Power Station

The path to legal services for the poor in the U.S. has a rich and complex history. It includes support from the Freedman’s Association post Civil War to philanthropic investment by the Ford Foundation in the 1960s and the adoption of federal funding in 1974. Although legal services programs have flourished since then, they remain a target for cutbacks in the federal budget process.    A conversation with Maryland Legal Aid's Amy Petkovsek and Dimitri Degbeu, however, places us firmly in the present and demonstrates how innovative and life-changing a nonprofit law firm can be. It starts with 350 staff deployed to 12 offices throughout a demographically diverse state, from the mountains to the shore. In both rural communities and urban centers, MLA's  lawyers represent poor people who face eviction, predatory debt collection and foreclosure. They may be in in custody disputes, have wage claims, are struggling to gain veteran’s benefits and are tethered to criminal charges that deprive them of employment and ho