Best Pro Bono Effort: Legal Services of Eastern Missouri

Helping a single mother get food stamps to feed her children. Getting treatment for a mentally ill child so he can remain at home with his family. Assisting a new U.S. citizen in bringing relatives to the country. This is the kind of help volunteer attorneys can offer through Legal Services of Eastern Missouri.

Legal Services has staff attorneys who work with poor clients to resolve civil matters, ranging from housing troubles to getting welfare benefits and preserving parental rights, across a 21-county area. But the need is far greater than the resources, and the organization also runs a pro bono program in which private lawyers volunteer their time to handle some cases.

“Having this volunteer lawyer program allows us to stretch our dollars even further and represent more people,” said executive director Dan Glazier.

Glazier said the program has about 900 lawyers who volunteer at various times to handle cases. Last year the volunteer lawyer program closed about 400 cases. The entire legal aid program handles about 7,000 cases a year, he said.

Glazier is grateful for the legal community’s recognition of the program’s work and hopes the award will spur more lawyers to get involved. He says the legal aid office provides training and support, and most cases can be handled within 12 hours. It’s working to reach out in particular to areas just beyond St. Louis, such as Jefferson and St. Charles counties.

“There is no shortage of legal problems of the low-income population that we serve. As many volunteer lawyers as we can bring into the fold, that’s how many we can keep busy,” he said.