recent 19 year old DACA recipient noted at a clinic:

“I wish we could change the current unfair immigration laws, so no family has to feel fear of deportation as I feel. I know I have a bright future…I like to major in computer science and contribute to this society.”

At the end of the day, none of these clinics are about getting the right papers filled out. It’s about the hope, security, and sense of opportunity our clients feel when they walk out the door. We are privileged to stand alongside these Californians who, like the 19-year-old quoted above, are working to build a better future for themselves and their communities.

So today, we want to say thank you to all of the volunteers and law firms who have supported the Rural Justice Collaborative, and to all of the incredible community organizations we have the privilege of working alongside. We’re looking forward to a bright future where we can continue to work together to bring justice to even more rural Californians. Here’s to another five years!

To learn more about the Rural Justice Collaborative, contact Ellie Dehghan, Senior Staff Attorney, at edehghan@one-justice.org.

Want to support the Rural Justice Collaborative? Make a donation today!

One year later . . . OneJustice is ready.

November 7, 2017
Post by Julia R. Wilson, CEO

One year ago, I was pathetically naïve.

Photo of Julia Wilson in a brown suit with a white scarf tied over her shoulder.

My selfie on Election Day 2016, trying to echo the colors worn by suffragists in their fight for women’s right to vote.

I picked out a brown, pinstriped pantsuit that felt classic and maybe even (if I squinted at myself in the mirror) a bit timeless. I looked at photographs of my dearest grandmother, Daryl Henson, a fiercely independent woman who was born just two years after women secured the right to vote in this country. I found a white scarf in my drawer and thought about my older daughter, who would turn 18 on November 8th and would get to vote in her first election on her birthday. I felt electric with the possibilities.

Now one year later, I can hardly stand to look at the photo I posted that morning on my personal social media accounts before heading out the door. I think I actually somehow feel ashamed of that photo. It communicates something a bit too personal, or too raw, about what I thought was possible.

So on Election Day 2016, I put on my pantsuit and tied my white scarf over my shoulder. I felt buoyant as I went through my commute, smiling at first shyly – and then conspiratorially – with the other women in pantsuits in the parking lot and on the BART train. By the time I reached the streets of downtown San Francisco, I was brazenly high- fiving other pantsuited women as we walked by each other on the sidewalk – strangers and yet sisters.

Twelve hours later, I was perched on a stool, watching the TV shows on my computer alone in my darkened house, with my younger daughter asleep in bed. The pantsuit was crumpled in my hamper. I haven’t worn it since. I don’t know if I will wear it again.

Photo of OneJustice staff around a laptop at a desk at SFO airport.

OneJustice staff at the SFO “pop-up” airport clinic in response to the first round of the Muslim Travel Ban, January & February 2017.

I didn’t sleep that night. Around 5am, I sent an email to the entire OneJustice staff. I contemplated closing the offices for the day, but that didn’t feel right. I thought that our team needed to be together. So I invited everyone to take some time and then gather in our conference rooms in the late morning so that we could start to process what had happened and parse through what it might mean for OneJustice’s work.

We went through boxes of tissues that day. We cried and raged. We talked about power, privilege, and systemic racism and sexism in our country. We talked about the potential impact of the election on the communities that invite OneJustice into their fierce struggle for equality and justice. Staff members shared their fears, and we pledged to keep each other safe, no matter what the future might hold.

A photo of two attorneys working on laptops at a folding table at the LAX airport clinic, with signs that say "travel ban questions?" and "volunteer immigration attorney here to help"

The LAX airport legal clinic in response to the travel ban (February 2017).

That day is seared in my memory forever. The election’s impact on our work could not have been more stark. In one set of candidates, we had a possible President who had served on the Board of Directors of the federal Legal Services Corporation, and a Vice Presidential candidate who was a civil rights lawyer married to a former legal aid lawyer. On the other side, we had a Presidential candidate who had called for the end of the DACA program and ruthlessly vilified our communities, and a Vice Presidential candidate who had called for the complete elimination of Legal Services Corporation on three separate occasions during his time in the House. We feared what our community was likely to face under the new administration.

On November 8, 2016, we actually thought we had a good sense of what was likely to come. It turns out that we accurately predicted some of the components, but we were off in terms of the timing. We did start planning that day and in the following weeks, including how to use the two California Pro Bono Regional Meetings that took place on either side on the inauguration date. We tried to forecast different scenarios – the end of DACA, risk of mass deportations, a Muslim registry, the elimination of federal funding for legal aid – and sketch out high-level responses.

Looking back over the past year, I realize now that we could never have truly been ready for what came next. How could we have imagined the waves of aggressive, discriminatory, and unconstitutional policies from the new administration? A proposed budget from the White House with no funding at all for legal services? The attacks on the core democratic values we hold so dear: the rule of law, equality and justice for all?

Two attorneys shown on a large computer screen with the supervision immigration attorney at a table in the OneJustice conference room.

The OneJustice virtual DACA renewal clinic to bring legal assistance to young adults in Humboldt County in Sept. 2017.

I am so proud of what the OneJustice network has accomplished – and withstood – over the last year. The LAX and SFO airport clinics in response to the multiple version of the Muslim travel ban. The expansion of our Immigration Pro Bono Network to stand with immigrant communities as they face rapidly shifting immigration policies, craven deportation reprioritization, and increased ICE raids in Los Angeles. The renewal of our grassroots network – Californians for Legal Aid – to raise awareness about the importance of legal services for Californians in need. The statewide DACA response sprint to assist young adults in the terrible 4 weeks before the end of the DACA program. The communities with whom we work – and our staff and volunteers – have undertaken amazing work in heart-breaking circumstances.

The past year has honed the OneJustice team to the sharpest edge. We have been buffeted and thrown about, but we also grew deeper roots that are now intimately intertwined with the roots of our partner organizations. Frontline collaborations forged in crisis have become lifetime relationships filled with trust and mutuality. We have highly organized rapid response checklists and planning systems that we continue to hone with each new disaster – whether natural like the recent Northern California fires or a man-made disaster, manufactured by the federal administration.

I would never choose to live through the past year again – not for anything in the world. I wish very much that our country and communities had never been forced through these experiences. But as we work to make sense of the past 12 months and to look forward at what we might face over the next year, there is one thing that I know in my bones.

We are no longer naïve. We have learned our lessons.
This year, we are ready.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

And we need YOU more than ever before! Please take a stand with us and fight for justice for all!

Sign up for Californians for Legal Aid, our grassroots network raising awareness about the importance of legal help for those in need
Sign up for the Immigration Pro Bono Response Network to receive news and alerts about immigration needs in California
Donate today online to fund the fight in 2018 and beyond – thank you!

An experience of mutual welcome

During national Welcoming Week each year, communities bring together immigrants, refugees, and native-born residents to raise awareness of the benefits of welcoming everyone. OneJustice is proud to be one of many nonprofits participating in Welcoming Week around the country. This national network of nonprofits is working in a variety of ways to support locally-driven efforts to create more welcoming, immigrant-friendly environments. The goal is to create more welcoming communities that improve the quality of life and economic potential for immigrants and non-immigrants alike. During Welcoming Week 2017 (September 15 to September 23), the Justice Bus project is working with local communities from San Joaquin to San Diego counties to bring groups of urban volunteers to staff “pop-up” immigratio n clinics, including DACA renewals in light of the Trump administration’s recent termination of that program.**

One of the beautiful things about our Rural Justice work is the deep relationships we have forged with rural communities – including the on-the-ground networks of social services nonprofits, grassroots organizing groups, and local leaders in these communities. These leaders and organizations are already building justice and empowerment in their own communities. In fact, their daily work is exactly what activates the goals and concepts that Welcoming Week exists to promote.

And it just so happens, that sometimes these local movements need lawyers to help out with components of their work and to help local residents address the individual legal problems they are facing. It has been an incredible honor that OneJustice gets to partner with these local networks to bring in groups of urban attorney and law student volunteers to help meet that need, in partnership with the community. What an amazing invitation – and truly a privilege – to be able to be play a supporting role to their leadership, their fight for justice on their own terms, and the power they are building in their communities.

So yes, Welcoming Week’s vision of inclusive communities – for all of us, regardless of citizenship status – is a vision that OneJustice supports. And yet, we believe it is also vitally important to recognize that these rural communities are also welcoming OneJustice into their lives, their fight for justice, and their work. They invite groups of urban volunteers – who are often learning about the rural experience and rural California for the first time – into their movement. They welcome our volunteers into their community centers, houses of worship, schools, senior housing complexes, and even community gardens – to jointly create these “pop-up” mobile legal clinics. That mutual expression of welcome is at the very heart of the Rural Justice Initiative – in fact, it is what makes the work possible in the first place – and that is what OneJustice is celebrating this week.

** Attorneys and law students interested in volunteering at DACA clinics around the state should check out OneJustice’s website at www.OneJustice.org/DACA/Volunteer and watch the 3 free trainings on helping with DACA renewals in the Pro Bono Training Institute website.

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I am a radical welcomer

By Julia Wilson, OneJustice CEO

This peculiar blend of rage and sorrow has become familiar.

OneJustice is celebrating national Welcoming Week, Sept. 15 to 24

And yet even the past 8 months didn’t prepare me for the emotional reality of the Trump Administration’s decision, just 11 days ago, to terminate the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program.

OneJustice has been fiercely committed to working side-by-side with the young adults eligible for the DACA program since its inception, just over 5 years ago. OneJustice volunteers have traveled all over the state, doing “pop-up” mobile legal DACA clinics in rural and isolated communities. Our organization has had a great honor of hosting four outstanding young leaders through the DreamSF Fellowship program of the City and County of San Francisco.

The administration’s decision to end the DACA program doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make economic sense, because we know that these young Americans add to the economy. It doesn’t make business sense, because we know that these young adults add talent and skill to our country’s human capital. That’s why hundreds of business leaders support the DACA program. It doesn’t make legal sense, as some of our country’s top legal scholars assert that the program is well within the bounds of executive function. And it doesn’t make moral sense. So I can only draw – for myself – the personal conclusion that there must be a deeply foul – and in my personal opinion profoundly unAmerican – underpinning to this decision. You can hear that underpinning in the Attorney General’s announcement ending the DACA program – when he insinuates that these young Americans are some how stealing jobs, when he references the need to keep communities safe, and when he implicitly ties DACA to “violent gangs.”

Rage. And sorrow.

And so what can we do?

We can welcome. We can be a loud, fierce, won’t-back-down community of welcomers. We can bring into reality our vision of a beloved, welcoming community.

What does that mean?

OneJustice is a proud participant in national Welcoming Week, which starts today and runs through September 24th. Welcoming Week is an annual celebration that brings together thousands of people and hundreds of local events that celebrate the contributions of immigrants and refugees and the role communities play to foster greater welcome for everyone. There has never been a more important time for communities to show that they are welcoming to everyone, including immigrants and refugees.

Welcoming Week Activities in the OneJustice Network

During Welcoming Week, groups of dedicated OneJustice volunteers will show up at mobile legal clinics around the state – providing free legal help to immigrants, including DACA participants who are eligible to renew before the October 5th deadline. Starting at today’s IMPACT LA clinic in South Los Angeles in collaboration with the Jenesse Center and then in San Diego, Monterey and San Joaquin counties, volunteer attorneys and law students will show up to work side-by-side with immigrants in need of legal advice.

And everywhere they go, these volunteers will spread a radical counter-message of welcome. “I am a welcomer.” “Eres bienvenido.” “OneJustice welcomes you.” Because now, more than ever and even despite this now all-too-familiar mix of sorrow and rage, we can choose. We can choose to be in community. We can choose to show up. We can choose to welcome, with open hearts and open minds, all of our neighbors and fellow Californians, regardless of immigration status – in this moment, more than ever.

One way to welcome – volunteer to help with DACA renewals

If you are attorney looking for volunteer opportunities to help with DACA renewals, check out the listing of clinics in need of volunteers on OneJustice website at: www.OneJustice.org/DACA. And it’s easy to get trained to help out with on-demand access to online trainings specifically designed for pro bono volunteers at the California Pro Bono Training Institute here: pbtraining.org/all-courses/deferred-action-for-childhood-arrivals/ Watch the first 3 trainings to prepare to volunteer.

Thank you.

You did something very special…

Last week, the OneJustice Network came together and brought help, hope, and justice to Californians in need — and we couldn’t be more grateful!

Through the generosity of donors like you, along with law firms, corporations, and our nonprofit partners, we raised over $286,000 to bring mobile legal clinics to four high priority counties: Butte, Solano, Tulare, and San Joaquin.

On behalf of the OneJustice staff, Board of Directors, Advisory Board, and most importantly, the individuals who will receive vital legal help because of your support, thank you!

In case you weren’t able to attend, below are some photos from the inspiring evening, and be sure to visit our Facebook page for the full album!

You can also click here to watch the videos we made for Honorees Suk and Chris and the Fund-A-Need Challenge.

Thank you again for bringing help, hope, and justice to vulnerable communities. We look forward to keeping you informed about the impact your generosity will make!

With appreciation,

The OneJustice Team

P.S. Didn’t get a chance to bid on any items at the event? There are still a few items up for grabs during our fire sale, which will run through July 6 at midnight! Click here to bid now!

IMAGE: Photos from Opening Doors to Justice event.

She hears their calls…

Welcome to our new Pro Bono Justice Program Associate, Lyla Bugara!

We’re super excited to introduce you to the newest member of our team! Lyla will be working with the Pro Bono Justice Program, which fosters volunteerism in the legal profession and builds innovative, private/nonprofit collaborations that deliver free legal services to vulnerable communities. So to get to know her better, we sat down with Lyla this week and asked her a few questions!

Please join us in welcoming her to the OneJustice network!

Photo: Lyla Bugara, the new Pro Bono Justice Program Associate in the San Francisco office.

Meet Lyla Bugara, the new Pro Bono Justice Program Associate in the San Francisco office.

Thank you for joining us today, Lyla! Tell us what drew you to the work of OneJustice?

I was extremely excited by the opportunity to work at OneJustice because of the organization’s commitment to systemic and transformative change. OneJustice is a unique nonprofit in that it takes a bird’s-eye view of the legal aid system in California and works to develop innovative solutions to the many problems that plague our state’s justice system. Millions of people live their lives every day without access to legal resources just because of where they live, how much money they make, where they were born, what language they speak, the color of their skin, and their gender identity. It’s wildly unjust, and the time for change was yesterday! The good news is that we are living in historic times. Thousands of Black and brown people across the country are rising up to say “enough!” to systemic racism and oppression. I hear their calls. And OneJustice’s work plays such an important part in the fight for equal justice, economic justice, and racial justice. I am honored to work here.

We’re honored to have you on the team! What will you be doing in your role at OneJustice?

As the Pro Bono Justice Program Associate, I will be responsible for managing the Justice Bus Project in Northern California and clinic coordination for the Rural Justice Collaborative. Both of these programs provide essential legal services to people living in rural areas who might otherwise never be served. I hope to ensure these projects best serve the needs of oppressed and marginalized Californians, while transforming the legal aid system in California.

We look forward to hearing about this work in the near future! What were you up to before coming to OneJustice?

In 2011, I worked at the Correctional Association of New York advocating for an end to the incarceration of domestic violence survivors. From 2012-2016, I worked at ColorOfChange, the country’s largest online civil rights organization, as Criminal Justice Campaign Manager where I managed campaigns relating to ending for-profit prisons and anti-Black police violence.

It sounds like really rewarding work! And final question, tell us something about you that is not work-related!

I was born and raised Macrobiotic — a Japanese diet based on the power of whole foods to heal and nourish the body. From ages 10-13, I went to “Macro Camp” every summer. 🙂

Thank you so much for your time, Lyla! We’re happy to welcome you to the OneJustice team!

It’s never too late for a fresh start…

Over 100 individuals receive free legal help in Los Angeles!

IMAGE: Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles and the John M. Langston Bar Association volunteer attorneys at the Fresh Start Legal Clinic in Los Angeles.

Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles and the John M. Langston Bar Association volunteer attorneys at the Fresh Start Legal Clinic in Los Angeles.

On Saturday, March 19, 2016, OneJustice, in partnership with Jenesse Center Legal Advisory Committee, Alternate Public Defender, Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, Californians for Safety and Justice, ICE out of LA, IMPACT LA, the John M. Langston Bar Association, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Public Defender, Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, A New Way of Life Reentry Project, One LA I.A.F., and other Los Angeles-based community organizations helped give Angelenos a Fresh Start.

At the newly created Fresh Start Legal Clinic, South LA residents completed applications for the Traffic Ticket Amnesty program, which allows individuals with unpaid fines on traffic and non-traffic infraction tickets to get a reduction of up to 80% of the amount owed to the court or collections agency. Clients also filled out applications for Proposition 47, a program that changes low-level crimes from potential felonies to misdemeanors.

Having a suspended driver’s license or felony criminal record can be a barrier to employment that keeps individuals and families trapped in an endless cycle of poverty. Without the ability to work and earn a living, families are forced to make difficult decisions about housing, transportation, and other life necessities. Traffic Ticket Amnesty and Proposition 47 programs can help end this cycle. Both programs are crucial to bettering individuals’ lives. Participants in these time-limited programs are able to improve their employment prospects, regain driver’s licenses, remove immigration barriers, and reduce old debts all through a brief application and short post-clinic process.

IMAGE: Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles and the John M. Langston Bar Association volunteer attorneys hard at work at the Fresh Start Legal Clinic in Los Angeles.

Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles and the John M. Langston Bar Association volunteer attorneys hard at work at the Fresh Start Legal Clinic in Los Angeles.

At the clinic, about 70 volunteers helped over 100 South Los Angeles community members with Proposition 47 reclassification and Traffic Ticket Amnesty. Volunteer attorneys helped clients with the support of community organizations. Thanks to the Fresh Start Legal Clinic, South LA residents face fewer barriers to success in their futures.

“[The clinic was] extremely helpful and it helps people to achieve what they always wanted to do,” said one client.

Thank you to our wonderful partners, supporters, and volunteers for making this clinic a reality!

For more information about Proposition 47, please visit http://myprop47.org/.

To learn more about Traffic Ticket Amnesty, please visit http://www.backontheroadca.org/.

Everybody can be great because everybody can serve

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the OneJustice network paid homage to him by bringing justice to rural communities that need it most.

Poverty Density in California

California currently has the largest poverty population in the country. In the state alone, between 8 to 12 million low-income residents are eligible for free civil legal aid, and most of them live in rural communities.

To meet this great need, OneJustice is joining forces with community partners and organizations around the state by participating in the White House Rural Council‘s Rural Impact initiative, a national effort to enlist volunteers and organizations to strengthen and build thriving rural communities. To do this, our Justice Bus and Bay Area Rural Justice Collaborative projects are mobilizing more urban attorneys and law students to provide free legal services in these communities.

Morrison & Foerster LLP and Yahoo Inc. volunteer attorneys aboard the Justice Bus to Modesto, California.

In fact, today, volunteer attorneys from Morrison & Foerster LLP and Yahoo Inc. are traveling on the Justice Bus to Modesto to provide free immigration assistance to those who need it.

We continue to be amazed by the commitment of our wonderful volunteers and community partners in the effort to expand access to justice.

Stay tuned as our network works together to #ServeRural!

Justice Bus Rider Spotlight: Kyuli Oh

Electronic Arts Inc.’s Associate General Counsel tells us about her experience aboard the Justice Bus.

Before we start, we just want to thank all our volunteers from Electronic Arts Inc. and Covington & Burling LLP for bringing life-changing legal assistance to 18 clients in Modesto this past November! Because of their hard work, these clients are more informed about their immigration options and many are ready to submit their applications! Volunteers like these really make all the difference for Californians in need.

Now, please welcome this month’s featured Justice Bus Rider, Kyuli Oh!

Kyuli Oh, Associate General Counsel at Electronic Arts Inc.

Welcome, Kyuli! Tell us about yourself. What type of law do you practice and why are immigration issues like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) important to you?

I’m the Associate General Counsel at Electronic Arts Inc. with responsibility over all corporate matters, including securities, M&A, and corporate governance. I’ve got 2 young boys (ages 5 and 2), who keep me busy. I came to the US when I was 4 years old and became a naturalized citizen, so I identify with the immigrants that we help on the Justice Bus. I was lucky to have had legal status and to become a naturalized citizen.

Thank you so much for giving us a sneak peek into your life! Why does pro bono matter to you and what motivates you to do pro bono work?

Living and working in Silicon Valley, there’s so much wealth around you. It’s easy to lose perspective. Doing pro bono work helps me realize that my problems do not compare to those truly struggling – people worried about deportation, unemployment, having enough money to pay rent and buy groceries.

Kyuli and EA and Fenwick & West LLP attorneys at the Justice Bus clinic in Greenfield, CA.

We couldn’t agree more! Pro bono really makes the difference for low-income individuals everyday. Why do you participate in the Justice Bus model of pro bono?

They make it so easy for you – you get on the bus; they provide breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner; they train you; they provide expert advisors to answer all your questions and review your work; and it’s a one-day commitment. There are no excuses not to do this!

We’re happy to hear the process was so easy for you! During your time at the Justice Bus Clinic, which client story resonated with you the most?

My first client was a berry picker in the Salinas Valley. I helped him with his naturalization application and his fee waiver request since the $680 fee was a true hardship for him and his family. He had 2 young kids, who were close in age to my 2 boys. I remember speaking to him about his income and his assets and I was stunned. It was really humbling to think about how hard it must be for his family to live at that level and why it was so important that we helped him that day.

It’s amazing how being a parent can be the shared common experience among people of different backgrounds! Final question, who is your favorite social justice hero and why?

Oprah – my mom learned English watching the Oprah show. Oprah was the first African American person she “knew”. Later in her life, my mom branched out of her Korean community and became involved in a racially diverse church and became very close friends with an African American woman from church. I think Oprah had that impact on so many women and I think that opened the door for more acceptance.

Thank you for joining us, Kyuli! This work is possible thanks to volunteers, like you!

I could see happiness in their eyes

Healthy Nonprofits Program’s Christopher McConkey tells us about the civil justice shortfall and the need for free legal assistance.

We asked our Staff Attorney Christopher McConkey to give us his insight on why it’s necessary for organizations and programs in the legal sector to transform the civil legal aid delivery system.

Guest Blogger: Christopher McConkey, OneJustice Staff Attorney for the Healthy Nonprofits Program

Photo Credit: Huffington Post

There is a phenomenon in our society where people who are less able to afford legal help are often the people who need it the most. These low-income individuals struggle every day to find the legal assistance they need to preserve basic life necessities like housing, health care, economic security, and child custody.

This is not a minor phenomenon. Over 60 million people in the United States might qualify for free civil legal services because they live at or below 125% of the federal poverty guidelines. However, people are less likely to access these services due to limited resources, mental health issues, and inexperience with our legal system.

Worsening this crisis, insufficient funding prevents many legal aid programs from serving 50% or more of the people who actively seek their help, leaving attorneys to address less than 20% of lower-income people’s legal needs.¹ All of these shortfalls ultimately leave low-income individuals without critical legal assistance.

The Civil Justice Shortfall

The civil justice shortage is especially acute in California. As a legal aid attorney right after law school, I encountered hundreds of people slowly moving from one legal services project to another with the same issues. The recurring problem was program capacity. Staff attorneys reached full caseloads, projects offered fewer services to help more people, and funders carved programs to reflect their priorities. Even waves of talented and eager volunteers could expand an organization’s capacity only superficially, and only to a point.

I recall a monthly legal clinic I helped coordinate in Los Angeles. This clinic aimed to reduce an overwhelming and countywide need for immigration legal aid. The immigration attorneys who volunteered–I was not one of them–helped numerous lower-income Angelenos to understand and pursue their legal options. Limited capacity, however, left some clients on the waitlist for months. Those who persevered accessed expert immigration services for free. Those who dropped off the waitlist continued the long search for assistance or, worse, gave up.

For the clients who received assistance, legal help gave them their safety, jobs, family cohesion, dignity, and peace of mind; I could see happiness in their eyes. To me, this clinic exemplifies why finally eliminating the justice gap is worth our collective effort, resources, and ingenuity.

Transforming the Legal Services Sector through Innovation

As with all solvable problems, we should be optimistic! Our resourceful and morally ambitious society can overcome this justice shortfall. More funding is necessary, but for now, we can and should innovate additional ways to expand legal services for people who are lower-income.

Legal Services Nonprofit leaders discussing trainings.

OneJustice is already strengthening California’s legal services infrastructure to provide greater access to the legal system. In the Healthy Nonprofits Program (“HNP”), we are supplying nonprofit management consulting, legal technical support, and public policy advocacy to legal services organizations throughout the state.

Additionally, we help connect hundreds of public-interest-minded law students to nonprofit and government employers every year. We are invigorating legal nonprofits while enhancing the environment in which they operate—all so we can transform the legal services sector.

Individual attorneys will close the justice gap one client at a time. Several factors can coalesce to make that possible: additional funding, robust nonprofit management, public policies that value legal services organizations, and the gumption to innovate strategies that will solve one of the most stubborn justice crises of our time.

¹ For more information about this civil justice gap, please see the Legal Services Corporation’s report titled Documenting the Justice Gap in America: The Current Unmet Civil Legal Needs of Low-Income Americans

Chris_CROPPED

As a Staff Attorney in the Healthy Nonprofits Program, Chris helps guide legal services organizations on matters of nonprofit law and management. He also advocates for public policies that foster the growth of legal nonprofits and–through them–meaningful access to justice for all Californians. In this way, his work bolsters California’s infrastructure for civil legal assistance at the organizational and systemic levels. As part of his role, Chris provides legal support for OneJustice’s consulting and policy work. Additionally, he provides policy briefings and advocacy for OneJustice’s statewide community of legal services organizations.