Legal Services Of Northern California Celebrates 50 Years!

By Gary F. Smith, Executive Director

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of Legal Services of Northern California, Inc. (LSNC) as the Legal Aid Society of Sacramento County, back in 1956. We want to honor all of you who have worked with LSNC, and supported us throughout the years in our mission to provide a legal “voice” for the poor and disadvantaged persons in our communities whose voices, too often, are not heard in our society.

It was 1953 when Archie Mull, Nat Colley, and a small group of dedicated attorneys first began efforts to create a “legal aid” program in Sacramento County. Bruce Allen went up to Portland, Oregon, to learn about the newly created legal aid organization in that city. Several months later, Archie, Bruce, Nat, and John F. “Jack” Downey formally urged the formation of a legal aid program at a general meeting of the Sacramento County Bar Association. They lost, by a 22 to 19 vote. But they persisted in their vision, and in 1956, with the formal endorsement of the Sacramento County Bar, the Legal Aid Society of Sacramento County was incorporated. Jack Downey was our first Board President, our first Executive Director was a prominent local social worker Dorothy Littlefield, and our first (part-time) paid staff attorney was John P. Carson.

We opened our first two room office in the Ochsner Building, at 719 K Street, in January of 1957. Our budget consisted of $12,000 in grants from the United Way and the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, along with a $300 donation from the Sacramento County Bar. The Lawyers’ Wives of first LSNC paid Sacramento County (now the Legal Auxiliary of Staff Attorney Sacramento) provided volunteer support, and always had a hot pot of free coffee for lawyers and clients alike. By the end of the year, the fledgling program had closed 2,856 cases.

From these humble roots, the Legal Aid Society grew steadily, guided in the early years by County Bar Managers from the 2004 leaders like Forrest Plant, annual retreat Malcolm Weintraub, David Blicker, Roger Warren, Tac Craven, and Virginia Mueller. In 1965, as part of the War on Poverty, the Office of Economic Opportunity in Washington provided the first federal support grant in the then-staggering Mona Tawatao, Regional Counsel amount of $100,000, allowing a major expansion of services. Robert Puglia became Board President, and Clarence Brown was named the first attorney Executive Director. In 1967, the program opened its first office outside of Sacramento County, in Woodland, after Brian Lawlor, Regional Counsel surviving a heated debate by the Yolo County Bar Association over the propriety of providing free legal services to the poor.

By the late 1970’s, the Legal Aid Society had acquired a state-wide reputation for aggressive and effective advocacy on behalf of the poor, and had won a number of major litigation victories in the California Supreme Court. In 1979, in recognition of its increasingly broader geographic scope, the program changed its name to Legal Services of Northern California, Inc. By 1980, LSNC had opened offices in Chico, Auburn, and Redding, providing services in 17 counties.

In 1986, again through the leadership and support of the Sacramento County Bar (and the tireless efforts of attorneys Russell Austin, Jay-Allen Eisen, Charity Kenyon and others), we separately incorporated our sister organization, the Voluntary Legal Services Program (VLSP), in order to qualify for new state funding for legal services providers which coordinate the volunteer efforts of pro bono attorneys on behalf of poor clients. VLSP, which first began operations in 1981 under the leadership of Tom Eres and Jim Mize, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year!

It’s been my privilege to have been a part of LSNC since 1988. Over the past two decades, LSNC has continued to pursue its ambitious mission to identify and defeat the causes and effects of poverty into new communities (now encompassing 23 counties), and utilizing a wide variety of innovative advocacy approaches and delivery models (court based clinics, telephone hotlines, community economic development projects, after school “street law” for at risk youth, health policy initiatives). Today LSNC has nine field offices delivering basic legal services, as well as numerous special projects and programs (e.g., the Senior Legal Hotline, the Health Rights Hotline, Ombudsman Services of Northern California, the Disability Employment Rights Advocacy programs). Just this past year, LSNC took over the nine county Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program (HICAP), and has provided assistance to thousands of seniors in the past few months with issues involving the new Medicare prescription drug laws. In 2005, LSNC closed about 30,000 cases, of which nearly 5,000 were handled by volunteer attorneys through VLSP or another of our pro bono projects. We also provided some measure of significant assistance to an additional 175,000 persons throughout our service area. Today LSNC is recognized as one of the finest and most effective legal services programs in the nation.

We’ve come a long way since we opened in 1956, with one part-time staff attorney and a $12,000 budget. We couldn’t have done it without your support. Over the next few months, you’ll be hearing more about our 50th anniversary celebration. Our anniversary plans will be posted online soon. Learn more about our history and our programs by logging onto www.LSNC.info. Better yet, stop by our offices at 515-517 12th Street in Sacramento. The coffee’s still hot, and it’s still free. Thanks for 50 years of support for your local “legal aid” program!

Gary F. Smith has served as Executive Director of Legal Services of Northern California and Voluntary Legal Services Program since 1999.

July / August 2006