Pro Bono Program
Overview
Each year, the DRLC receives thousands of requests for legal assistance from people with disabilities. While our committed staff and student externs work to capacity providing legal assistance, the need for our services far exceeds our ability to meet it. As a result, we rely heavily on our pro bono partners.
Volunteer attorneys have historically played two important roles in the work of the DRLC:
1) The majority of people with disabilities who contact us have smaller, more personal legal issues. In order to meet these needs, the Pro Bono Program identifies, cultivates, and maintains critical relationships with attorneys throughout Los Angeles who are willing to accept these types of pro bono referrals and undertake small litigation cases, brief service (e.g., letter writing, advice, and negotiation without litigation), and individual special education advocacy.
2) Most of the cases accepted by the DRLC's Civil Rights Litigation Program are either class actions or cases where resolution will benefit large numbers of people. In order to pursue such matters, we partner with volunteer attorneys who are affiliated with major law firms that have the financial and staff resources necessary for complex cases. Over the years this kind of collaboration has had an outstanding record of achievement in cases of major impact.
Click here for an article by the California Bar Journal in October 2005