Access to Justice — It's Our Responsibility

The homeless. The elderly. The indigent. Battered women and foster children. Immigrants and the working poor. The sick and disabled. They all desperately need competent legal representation. Most cannot afford it.

It is estimated that 90% of the legal needs of low-income residents of the District of Columbia go unaddressed. When you realize that one in five Washingtonians lives in poverty, you begin to grasp the enormity of this problem. And when you learn that one out of three children in the District of Columbia lives in poverty, the full, tragic force of these numbers hits home.

Through our critical funding of organizations that provide legal representation to the underprivileged in our community, the D.C. Bar Foundation plays a unique role. We help make hands-on legal services available to those who otherwise would not have access to our justice system.

PRO BONO WORK IS NOT ENOUGH.
IOLTA FUNDING IS NOT ENOUGH.
SUPPORT THROUGH THE D.C. BAR FOUNDATION IS THE ANSWER.

PRO BONO WORK IS NOT ENOUGH.
As a profession, we lawyers can take pride in our commitment to pro bono work. The time donated to individual cases by lawyers in the District of Columbia is tremendous, and makes a huge difference in the lives of District residents who otherwise would never have counsel.

But pro bono work alone is not enough. The legal services providers whose sole purpose is to serve the needy are the linchpin for making access to justice a reality for the indigent in our community. It is their work—in the trenches, every day—that really helps those we are obligated to serve. These lawyers operate on shoestring budgets with few of the luxuries and resources that most lawyers take for granted, never sure they will still be operating in the coming fiscal year. Yet, despite the hardship, they perform this vital work with unending enthusiasm and expertise.

These lawyers and their organizations need funding. It is their work that is so important to the underprivileged of the District of Columbia. And it is their expertise that guides the efforts of pro bono attorneys.

IOLTA FUNDING IS NOT ENOUGH.
The Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts Program was never intended to provide sole funding for the D.C. Bar Foundation. And, in times of low interest rates, the proceeds from the IOLTA program are substantially smaller. But the legal needs of our residents are only growing.

More than ever, the D.C. Bar Foundation must rely on donations from law firms in the District of Columbia. Because we evaluate community needs and the providers meeting those needs, we stand alone as the premiere vehicle for our profession’s financial support of direct legal services. In return, the lawyers of the District can rely on the D.C. Bar Foundation to help fulfill a basic need that is one of the bulwarks of our legal system: access to justice.

SUPPORTING THE D.C. BAR FOUNDATION IS THE ANSWER.
Each year, after rigorous analysis, the D.C. Bar Foundation funds more than two dozen legal services organizations. Our outcomes-based assessment of grantees is rational, based on a business model, and developed since 1977. We make site visits to understand the mission and quality of the programs and to determine if programs meet real needs of the District’s residents. Organizations that receive Bar Foundation funding are required to provide us with substantive year-end reports on their accomplishments. In addition, we promote efficiency in the legal services community by supporting such cross-cutting services as probono.net/dc, which provides legal resources both to legal services providers and pro bono attorneys. Because we have the experience and processes in place to make all of this happen effectively, we can maintain a small staff, keeping overhead low and ensuring maximum support of the legal services organizations we fund.