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MJF: Inspiring an Ethic of Service This month, the Minnesota Justice Foundation
celebrates its 25th anniversary. I will be reporting to you in the
new year about the State Bar Association’s
own efforts in expanding pro bono legal services through the Pro Bono
Challenge. But this month, I celebrate and salute one of the organizations
that has led the way in Minnesota toward
a culture where lawyers bring the benefits of due process and equal
justice to the underrepresented and the have-nots, as well as to those
who can afford legal services. The
Minnesota Justice Foundation was organized in 1982 by law students
at the University of Minnesota, who were concerned about federal cuts
in the legal-aid budget and about decreasing access to legal services
among low-income and disadvantaged Minnesotans. MJF has three goals:
And
MJF has been a resounding success. Nearly half the law students in
Minnesota participate at some level; last year, at least one-third
of each school’s graduating class completed a 50-hour public-service
program and each student’s average service exceeded 100 hours. Last
year, almost 1,000 law students served more than 10,500 clients and
dedicated more than 23,000 hours, all focused on public-interest and
poverty law. Since 1983, MJF has funded 548 summer clerks, who have
collectively provided more than 219,000 hours to the low-income and
public-sector communities. MJF helps provide pro bono legal services
for more than 150 community and nonprofit organizations, legal-services
organizations, and governmental entities
working on legal issues. Partners in Service The
Minnesota State Bar Association has been a proud supporter of MJF’s work. Together with MJF and the four law schools, the
association sponsors the Law School Public Service Program, which
calls on law students to deliver at least 50 hours of pro bono service.
The MSBA Legal Assistance to the Disadvantaged Committee helps oversee
the program, which more than a thousand law students have completed
since 1999. MJF
is looking forward to its next quarter century by pairing practicing
lawyers with the law students, thus engaging more lawyers in the process;
better socializing law students (and the lawyers that they become)
to our profession’s social responsibility to compensate for the failure
of the market in the case of those who cannot afford legal services;
and—most importantly—going one step further toward meeting the low-income
community’s unmet legal needs. Serving pro bono clients as a law student
correlates directly and positively with pro bono service after graduation,
according to research by Prof. Deborah Schmedemann
at William Mitchell College of Law. MJF has helped shape Minnesota’s
legal culture for the good for a quarter century. We can all look
forward with enthusiasm to MJF’s next quarter
century. Much to Celebrate Meanwhile,
on a related note: in September, Congress passed and the president
signed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007, which provides
loan forgiveness and easier payment plans for lawyers performing public-service
work. Under this new legislation, the students who volunteer in MJF
have even better hopes of continuing their public-interest work after
graduation. MJF
will celebrate its 25th anniversary on Thursday 15 November from 5:30
to 8:30 p.m. at International Market Square in Minneapolis. Former
Vice President Walter Mondale will speak on “Searches, Seizures, and
Spies: The 4th Amendment.” For more details, please visit MJF’s
website at www.mnjustice. |
