FUNDING NEWS
Legal Services Corporation:
The next week or two will be critical in setting the final funding for LSC grantees in the current year. (LSC’s fiscal year begins October 1; LSC grants begin January 1.) The last Congress including annual funding for LSC at $420 million in an omnibus Continuing Resolution that was set to expire March 4.
On February 19, the House of Representatives adopted a proposed Continuing Resolution for the rest of the year which included major cuts in many programs. LSC was cut $70 million, to $350 million. This 17% cut would have to be absorbed by grantees during the remaining ten months of the calendar year, so it would effectively be a 20% cut. The four LSC grantees in Massachusetts are Merrimack Valley North Shore Legal Services, Volunteer Lawyers Project, New Center for Legal Advocacy and Massachusetts Justice Project; together they stand to lose about $1 million if the House Continuing Resolution becomes law.
The Senate will take up its version of the Continuing Resolution next week. Legal aid supporters are being urged to let their senators know that they should keep LSC at its current level for FY 2011. If the Senate stands firm at $420 million, the final figure will be determined in conference and submitted to the President, who could veto the measure if it cuts too deeply.
When a similar scenario played out in late 1995, President Clinton and the Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich could not reach an agreement and the federal government “shut down.” Various government agencies are making contingency plans for another shut down. Meanwhile, the House Appropriations Committee is considering a two‐ week extension of the Continuing Resolution to allow more time for negotiations.
Massachusetts
On February 22, hundreds of lawyers took time out of their busy days to “walk” to Beacon Hill and urge state legislators to support Governor Patrick’s proposal to level fund the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation at $9 million for fiscal year 2012. With IOLTA earnings at low ebb because of low interest rates and the slow economy, the state appropriation is particularly critical this year.
The assembled lawyers were greeted by leaders of the Equal Justice Coalition, Massachusetts Bar Association and Boston Bar Association. For the first time in the history of this annual event, the keynote address was delivered by a sitting justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. Associate Justice Ralph Gants, co‐chair of the Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission, inspired the crowd to work hard to achieve “justice for all” and reminded the legislature that “we can only provide justice for all if we pay for justice for all.” Justice Gants’ remarks are attached to this update.
OTHER NEWS
Lonnie Powers, MLAC Executive Director, writes in the current online edition of Nonprofit Quarterly (February 23, 2011), that the current funding challenges are the latest instance of cyclical rises and falls in the support for legal aid. The cycles are driven by hard economic times and by shifts in political ideology. Even though this history suggests that the crisis will pass, an unfortunate aspect of the history is that funding tends to be cut just when troubles in the economy increase the demand for legal aid services. He concludes that legal aid would do well to find fund sources that are not tied to the nation’s economic well‐being and to do a better job of explaining to political opponents the ways that legal aid contributes to civic health. “Tied to the Railroad Track Once Again: The Perils of Legal Aid Funding,” Nonprofit Quarterly (February 23, 2011, http://bit.ly/h0x8QvThe Supreme Judicial Court has appointed six members of the Access to Justice Commission to full three‐year terms on the Commission. Anne Leavenworth, Sue Marsh, Justice Kathryn Hand, Richard McMahon, Allan Rodgers and Jay Thiel had initially been appointed to one‐year terms when the Commission was reconstituted in February 2010.
The Court also appointed a new Commissioner, Susan Finegan of Mintz Levin, to a three‐year term. Commissioner Finegan has been working with the Commission on the delivery of legal services through pro bono.
The Commission is planning to sponsor a May 16 gathering of General Counsels to corporations and other institutions. The meeting’s purpose is to encourage more pro bono work by in‐house lawyers. New Commissioner Sue Finegan is taking the lead in planning the session, which will be held at the Adams Courthouse.