by Liz Daube
Staff Writer
Jacksonville Area Legal Aid is taking on the new year with a new, more aggressive fund-raising approach.
Spohrer Wilner attorney Chad Roberts began his tenure as president of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid’s (JALA) board of directors on Jan 1. He says the 30-attorney nonprofit organization that provides legal services to Northeast Florida’s poor will push for more local donations in coming months.
“JALA has got to be a lot more entrepeneurial than it has been in the past,” he said. “We have to plug in and play and compete.”
Roberts said JALA will “run more strategically like a corporate law firm” and entrepeneurial efforts will range from an upcoming Continuing Legal Education (CLE) seminar to more promotion of JALA’s in-house legal talent.
The CLE program will fulfill required training hours for attorneys on topics JALA has expertise in, such as mental health or substance abuse. Roberts said options like a CLE course take advantage of JALA’s free resources while providing a useful service for donors – a combination he hopes will result in increased funding for JALA.
“We’ll also be playing up the quality of the people that work here,” said Roberts. He said the recently-upgraded Web site will include profiles of JALA’s prominent attorneys soon.
“We need to recognize them because they’re underpaid and overworked and they still have the fire in the belly to stay here,” said Roberts. “There’s an esprit de corp [here] that is hard to match at corporate law firms.”
The nonprofit has to be more creative and outspoken in its fund-raising because of federal funding changes, according to Roberts.
“Every little town had legal aid societies [60 years ago],” said Roberts. “Then the government decided to help.”
Roberts said organizations like JALA used to be supported almost entirely by local legal communities. But with the arrival of what Roberts calls the “big brother’s gonna come in and help you” approach, many legal aid organizations put less effort into gathering community support.
“Pretty soon, everybody’s addicted to the money and now you essentially live on public grants,” said Roberts. “When you get that, you don’t have to hustle to the Jacksonville Bar [Association]. You don’t have to tell the community what you do.”
But according to Roberts, that federal money has fluctuated depending on political leadership. He said many limits were attached to the federal funds, such as restrictions on legal aid attorneys suing the U.S. government.
Roberts said legal aid organizations became “anemic” because of those limitations and funding cuts. As the situation grew more complicated, legal aid organizations had to hire compliance officers to navigate the details.
Then, Roberts said, the Bush administration decided to streamline the system, reducing and consolidating the number of legal service entities in Florida to about a dozen total. Roberts said JALA didn’t want to be part of the new system. Although the nonprofit still receives some federal grants, Roberts said, “we just don’t take legal service corporation funds anymore.”
That funding change, which Roberts calls a “leap of faith,” came about a year and a half ago. He said the organization is still adjusting and trying to renew local interest in JALA’s programs.
“The service JALA provides in our community is as essential as the fire department and the police department and the public library,” said Roberts. “More than ever, the local legal community has really got to step up.
“Lawyers are expensive ... bad things happen when a whole segment of our community gets turned away at the courthouse steps. It encourages people to check out of the whole system of rules and stop signs and not shooting people ... and nobody but the lawyers in Jacksonville sit awake at night and worry about whether JALA is all right.”