'Extraordinarily successful' Silicon Valley fundraising campaign wins Tweed
award
Those who provide free legal help to the poor may be struggling through some
tough economic times. But in Silicon Valley, a campaign launched by two local
bar leaders has led to a 13-fold increase in private funding for legal services
providers and a doubling in the number of attorneys offering their assistance
free of charge.
One legal services provider calls the still-growing Silicon Valley Campaign
for Legal Services (SVCLS) "a bright spot in the funding world." The chair of
the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants
calls it "an extraordinarily successful fund-raising effort for legal services
to the poor."
For setting up the collaborative campaign, the Santa Clara County Bar Association
will receive the ABA 2003 Harrison Tweed Award this month at the ABA's annual
meeting in San Francisco. Also receiving an award will be the New York County
Lawyers' Association.
Created in 1956, the Harrison Tweed Award recognizes state and local bar associations
that develop or significantly expand projects or programs to increase access
to civil legal services for the poor or criminal defense services for indigents.
|
Hammer |
|
Towery |
The Silicon Valley campaign dates back to 1999 when local legal services providers
brought their funding problems, and their search for solutions, to Santa Clara
County Bar Association leaders Phil Hammer and James Towery, who also served
as president of the State Bar of California in 1995-96. At the time, the private
bar was raising roughly $30,000 a year for legal services in the area, and state
and federal funding was shrinking.
Launching the fundraising campaign to help seven legal services agencies in
Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, Hammer and Towery paid visits to the partners
of the largest local law firms. Inviting the partners to join the campaign's
governing board, the pair asked for annual contributions equaling one billable
hour (set at $250) for every attorney at the firm. Then the volunteer fundraising
campaign, housed at the Santa Clara County Bar Association with a staff of one,
went into full swing.
Last year alone, SVCLS raised more than $400,000 from local law firms and corporations,
leveraged an additional $750,000 in funding for legal services and increased
the number of pro bono attorneys to 1,100 (up from 550 several years ago). "A
lot of attorneys are looking for ways of giving something back," said Hammer.
"This is something real for them."
Money-strapped legal services providers and their impoverished clients are
feeling the difference. "It has affected all of us," said John Hedges, executive
director of the Pro Bono Project of the Silicon Valley. "I think it's more than
we expected, but not more than we hoped for."
Hedges, who jointly nominated Santa Clara's bar for the award, credits bar
leaders with overcoming "all of the obstacles in their path" to set up the campaign.
"They just took it and ran with it," he recalls.
The bar's executive director became involved. And eight former Santa Clara
County Bar Association presidents lent their support as well. "It was a full-bar
effort," Hedges said.
"I think it says an awful lot about lawyers and their realization of the need
for legal services that is out there. They've been very generous when the economy
is contracting."
More recently, SVCLS has recruited the general counsels of Yahoo Inc.! and
Applied Materials to its governing board as well. Future goals include seeking
donations from individual attorneys and reaching $1 million in annual contributions.
From early on, Hammer and others believed that the campaign's goals were realistic.
But, Hammer admits, "it's been very pleasing to be as successful as we've been."
|