By Bill Myers
Examiner Staff Writer 2/17/09
Poor people are going to pay for the legal profession’s economic crisis. The collapsing economy has created an overwhelming demand for low-income legal assistance, as newly poor scramble to reorganize their debt, pay their utilities, keep their homes or fight for severance packages. The same economic forces that are creating the demand for services are also eating away at the legal aid community’s capacity to provide the services. “Let’s not kid ourselves: The demands of the nonprofit delivery sector have gone up, but the resources of the philanthropic sector have gone,” said Steve Gunderson, president of the D.C.-based Council on Foundations, which tracks charitable trends. For instance: The sinking of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac deprived D.C.-area homeless and health care charities of some $47 million in grants last year, Gunderson said. Some legal aid groups, like Bread for the City and WEAVE, have already slashed staff. Others are trying to hold on as long as they can. Last fall, the D.C. Access to Justice Commission published a study that found the area’s poor were fending for themselves in court, despite millions in public and private donations. That study was published before the economy’s decline accelerated.
Now, big law firms are in no mood to assign pro bono work to pitch in, said Northwestern University sociologist Brian Uzzi, who has studied the legal business for more than a decade.“Companies are looking to cut back on all of their services, including legal services,” Uzzi said. “Once it starts getting competitive like that, you're not going to have the same kind of slack in the system to take on pro bono work.”
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