Legal Services Corporation Archives

LSC Grantees Innovating the Pro Bono of Tomorrow: 2024 Pro Bono Innovation Fund (PBIF) Awards

July 28, 2025

Innovation is key to transforming the landscape of pro bono legal services. Across the United States, Legal Services Corporation (LSC) grantees are pushing the boundaries of traditional legal service delivery by developing various approaches to meeting the needs of underserved communities. Each year, a number of these projects are awarded LSC Pro Bono Innovation Fund (PBIF) grants, allowing them to expand and refine their innovative approaches. Over the past 11 years, 139 projects in 36 jurisdictions have received PBIF grants — a collective investment of over $40,000,000. Current awardees are continuing the PBIF legacy of leveraging technology, partnerships, and new

Sustaining Tenants’ Right to Counsel

July 21, 2025

By Pilar Steward, PBI Intern Right to Counsel (RTC) programs, which jurisdictions across the United States have enacted, are both crucial to helping low-income tenants remain in their homes and provide a well-established return on investment to the governments that fund them. Yet despite their proven effectiveness, RTC programs remain severely underfunded, forcing many to limit eligibility and ultimately failing on the promise of a true “right” to counsel. Now with the expiration of COVID-19 emergency funds and threats to federal and local civil legal aid funding, these programs are at a crossroads. To ensure the survival of RTC programs

CPBO Organizes GC and CLO Support for Federal Funding of Civil Legal Aid

June 23, 2025

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

Balancing the Scales: State Efforts for Local Legal Aid Funding

May 22, 2024

The Legal Services Corporation Act of 1974 changed the access to justice landscape by funding the first independent, national nonprofit – the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) – to financially support legal aid organizations that assist with civil legal matters. The Act underscored that “there is a need to provide high quality legal assistance to those who would be otherwise unable to afford adequate legal counsel.” Unmet civil legal need continues to grow, however, and without necessary funding, legal services organizations and pro bono lawyers cannot adequately provide services to low-income individuals. Both nationally and across the states, government officials, legal

Legal Department Leaders Unite to Support Funding for Civil Justice

May 17, 2024

For the eighth year running, legal department leaders have once again rallied to support the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), the largest funder of civil legal aid in the United States. Pro Bono Institute (PBI) and its global in-house project, Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), along with the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA), put out a call to action to General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers, inviting them to sign a letter of support for increasing LSC’s Fiscal Year 2025 funding. The GCs and CLOs from 147 corporations signed the letter, calling on Congress to strengthen its investment in equal justice by increasing funding

PBI Organizes Legal Leaders in the Business Community in Support of Legal Aid

April 28, 2023

By Emily Cardona, PBI Intern For the seventh year in a row, legal department leaders have rallied to support the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), the largest funder of civil legal aid in the United States. Pro Bono Institute (PBI) and its global in-house project, Corporate Pro Bono (CPBO), along with the National Legal Aid & Defender Association and the Association of Corporate Counsel, recently circulated a letter inviting the General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers to sign on in support of increasing LSC’s funding for Fiscal Year 2024. The General Counsels and Chief Legal Officers from 208 corporations signed a letter of support for increased funding