Fighting for Second Chances: BayLegal’s Reentry Unit

Categories: 20th Anniversary, Anniversary Interview Series, Anniversary Timeline, Client Story, eNewsletter Story, News
A cartoon figure stands behind bars with the barriers to reentry listed in red around them
“Fear isn’t holding me back as much”   Luke is the father of two boys. One is three years old, the other seven. He works for a subcontracting company in the East Bay, where he spoke to us by phone from the company’s warehouse. “We’re still working during the pandemic,” he explained. “A lot of …

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Pro Bono Spotlight: The Roots of Partnership Between Private Practice and Civil Legal Aid

Categories: 20th Anniversary, Anniversary Timeline, eNewsletter Story
The 1980s marked a tumultuous period for civil legal aid, given the Reagan Administration’s antipathy toward legal services programs and the resultant policies intended to curtail the work of legal aid agencies across the nation. Indeed, the historical literature describes the Reagan era as “a tremendous roller coaster ride” and a “struggle for survival” for …

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Rooted in the Civil Rights Movement: How BayLegal Became the Largest Regional Law Firm Serving the Poor in the SF Bay Area

Categories: 20th Anniversary, Anniversary Timeline, eNewsletter Story

This article is the first draft of BayLegal’s origin story: the story of our starting point, and the ways in which we remain connected to it. It is the story of how we and our sister legal services agencies began, the opposition and challenges we faced in our early years, and how that foundation has …

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