3/09/2017

TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “More than 150 of the nation’s largest law firms, including Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, are urging the Trump administration to continue funding a major benefactor of civil legal services to the poor.
The show of support for Legal Services Corp., a nonprofit created by Congress that relies on around $400 million a year in federal funds, comes after reports that the Office of Management and Budget may recommend that lawmakers completely eliminate funding to the organization, formed in 1974 to expand access to the legal system.
Such a move would weaken many of the 134 legal-aid organizations around the country that receive Legal Services Corp. grants, a number of which focus on family law and housing matters. One in five people nationwide qualifies for legal services from the organizations, which determine need by salaries pegged to the poverty line.”

-Sara Randazzo, “Law Firms Urge Trump Administration Not to Cut Funding for Legal-Aid Agency,” The Wall Street Journal online, March 9, 2017