Where's the Money Going to Come From?

If you were creating a new public interest law firm today, how would you think about it?

UC Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky has focused on two questions. First: what legal needs aren't being met? There are now many public interest organizations in specific fields like environmental law and civil rights.

The question is where are the still existing gaps – there are still many unmet needs in the legal system.

Second, and in Erwin's view the more important question: where's the money going to come from? "Ford Foundation isn't providing money anymore."

That's a real issue. When we started CLIPI in 1972, the Ford Foundation provided essential early funding. They didn't just write a check. They stood behind us when powerful interests tried to shut us down. That kind of institutional support is increasingly rare.

Loyola Law Professor Dan Selmi has noted that when CLIPI was founded, there was no model for what we were doing. "These guys were making it up as they went along." Every decision had to be figured out: funding, staffing, what kind of law to practice, how to interact with the courts and the political system.

The need for public interest law hasn't diminished. As UCLA Law Professor Ann Carlson has put it: "Right now, the resistance is most powerful in the public interest legal world. And there are real victories, and we shouldn't lose sight of that."

The legal infrastructure exists now that didn't exist in 1972. But the funding question remains as urgent as ever.