Thirty has been a special number for me during my years of service to the Legal Services Corporation.

Thirty years ago, while a member of the United State Congress, I helped shepherd a bill through the U.S. House of Representatives that created the nonpartisan LSC as a way to affirm our national commitment to equal justice and create a mechanism to deliver vital legal services to America’s poor. On June 30, 2001, I was asked to serve as the short-term President of LSC after having previously served as Vice Chairman of the Board. Now, 30 months later, my “short-term” Presidency is finally over. Yet it’s with a heavy heart that I step down and hand over the reins to Helaine Barnett, an outstanding choice to lead LSC.

I am proud of the many accomplishments we have made at LSC during my tenure as President. One of the most apparent is LSC’s realization of a permanent headquarters for the Corporation (below). It was my great pleasure to work with the architects and LSC staff as we designed the office space and created what has become a truly inspiring place to work here in Georgetown.

Of course, the critical work of LSC happens inside our beautiful new office. Over the past 30 months, we have taken major steps forward in furtherance of our mission to provide civil legal services to those who cannot afford such help. Our grantees have nurtured partnerships to develop state access-to-justice commissions committed to long-range planning. To assist in this endeavor, LSC has funded a variety of projects for the development of commissions, resource development projects, and pro bono efforts. In doing so, we’ve witnessed the formation of new partnerships and a heightened commitment by private attorneys, the judiciary, and the community at large.

During my tenure LSC also has rededicated itself to its clients by increasing competition for federal grants, emphasizing our commitment to diversity, and redoubling efforts to serve clients with special access challenges, including those with limited English proficiency and limited literacy. We’ve also improved the technology resources available to our grantees through the Tech­nology Initiative Grant program, awarding $16 million in TIG grants during my tenure. These grants support more than 350 projects to develop, test, and replicate emerging technologies to improve clients’ access to high-quality legal assistance. Another technological advance launched during my tenure: the LSC Resource Library—a Web-based library showcasing innovative and proven practices in the delivery of high-quality legal assistance. The LSC Resource Library has been heavily used, logging 135,835 page views from 93,649 visitors.

A seldom-publicized but essential part of LSC’s work is to monitor programs to ensure compliance with relevant laws and regulations. As a result of aggressive compliance efforts in the past 30 months, we have dramatically improved the error rates in our Case Service Reporting (CSR) system, which dropped to a record-low 4.3 percent in 2002. Today, we can say with confidence that the CSR submissions can be relied upon as an accurate accounting of the significant work performed by our grantees.

I also have worked with LSC’s Office of Legal Affairs to preserve scarce real property purchased with LSC funds. The local program mergers that have stemmed from LSC’s State Planning Initiative have led to some former grantees holding on to property that rightfully belongs to LSC. Through real property recovery efforts over the past two years, we have preserved approximately $5.5 million in resources for LSC grantees.

Perhaps the most critical part of my responsibilities as President has been to strengthen our support in Congress and to improve our relationship with the White House. To that end, we have developed and executed a comprehensive legislative strategy that lays a strong foundation for the future. I’ve returned to Capitol Hill to meet directly with dozens of Members of Congress and reaffirm LSC’s bipartisan approach to providing legal aid. By emphasizing our focus on the core legal needs of the poor, we have enhanced our credibility with policymakers and strengthened partnerships with key funders at the federal, state, and local levels. LSC received a $9.5 million budgetary increase in 2003, in part, because of improved relationships on the Hill.

Former LSC President John Erlenborn was a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1965 to 1985 and was a GOP House floor manager of the LSC Act of 1974.