The Rotary Club welcomed Steven McGarrity, Esq to our Tuesday, January 31, 2023, Club luncheon meeting. Mr. McGarrity has served as the Executive Director of Community Legal Aid since 2017. Click here to view the presentation.
Mr. McGarrity has over 25 years of legal experience with Legal Aid. He began with the organization as a staff attorney in Canton, Ohio in 1997, focusing his practice on family law and consumer debt. In his time with Legal Aid, he has held various management positions, including nine years’ as Associate Director, where he oversaw all client services, outreach, and technology.What is Legal Aid?
Civil Legal Aid can be traced back to the 1870s when the first legal assistance program was founded in New York. It took almost another 100 years before any national structure was developed by the federal government. The Office of Economic Opportunity’s Legal Services was established in 1965 which eventually led to the independent Legal Service Corporation (LSC).
Following the establishment of OEO’s Legal Services, 260 legal aid programs were established across all states. Programs and funding increased as LSC began conducting studies on the needs of the poor, ultimately recommending to Congress, a funding model that would provide one legal aid attorney for every 10,000 poor people.
In 1952 Summit County Legal Aid Society was incorporated “to secure justice for and to protect the rights of the needy and of individuals of moderate means, to promote measures for their assistance, and to enable them to obtain competent legal advice and representation.” This organization would go on to become Western Reserve Legal Services, serving Summit, Portage, and Medina counties. In 2000 Stark County Legal Aid merged with WRLS and in 2014 Northeast Ohio Legal Services merged with Legal Aid resulting in Community Legal Aid serving eight counties and making it the third largest legal aid organization in Ohio.
What Does Legal Aid Do?
Community Legal Aid structures it's work around advocacy priorities, legal practice groups, and projects. Community Legal Aid’s practice groups define the organization’s advocacy priorities within each legal practice area. Their current priorities are:
- Supporting Low-Income Families and Special Populations
- Preserving the Home (supporting access to affordable and safe housing)
- Maintaining Economic Stability (resolve issues with the IRS, protect individuals from predatory lending and unfair sales practices.
- Ensure Safety and Health
- Protecting Access to Justice
What are the Projects?
Population-based projects provide holistic legal services to specific at-risk populations. Several other projects are aimed at mitigating a threat or barrier specific to low-income residents.
A few of their projects include:
- Advocating for Returning Citizens (ARC)
- Debt Relief
- Fair Housing
- Health, Education, Advocacy, and Law (HEAL)
- Homeownership
- Immigrants and Refugees
- I Promise
- Legal Assistance to Victims
- Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC)
- Tenant Assistance Project
- Veterans
Is There a Demand for Services?
Last year 4500 individuals were served, however the number of requests were 16000
The Community Legal Aid organization has 70 staff of which 38 are attorneys. They have approximately 200 other volunteer attorneys.
Approximately 92% of citizens requesting services are not able to be served based on limited resources.
This lack of resources is not limited to just these 8 counties served by Legal Aid. It is a nationwide concern.
For more information about Community Legal Aid, I encourage everyone to check out their website at www.communitylegalaid.org.
Yours in Service
Terry Dalton
Akron Club Secretary and Scholarship Chair
