Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Legal Aid (VLA) is celebrating 50 years of working for justice. The non-profit law firm and social organization has been providing legal assistance to Vermonters when they face a civil legal problem that threatens their rights, shelter, job, health or well-being for half a century. On Thursday, October 11 at the ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain in Burlington, VLA celebrated its past, present and future work.
“Vermont Legal Aid strives to advance fairness and justice, address the social and economic interests of our clients, and confront the underlying causes of poverty, discrimination and inequality,” said Eric Avildsen, Executive Director of VLA. “In our current political climate with rights being stripped away from many, the work of VLA is more important than ever before.”
Vermont Legal Aid, with the Vermont Bar Association’s support, was one of many programs nationwide that grew out of Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty which created the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) and its Legal Services Program. Lawyers were funded in an effort to provide equal justice in civil cases to low-income people who could not afford lawyers.
Today VLA has 33 lawyers and 21 paralegals who work from five offices statewide (when clients were first served by VLA in 1968 each office had one lawyer). VLA’s staff are dedicated to public service and to providing equality and justice to Vermont’s most vulnerable. From low-income to the disabled to senior citizens, VLA works tirelessly to help Vermonters in need.
During 2017, more than 21,000 Vermonters from all corners of Vermont asked VLA for help; the program represented over 10,000 of them by giving advice, providing representation in the courts, and conducting appeals and federal court class actions.
For more information about Vermont Legal Aid’s work, visit www.vtlegalaid.org.
Source: BURLINGTON, Vt. – Vermont Legal Aid 10.11.2018