Vice President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.S. Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Antonin Scalia, and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder joined more than 100 leaders of the legal community, government, and the private sector on September 14-16 at a wide-ranging legal aid conference in Washington to mark the 40th anniversary of the Legal Services Corporation.

In addition to speeches, LSC’s 40th Anniversary Kick-Off featured a dozen panel discussions on a wide variety of topics, including “Expanding and Diversifying Sources of Funding,” “Stimulating Innovation to Increase Access to Justice,” “The Impact of Pro Bono Lawyers on the Justice Gap,” and “The Importance of Access to Justice and the Rule of Law to American Business.”

LSC's 40th Anniversary Announcement
​from Legal Services Corporation on Vimeo.

“The Legal Services Corporation is using this milestone anniversary to focus attention on the gravity of the challenges facing civil legal aid in America, to better educate ourselves about what is occurring and what is at stake, and to consider the best ways forward,” said LSC Board Chairman John G. Levi. “By convening leaders from government, business, and philanthropy as well as the legal community, LSC hopes to forge broad strategies for sustaining and improving the funding and delivery of civil legal services.”  

The participation of CEOs such as David Rubenstein of the Carlyle Group, Ken Frazier of Merck, and Michael Brown of City Year will deepen the perspective of discussions on the importance of access to justice.

“This is a different kind of legal conference,” said LSC President James J. Sandman. “It focuses on entrepreneurship, innovation, leadership and managing effective change. It includes not only the country’s foremost thinkers on expanding access to justice but is outward-looking and includes CEOs of leading American businesses, corporate general counsel, deans of major law schools, and a bipartisan group of legislators and executive agency heads.”

More Information from LSC
Full Schedule of Events