Long-time directors sound off on decades of service to the poor

Illustration by Naomi Shea

What would make a talented attorney take a thankless job working endless hours for meager pay, keep it for 20 to 30 years, and with the passing of time grow increasingly grateful for the opportunity? Welcome to the world of legal services, where if you don’t feel a calling to serve, you won’t last very long.

Unique in the American legal community, legal services lawyers are motivated by an altruism and pureness of purpose that dispels those bad lawyer stereotypes. Legal aid lawyers don’t bill for their time, even though many routinely clock the same grueling 60- to 70-hour weeks as large-firm lawyers. Legal aid lawyers aren’t in it for the big houses or fancy cars; starting attorneys pull in $36,000 annually and can expect only incremental increases if they stick around to move up the ranks. Legal aid lawyers aren’t in it for stature or stardom either; the media largely ignores their work and their biggest backers tend to be the poor, the disadvantaged, and the disenfranchised.

The rewards of a career in legal services can be found on other planes, through the deep sense of pride that comes from being among the proud few dedicated to seeing justice done. Who are these people who willingly sacrifice so much? What made them want to get involved long ago? What have been their greatest challenges? How have they persevered, and who will follow them when they are gone?

To answer these questions and others, Equal Justice Magazine’s Pat Hanrahan set up a conference call with five long-serving executive directors of Legal Services Corporation programs, who have logged a combined 135 years in the legal services trenches. They discussed their vocation and looked back on their life’s work for this issue’s Equal Justice Q&A.

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