On June 17, 2025, 104 legal department leaders submitted a letter calling on Congress to fund the Legal Services Corporation (LSC). LSC is the cornerstone of civil legal aid in the United States, providing vital funding and infrastructure to legal aid organizations that serve low-income communities in need, as well as supporting pro bono efforts by law firms and legal departments. Pro Bono Institute (PBI), through its global in-house project, Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), worked in partnership with the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) to invite General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers to sign the letter asking Congress to approve funding for LSC for Fiscal Year 2026. Participating signatories represented legal departments from a variety of industries and jurisdictions around the country.
While PBI and NLADA have partnered on this annual effort for many years, it is especially important now.
On May 30, 2025, the White House proposed defunding and closing down the Legal Services Corporation entirely in FY2026. This proposal would cut all LSC-funded civil legal aid for everyday Americans facing problems like evictions, domestic violence, consumer scams, recovery from disasters, and more. These cuts would decimate legal aid providers in all 50 states, D.C., and U.S. territories. Children, seniors, domestic violence survivors, and veterans are among the communities that are at risk of losing access to legal services if LSC is not funded. More than 6.4 million Americans would lose access to critical civil legal services.
Support for civil legal aid is bipartisan and widespread. Beyond the GC and CLO signatories, other supporters of LSC funding include 40 attorneys general, 37 chief justices of state supreme courts, and leaders of 160 U.S. law firms with offices across the U.S.
Moreover, the return on investment (“ROI”) of civil legal aid is high. LSC reports that an analysis of more than 50 studies found that the average ROI is $7 for every $1 invested in civil legal aid, because preventing and solving legal problems reduces public expenditures in other areas, and increases participation in the local economy. LSC reported in “The Economic Case for Civil Legal Aid” that, “No matter how the ROI is measured — whether through direct recoveries, avoided public cost or broader economic ripple effects — the conclusion is clear: civil legal aid reliably produces more in value than it consumes.”
LSC has requested that Congress appropriate $2.13 billion to serve the 3.7 million eligible low-income Americans who seek civil legal aid services each year from the 130 legal services organizations that are LSC grantees.
PBI is proud to support the effort to secure funding for LSC, and we thank the CLOs and GCs who have signed on to the June 17th letter, demonstrating their commitment to civil legal aid and furthering access to justice. For more information, please contact CPBO at cpbo@probonoinst.org.