On November 30, 2023, the American Bar Association released its fifth annual Profile of the Legal Profession. This free report, a 140-page compilation of statistics and trends about lawyers, judges, and law students, includes sections on demographics, wages, law schools, judges, pro bono work, women in the profession, legal technology, lawyer well-being, and lawyer discipline. One additional chapter — a review of civil legal aid in the United States — is the feature we wish to explore in today’s blog post.
Among the report’s many findings is a striking insight: the percentage of paid civil legal aid attorneys in this country (roughly 10,000 of the 1.3 million attorneys documented in the report) is woefully inadequate. Though prior research in this area has long pointed out this fact, the ABA report further validates what was already known, both within the legal community and by those whose need for civil legal aid goes unmet every year: the justice gap is real and ever-widening.
Why more law school graduates don’t pursue careers in civil legal aid is not hard to understand. Law school debt is often so great that legal aid careers don’t make practical economic sense. Justice workers who represent poor and modest-means clients simply don’t earn enough income to manage the enormous debt load that law school so often generates. Furthermore, justice work for low-income people is intensive and taxing. Not everyone can sustain a career in civil legal aid for the duration of their professional lives. The financial and psychological toll of helping people in sometimes desperate situations can be great, but for those with the wherewithal to take on the role of civil legal aid, the work is often greatly rewarding.
Seeking justice on behalf of those unable to navigate the system alone can be a satisfying call to service. The role of civil legal aid attorney is one that more law school graduates might take on if the compensation were better and the funding more widely available. In other words, if incentives to engage in justice, advocacy, and service-oriented roles were greater and more reliable, perhaps more civil legal aid services would be available to meet the overwhelming and desperate need. Raising awareness of the need for civil legal aid assistance would be a good place to start, and the ABA Profile of the Legal Profession does a good job of working toward this goal.
As we post this blog entry about legal aid attorneys and the desperate need for more justice workers nationwide, the Texas Access to Justice Commission is meeting in Austin. On the schedule for today’s meeting is a consideration of the Report and Recommendations of the Texas Access to Justice Working Group. The meeting agenda and additional details about the goals of the event can be found at this link on the Texas A2J Commission website. In-person attendance is encouraged, but interested parties may also log in via Zoom at 10:00 am, CST.