Wash. Post Interview with LSC President Jim Sandman on How LSC Will Move Forward as Funding Threats Loom
By: Steve Grumm
In a Post article/interview, LSC President Jim Sandman laid out four goals for LSC’s immediate future as it confronts likely cuts in its congressional appropriation. The goals:
- Create an independent body to make fiscal operations more efficient;
- Focus on getting services to hard-to-reach communities;
- Prove legal aid is different;
- Seek alternative revenue sources.
All of these make sense in light of the sure-to-be-difficult appropriations battle which lies ahead, as well as the current climate in which so many people and families who are eligible for legal assistance can not access legal services due to resource shortages. It’s noteworthy that another LSC initiative (which did not make it into this Post piece) involves a re-invigoration of efforts to marshal pro bono resources. I’m hopeful that this conversation will not be confined to getting private lawyers (and law students) to handle more pro bono cases, but will also include broader discussion of the private bar’s role as a steward of the justice system at a time when more and more Americans are disconnected from courts and other legal channels.
As to goal #3 above – proving that legal aid is different: what Mr. Sandman is getting at is that in the funding battle on Capitol Hill, LSC will need to make itself stand apart from other federal programs that face funding cuts:
“We need to make our case that legal aid is important and is a critical component of access to justice,” Sandman said. “We need to distinguish ourselves from other programs subject to cuts. Why are we different? Every program is getting reduced. In an environment like that, the burden is on us to explain why … access to justice is different from other types of programs funded by the government because it has to do with who we are as a country. Hard times test values. And they’re not all the same. The first line of the Constitution mentions establishing justice as a core purpose of the national government. The framers mentioned establishing justice before providing for the common defense or ensuring domestic tranquility.”
