In 1964, U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy challenged the legal community “to enlist our skills and ourselves in the unconditional war on poverty to which President Johnson has summoned us all.” He spoke shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court established a right to counsel for criminal defendants in Gideon v. Wainright. Kennedy said: “We have secured the acquittal of an indigent person—only to abandon him to eviction notices, wage attachments, repossession of goods and termination of welfare benefits.”
Fifty years later, while the effectiveness of the War on Poverty is being debated, one thing is unassailable: civil legal services have become an essential part of the fight for equal justice and against poverty. Legal services help our clients get and keep the bare essentials of food, shelter, economic security and safety; eliminate barriers to education, employment and citizenship; and achieve racial, social and economic justice.
