legal services for the poor best practices...

Legal Services for the PoorBest Practices Handbook

Legal Vice PresidencyThe World Bank

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Administrator

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© 2003 The International Bank for Reconstructionand Development / The World Bank1818 H Street, N.W.Washington, DC 20433, USA

All rights reservedManufactured in the United States of AmericaFirst printing, June 2003

A free publication

This report has been prepared by the staff of the World Bank. The judgments expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the Board of Executive Directors or of the governments they represent.

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All other queries on rights and licenses should be addressed to the World Bank at the address above or faxed to 202-522-2422.

"Without the protection of human rights, and a

comprehensive framework of laws, no equitable development is possible. A government must ensure that it has an effective system of property, contracts, labor, bankruptcy, commercial codes, personal rights law and

other elements of a comprehensive legal system that

is effectively, impartially and cleanly administered by a

well-functioning, impartial and honest judicial and legal

system."

James D. WolfensohnPresident, The World Bank

Washington, D.C. 1999

"Fighting poverty for lasting results is our mission. Poverty cannot be fought and lasting results cannot be achieved

without an effective and equitable legal system."

Ko-Yung TungVice President

Washington, D.C. 2001

LEGAL SERVICES FOR THE POORBEST PRACTICES HANDBOOK

Contents

Aknowledgements ....................................................................... iiiExecutive Summary ......................................................................v

1. Introduction ................................................................................... 1 2. What is an LSO? The Mission and Role of LSOs ..................... 33. Provision of Legal Services - What Do LSOs Do? .................... 7

3.1. Services to Individual Clients ........................................... 83.1.2 Advice and Referral of Individuals...................... 9

3.2. Group Representation .....................................................103.3. Legal Awareness ............................................................ 133.4. Systemic Advocacy ......................................................... 14

3.4.1. Public Interest Litigation ................................... 143.4.2. Legal and Regulatory/Administrative

Reform Advocacy ............................................. 173.4.3. Investigations, Reports and Media .................. 18

3.5. Collaborative Networks .................................................. 183.6. Leveraging Resources ................................................... 18

3.6.1. Law School Programs ......................................183.6.2. Pro Bono Programs ......................................... 203.6.3. Development/Service Organizations ................20

4. Putting It All Together - Developing a Strategic Plan ............. 234.1. Deciding What Work To Do ............................................ 244.2. Structuring the Organization To Achieve the Mission ..... 25

4.2.1. Staff .................................................................. 264.2.2. Case Acceptance Procedures ..........................274.2.3. Internal Structure ..............................................28

4.3. Advocacy Planning ......................................................... 295. Leadership and Management of LSOs ..................................... 33

5.1. Standards of Practice ..................................................... 335.2. Training, Supervision and Evaluation .............................345.3. Impact Assessment ........................................................ 35

6. Financing the Provision of Legal Services .............................. 377. Next Steps for the LSO Community ..........................................418. Initial Recommendations for Bank and Donor Assistance .... 43

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Aknowledgements

iii

This handbook was completed by a core team, led by MinnehKane, which included the vital work of Daniel Manning (GreaterBoston Legal Services). It is the result of work undertaken at a work-shop organized by the World Bank Legal Vice Presidency's Legaland Judicial Reform Practice Group. Participants in the workshopincluded Ardjanna Kalo (Tirana Legal Aid Society, Albania),Shadeen Malik (ERGO, Bangladesh), Alicia Arias Salgado(ProJusticia, Ecuador), Mahama Ayariga (Legal Resource Centre,Ghana), Judy Thongori (FIDA, Kenya), Geoff Budlender (LegalResources Centre, South Africa), Melron Nicol-Wilson (LawyersCentre for Legal Assistance, Sierra Leone), and Savithri Wijeskera(Women in Need, Sri Lanka).

Special thanks to Maria Dakolias, Rowena Gorospe, JeremyMathias, Caroline McConnie (LEGLR), as well as Tia Duer(WBIGK), Stephen Golub (Boalt Hall Law School, University ofCalifornia at Berkeley) and Liam Garvey (Australia), for theircomments and contributions. It is expected that, with the use of thishandbook, there will be further refinements. Comments and sugges-tions are welcomed.

Legal Services for the Poor

Executive Summary

In developing and transitional countries around the worldlegal services organizations (LSOs) are working with poor people toenable them to gain greater power over their own lives. As lawyersfor the poor, LSOs promote safety, security and access to justice andhelp poor people solve problems and overcome administrative barri-ers. While LSOs' work is about justice and making the rule of law areality for the disadvantaged, it equally is about poverty alleviationand poor people's empowerment. LSOs help improve the materialcircumstances of the poor and/or empower them to improve their cir-cumstances and participation in public life.

The day-to-day work of LSOs often deals with very funda-mental issues such as access to clean water, electricity, health care,education and other basic services. They keep people from beingunjustly evicted from their homes or farms. They protect workersfrom discrimination. They enable pensioners to collect benefits.Women are helped with divorces, child custody, and claims for main-tenance. These organizations get court orders to protect women fromdomestic violence. Through their representation of individuals, theyprovide important services to the communities where they workwhile at the same time gaining a deep understanding of the needs andaspirations of poor people themselves. The taking up of well-chosen

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test cases can often have an impact that goes beyond the partiesdirectly involved. Regardless of the particular issues they work on,the best LSOs seek to go about their work in a way that promotes sys-temic change.

LSOs provide critical support for lasting change by helpingpoor groups, communities and organizations to beat back administra-tive barriers, and advocate for representation in local governmentdecision-making and for public transparency. They help poor peo-ple's organizations and groups to devise practical solutions for prob-lems as they arise; provide poor constituencies with education ontheir legal rights and procedures to protect and exert their rights. Theyrecommend and advocate for law reforms to improve the equity ofrights and services available to poor people and work in networks ofpoor people's organizations. They help create a culture of rights inwhich both individuals and groups can assert their own interests.From the perspective of supporting community driven development,civic engagement and accountability in governance, and povertyreduction, strengthening LSOs’ capacities to represent, advocate andproblem-solve for poor communities, groups and organizations, iskey. In many cases, this requires a shift in the attention of LSOs fromadvising and representing individuals to working on behalf of groups.LSOs can train and deploy paralegals as community advocates, andcomplement them with skilled legal representation in impact litiga-tion and in law and systemic reforms.

Supporting legal services for low-income groups is a crucialaspect of any strategy for comprehensive legal and judicial reform, asit strengthens the demand side of reform. It also allows governmentsto get a better sense of the legal issues arising among people whowould not otherwise be able to afford legal redress.

Delivery of legal services for the poor can be structured invarious ways: dedicated community-based organizations providinglegal services can be complemented with pro bono publico represen-tation from for-profit law firms. Community-based organizations canbenefit from technical support from specialized "back-stopping"organizations in specialized fields of public interest law (e.g., migrantlabor, social safety nets), to which cases can be referred, and whichcan be called in to assist the local LSOs on particular topics. In thissense, legal services for the poor work most robustly and effectively

LEGAL SERVICES FOR THE POORvi

when implemented through a network of community based organiza-tions, specialized referral organizations, and complemented with probono public services. In terms of priority for assistance, in generalthe community-based services are the key to effective delivery.Development of community advocates, complemented with legalrepresentation and advocacy, to deliver legal education, group repre-sentation, impact and law reform work are the key elements that needattention. Development of these capacities can be carried out throughinternships with legal services organizations that are recognized asleading in the field of impact and group work; study tours that areboth instructive and provide a basis for international networking;leadership training and training in resource mobilization. Suchcapacity building can be supported through a blend of donor assis-tance (especially relevant to regional and international LSO networkdevelopment) and Bank lending support.

LSO Best Practice Summary

llllA strategic plan must be developed by each LSO if it wants itswork to have maximum impact.

llllLSOs must have an ongoing dialogue with the communities theyserve in order to set these priorities for the work they do. Staffties to the community and visibility among the people they servehelp facilitate this dialogue.

llllAlthough long term priorities must be set formally, there must beenough flexibility for short term adjustments to these priorities.

llllLSOs must make strategic decisions about their case acceptancepolicies. For example, they must decide whether they will acceptcases on a first-come-first- served basis or on a priority system.

llllAny systemic reform work undertaken by the LSO must arise outof the actual needs of the people and must be structured so it canbe implemented on the ground.

llllAll work undertaken by an LSO will ideally focus on fulfillingpreviously set priorities rather than the provision of services onan ad-hoc basis.

llllAdvocacy planning objectives set by each LSO must be clearenough to allow for the development of strategies and the meas-urement of progress.

Best Practices Handbook vii

llllThere must be a realistic assessment of available resources fromboth within and outside the LSO when setting these advocacyplanning objectives.

llllLSOs must be realistic about the potential opposition to theirefforts at advocacy and whether there are practical remedies toresolve the problems outlined in their objectives.

llllThe most effective LSOs follow a set of pre-established core prin-ciples in representing their clients.

llllLSOs must have systems for training, supervising and evaluatingstaff and volunteers to ensure continued high standards.

llllLSOs must devise systems for assessing the impact of their work.Some use client satisfaction surveys, while others solicit the opin-ion of key groups in the communities they serve. Regular consul-tation with clients is the best way to assess progress.

llllStrategies for financial sustainability must also be devised. Theseprovisions for financing often involve a combination of govern-ment and private funding and often raise funds by combiningpaid services with public interest work.

llllLSOs should also seek financial support from a variety of sourcesto try and maintain a level of independence from government.

llllEstablishing networks to share information on fund raising hasbenefited many LSOs, and this information sharing, will be fur-ther facilitated in the future with the increased availability ofresources such as the internet.

llllThis document's proposed network of LSOs will have dual bene-fits. It will allow an exchange of knowledge and skills, as well asthe advancement efforts of the LSOs to become advocates forthemselves.

LEGAL SERVICES FOR THE POORviii

1. Introduction

In developing and transitional countries around the worldlegal services organizations (LSOs) are working with poor people toenable them to gain greater power over their own lives. As lawyersfor the poor, LSOs promote safety, security and access to justice.They provide critical support for community-driven development(CDD) by helping groups to organize, gain access to resources andpublic services, hold government accountable, and protect them-selves against abuse. Through their representation of individuals theyprovide important services to the communities where they workwhile at the same time deepening their understanding of the needsand aspirations of poor people themselves. Through their networkingand community education work they help create a culture of rights inwhich both individuals and groups can assert their own interests.

While LSOs' work is about justice and making the rule of lawa reality for the disadvantaged, it equally is about poverty alleviation.LSOs help improve the material circumstances of the poor and/orempower them to improve their circumstances and participation inpublic life themselves.

LSOs take many forms, sometimes as free-standing organi-zations devoted completely to doing legal work, in other cases ascomponents of larger organizations. They offer a wide range of serv-ices: community education, individual advice and representation,

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legal counsel and representation for groups, systemic advocacythrough litigation and lobbying, and training for NGOs, civil societyorganizations and government. They are characterized as much bytheir values as their work. They are committed to meeting theirclients' needs as the clients define those needs. They have a vision oflaw as a means for achieving equal justice, with poor people beingfull partners in the process of shaping and using the law to accom-plish that goal.

This paper explains why there is a need for legal services,what LSOs are, how they go about their work, and what they canaccomplish.1 The goals of the paper are to provide encouragementand support for existing LSOs, to promote the establishment of newLSOs, and to encourage support from civil society, governments andthe broad development community for making legal services avail-able to the poor.

LEGAL SERVICES FOR THE POOR2

_________________________________________

1 This paper is based on the experiences of LSOs from around the world. In April2003 the World Bank brought together leaders from 8 LSOs from developing andtransitional countries to discuss the vision, mission and operations of their organiza-tions. These leaders represented long established, relatively large organizations aswell as newer, very small organizations just beginning to have an impact. Theirexperiences provide examples of the challenges and opportunities facing LSOs,regardless of where and under what circumstances they are operating. The paperdraws on those eight groups' experiences and perspectives, as well as the work ofother LSOs whose operations the author of this paper has examined through assign-ments for the World Bank and other organizations.

2. What is an LSO? The Mission and Role of LSOs

"Poor people live without fundamental freedoms of actionand choice that the better-off take for granted. They oftenlack adequate food and shelter, education and health, depri-vations that keep them from leading the kind of life the every-one values. They also face extreme vulnerability to ill health,economic dislocation, and natural disasters. And they areoften exposed to ill treatment by institutions of the state andsociety and are powerless to influence key decisions affectingtheir lives. These are all dimensions of poverty."

World Development Report 2000/2001 - Attacking Poverty (WDR)

The strategy for poverty reduction proposed by the WDRinvolves three elements: promoting opportunity; facilitating empow-erment and enhancing security. There is a critical legal component toeach part of this strategy. Opportunity includes building assets whichrequires a stable legal regime accessible to the poor. Promotingopportunity also includes addressing asset inequalities across gender,ethnic, and racial lines, which requires, for example, changing lawssuch as those that prevent women from inheriting property.Empowerment is facilitated by "having transparent institutions… that

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promote legal equity" and by "promoting gender equity." Security isenhanced by functioning legal institutions that protect the most vul-nerable and a peaceful means for conflict resolution.

The WDR recognized the significant role to be played byLSOs. They help people gain access to the benefits and protectionsof the legal system, both inside and outside the court system. Theyact on behalf of groups to assist large numbers of poor people facingsimilar harms. They help change the rules, whether embodied in con-stitutions, statutes, regulations, municipal ordinances, leases or themyriad of other codes that determine what happens to poor people.They change the way the rules are applied by judges, bureaucrats andthe police. More abstractly, they enable people to think differentlyabout themselves in relation to their spouses, landlords, employers,and the government agencies that have power over their lives. Theywork with and for their clients. They collaborate with other organi-zations to meet their clients’ basic needs. In the long run, bringingabout change is the essence of the work they do - at the very leastchange for a particular individual on an immediate problem, andwhenever possible lasting change that empowers people to controltheir own lives.

The mission statements from organizations in Albania,Ghana and Sri Lanka capture the essential character of many LSOs.


Box 2.1 THE TIRANA LEGAL AID SOCIETY - ALBANIA

The mission of TLAS is "to meet legal needs of the people in need, tosensitize the Albanian citizenry to the rule of law and human rights, to promoteimprovements in the legal system and thereby to influence the development ofcivil society and the rule of law in Albania." TLAS as an organization seeks tobecome an active participant in civil society in order to reduce poverty inAlbania. To fulfill its mission and accomplish the goals, TLAS provides civillegal aid, paralegal services, lobbying and advocacy on the most serious legaland human rights problems, "street law" programs to educate the public, legalsupport and training for NGO's, training and advice for public officials, andinternship programs for law students. The target groups for services are unem-ployed people, female heads of low income households, abandoned childrenand orphans, people with disabilities, pensioners, elderly people withoutincome, and other families in poverty.

Best Practices Handbook 5

Box 2.2 THE LEGAL RESOURCES CENTRE - GHANA

The objectives of the LRC-Ghana are to:

llllPromote human rights awareness;llllLink victims of human rights violations with institutionsl

llllestablished by the state to enforce the protection of human rights;llllProvide, through competent personnel, such other legal assistance llllas the Centre may deem necessary to victims of human rights llllviolations; llllServe as a Centre for legal research in the area of human rights lllland development;llllEncourage dialogues or governance issues, especially grassroots llllparticipatory governance; llllConduct policy advocacy at the local and national levels; and llllPromote key economic and social rights.

The Centre is organized into three main departments: public educa-tion, legal aid, and research and advocacy. The public education departmentdevelops education programs in response to community requests. The topicsnormally relate to inheritance laws, marriage and divorce laws, children'srights, women's rights, political rights, civic responsibilities, economic andsocial rights, and citizens-police relations.

The legal aid department provides advice and representation to indi-gent individuals. While litigation is undertaken when necessary, the empha-sis is on the use of alternative dispute resolution, both arbitration and media-tion. The Centre recognizes that traditional social and political bonds are stillstrong in Ghana; most members of the communities where they work look totheir elders and chiefs for dispute resolution and conflict management. TheCentre has conducted workshops to increase the capacities of local leaders andchiefs to resolve disputes efficiently and manage conflicts effectively.

The research and advocacy department conducts investigations anddevelops advocacy campaigns related to issues identified through the Centre'spublic education and legal aid work. The department also includes aParliamentary Advocacy Team. This team collects and analyzes draft bills,provides the information to interested groups, and assists the groups in prepar-ing presentations for the parliament. The Centre organizes workshops forthese interest groups and for members of the Parliament.


Box 2.3 WOMEN IN NEED - SRI LANKA

WIN was the pioneer organization in Sri Lanka committed to theelimination of domestic violence and all forms of violence against women andthe children. WIN seeks the overall improvement in the social position of thewomen in Sri Lanka by empowering them and providing a supportive environ-ment to facilitate women's growth towards self reliance.

WIN provides legal assistance to victims of domestic violence, rape, incest,sexual abuse and sexual harassment. The various forms of legal assistanceinclude:

llllCourt appearancesllllMediation efforts on official and unofficial scalesllllLegal advice at centresllllAwareness education in the legal rights of female victims and the options llllavailable to them in our legal systemllllLegal literacy programmes llllThe referral of clients to other agenciesllllThe study of the laws related to violence against victims and the initiation llllof the drafting of new laws when necessary (e.g. domestic violence laws)llllEstablishment of legal aid networksllllPublication of pamphlets and handbooks in various languages on basic lllllegal rights for victims of violence.

The message carried by WIN is that violence against women is nolonger acceptable and is a violation of basic human rights.

3. Provision of Legal Services - What Do LSOs Do?

There are many legal services organizations in operationthroughout the world. Some are devoted exclusively to representingpoor people in civil legal matters. Others provide a wide range ofsocial services in addition to legal advocacy. Legal representation isprovided through labor, human rights, women's rights and govern-ment organizations. In some countries several organizations work incollaboration on programs ranging from legal literacy and communi-ty legal education to public interest litigation, high court appeals, andlegislative lobbying. Law schools frequently use clinical legal edu-cation programs both to train students and advance the interests ofdisadvantaged groups. Funding comes from national governments,international development agencies, foundations, court user fees, lawsocieties and private contributions. Services are provided by paidstaff, volunteer attorneys, government attorneys, lawyers who arereimbursed by the government for their services, paralegal workers,and community advocates.

There is no single model for providing legal assistance forpoor people. The day-to-day work of LSOs often deals with funda-mental issues such as access to clean water, electricity, health care,education and other basic services. They keep people from beingunjustly evicted from their homes or farms. They protect workersfrom discrimination. They enable pensioners to collect benefits.

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Women are helped with divorces, child custody, and claims formaintenance. These organizations get court orders to protect womenfrom domestic violence. Regardless of the particular issues theywork on, the best LSOs seek to go about their work in a way that pro-motes systemic change.

LSOs are both law offices for clients and public interestorganizations serving communities and broad constituencies. Theysee themselves as having an obligation to provide high quality legalrepresentation for their direct clients and, at the same time, perform-ing work in a way that enables as many poor people as possible to usethe law for their protection and benefit. This section describes thetypes of services offered by LSOs. Depending on the size and mis-sion of the organization, an LSO may concentrate its resources on oneparticular type of service or offer a wider range of services.

3.1. Services to Individual Clients

3.1.1 Direct Representation of Individual Clients

For most LSOs, one of the core services is providing directlegal representation to individuals. Direct representation of an indi-vidual client means that the LSO has assigned an attorney, or parale-gal, to take on a particular matter for a client and provide whateverlegal assistance is necessary to see the matter to a conclusion. Theessential factors are that the client determines the goals of the caseand the LSO uses its skills to get the best possible result. The casesinvolve a multitude of topics, noted below:


Land useLand ownershipLand tenureRentHousing conditionsEvictionsHousing discriminationHome ownershipRates and taxesWater servicesDivorceHealth care

Child custodyChild supportChild abuseMaintenanceDomestic violenceInheritanceSocial security benefitsWorking conditionsEmploymentContractsDebts

Job discriminationDisability benefitsEducationImmigration statusDeportationAsylumWork visasCriminal chargesPolice abusePublic servicesJuvenile delinquency

The services provided to clients can range from writing a let-ter or making a phone call, if that is what it takes to solve the prob-lem, to conducting complex litigation. LSO attorneys and paralegalsrepresent their clients in village courts, high courts, supreme courts,city councils, government ministries, parliaments, and any otherforums where poor people can obtain legal redress. The techniquesused include negotiation, mediation, litigation, lobbying and anyother form of advocacy.

There is no doubt that individual representation provides sig-nificant benefits to people whose cases are taken on by LSOs. LSOstaff customarily bring a high level of skill and commitment to theirjobs. They have very high success rates. However, as valuable as indi-vidual representation is, experienced LSOs have recognized that thereare serious limits to its effectiveness. When cases are managed as partof a strategic plan, they can have an impact on government policies orcourt practices, producing benefits for people beyond those who aredirectly represented. In the final analysis, then, individual representa-tion as the sole service of an LSO has limited social impact.

3.1.2 Advice and Referral of Individuals

Without exception, LSOs cannot meet all the demands fortheir services. Rather than just turn people away, they typicallydevelop systems for providing brief advice, assistance2, or referrals.There are many ways of providing advice. The most basic is to havesomeone available to answer questions when people come to theoffice. Many LSOs send staff members out to community locationson a set schedule to meet people on a first-come, first-serve basis.Some do "circuit riding," operating advice clinics out of cars or vans.LSOs with resources operating in countries where poor people haveaccess to telephones run "hot lines" with staff or volunteers trained toconduct quick interviews and provide useful information. Othersoffer "clinics" in which several people with the same problem attenda group advice session.


_________________________________________

2 The line between legal awareness and advice is not always clear. In general, legalawareness is intended to reach an audience without obtaining information about anyindividuals’ particular situation. Brief advice or assistance is usually provided inresponse to an individual who describes his or her problem.

The essence of an advice service is brevity. Usually itinvolves just one meeting with the client. Some information isobtained and the lawyer or paralegal explains the person’s rights, ifthey have any, and offers advice about what to do. Some LSOs go onestep further and offer some form of assistance, such as making a phonecall to a government agency or a landlord, or writing a letter or fillingout an application form. The line between advice or brief service andthe provision of full representation is not clear, but, with the former,the LSO does not "take the case", while, with the latter, it does.

There are a number of issues LSOs face in deciding how to goabout providing advice. Because even brief advice takes time, there isalways a trade off between providing this counsel and performing othertasks that may have a clearer impact. Giving advice to a person mayor may not work. He or she may not fully understand the advice orhave the ability to follow it. In many situations advice simply is notenough, solving the problem takes the intervention of a skilled lawyer.Depending on demand, an advice system can easily become unwork-able, both for the staff and people seeking legal advice. Systems needto be developed to ensure predictability for both the staff and the com-munity. Nonetheless, LSOs that provided no brief advice would like-ly be seen as unresponsive to the needs of the communities where theywork. Finding the right balance between advice and other services is acontinuing challenge.

Regardless of the method chosen, there can be important ben-efits for both the LSO and the community in having a well-run adviceservice. In many cases, brief advice or assistance is enough to solve aproblem. Even if the problem cannot be solved, giving people enoughinformation so they understand their situations can make it possiblefor them to make better choices. From the LSO standpoint, runningadvice programs gives them yet another way to learn what is going onin the community and aids the organization in setting priorities.

However, to have a significant impact, LSOs need to providea mixture of services to groups, and work that stimulates or proposessystemic reforms. These are described in the sections below.

3.2. Group Representation

Advising and representing groups is one of the most significantthings that LSOs do. The type of groups receiving legal assistance


from LSOs range from small, very localized groups formed torespond to a particular problem to well established, formal poor peo-ple's organizations engaged in development and advocacy work. Theissues worked on span the entire spectrum of matters of concern topoor people. The services provided include help in organizing thegroup, such as drafting a charter and by-laws. The services alsoinclude providing strategic and legal advice and representation onwhatever issues the group is working on. In short LSOs serve as legalcounsel to poor people's groups in the same way the private law firmsrepresent their corporate clients.

The impact from the group work done by LSOs is powerfuland lasting. The importance of enabling poor people to have a voicein matters affecting their lives has been well documented. Supportfrom LSOs helps groups to develop their own capacity and givesthem the information and skills needed to be effective participants inwhat are often highly complex matters. They are better able to advo-cate for basic services such as water supply, environmental safety,education, and health. As LSOs gain experience with different issuesthey are able to bring that experience to new groups and help formnetworks of groups with common interests. As the groups them-selves develop their skills, they are able to carry forward with muchless support from the LSOs. Hence, LSOs' group work can play animportant role in capacity development of poor people's groups,organizations, and networks.

In order to do effective group work, LSOs must develop theirown skills. Depending on the circumstances, they may need thecapacity to actually organize groups, which involves identifyingproblems, forming groups, supporting the development of leadership,advising on winning strategies, and creating organizational decision-making structures. An LSO must decide whether it has the capacityto do that work and whether the importance of community organiza-tion warrants their developing such skills.

Regardless of whether an LSO gets directly involved in theformation of groups, if it does any group work at all, it will need todeal with organizational issues ranging from technical ones, such asdrafting or amending by-laws and, where required, registering groupsas NGOs, to ongoing problems such as dispute resolution within agroup. To do group work properly, an LSO must invest the time intraining its staff to play that role.



Box 3.1 THE LEGAL RESOURCES CENTRE - GHANA

The Legal Resources Centre - Ghana has worked with community residents in theNima, one of the poorest areas of Accra, to mitigate the multiple health impacts of livingwithout adequate toilet, garbage, or waste-water drainage. Meetings were held with com-munity opinion-leaders to devise strategies for addressing the local government's failure tomeet its sanitation-related obligations. The legal team researched the local government'slegal obligations around sanitation and the framework for funding sanitation infrastructure.A potential litigation strategy was developed.

Once this background work was done, community-based organizations weremobilized to monitor the local government's compliance with its statutory duties to providetoilets, garbage collection, and sanitation services. Demands were made to the AccraMetropolitan Assembly (AMA) that it comply with its statutory duties regarding environ-mental health and sanitation. A large community meeting was held to allow residents totell elected officials and donors about the serious health and sanitation problems and theircampaign to deal with those problems.

As a result of these actions, the Accra Metro Environmental Health Initiative (theAMENHI) has begun to take enforcement actions and negotiations are underway for fundsfor community environmental improvement projects. Among other things, a Nima youthgroup, the Federation of Youth Clubs, has developed a project which will take wastematerial from the community for composting to be sold for industrial purposes.

Box 3.2 THE LEGAL RESOURCES CENTRE - SOUTH AFRICA

The Legal Resources Centre in South Africa has worked with the Port ElizabethLand and Community Restoration Association (PELCRA) since 1993, when the group wasestablished to seek restitution for loss of their homes under apartheid forced "removal".LRC attorneys worked closely with the group, first to help them decide whether to pursueindividual claims or a group restitution initiative. Having made the hard decision to seekgroup relief, PELCRA was able to reach agreement on behalf of 840 families with respectto 1286 urban residential sites. The national government paid R42 million for the claimsand the provincial government provided prime residential land and high value commercialland at a discounted price. Income from the commercial property will subsidize the devel-opment of housing and community facilities. Arrangements have been made for substan-tial government involvement through the development process. Implementation is movingahead and it is anticipated that people will be able to move into their new homes, some onland that was taken from them years ago, in early 2003.

According to PELCRA's chairperson, credit for the success so far must be givento the LRC: "The Legal Resources Centre is the only legal agency in the country with suf-ficient knowledge and expertise to deal with land issues in an innovative manner. Theyhave worked with land issues since the 1980s, they are closely involved with drawing upland legislation. I just cannot possibly conceive of any other group of lawyers being ableto deal effectively with land issues of this nature in this country."

Group work can take LSOs in directions they did not antici-pate. A litigation oriented practice can shift to one that involvesdevelopment work which can include advising on complex transac-tions, including financial ones. Often there is a tendency for thegroup to assume that the lawyers are professionals who are best suit-ed to take on highly technical issues. Many LSOs have found that thebest approach is to go down two tracks simultaneously. One is to getother people involved - lawyers who do transactional work, peoplewith expertise in finance, etc. The other is to insist that any negotia-tion process involve training for the group so that they understand theissues being discussed. While that may slow the process, in the longrun it helps build the capacity of groups.

An LSO's investment in group work pays off in a multitudeof ways. Poor people get problems solved and develop the know-how to get their voices heard. The LSO learns about the community,reaches out to more people, gains credibility, and expands its net-work. It is well worth the effort and an important service to supportcommunity-driven development, foster public accountability andcivic engagement, and improve public service delivery.

3.3. Legal Awareness

People need to know their rights. LSOs are involved in many activ-ities to make sure they do. Depending on the audience, legal aware-ness or community legal education can take the form of a theatricalperformance in a village, dramatizing how women can get help ifthey are abused, or it can be a multi-media campaign, for instance,publicizing information about complex land registration programs.The goals are to reach as many people as possible and give theminformation they can use individually or, ideally, as part of a group,to solve a problem. Solving the problem may involve getting some-one to follow an existing law or getting poor people to join in a col-lective action to change the law.

Legal awareness programs are not just a one way street.Community forums are used both to provide information and to getreactions from the people directly affected by problems. LSOs usewhat they learn in these dialogues to change their work priorities orto support strategic advocacy campaigns (see below). LSOs areeffective because they respond to real needs and they are able to do


that because of regular interaction with poor people. They listen aswell as talk.

LSOs usually operate as part of informal, and sometimes for-mal, networks of other NGOs and advocacy organizations. One majorcontribution LSOs make to these networks is providing both substan-tive legal training and advocacy skills training. Decisions about howmuch legal awareness and training work to do and how to go about itdepend, of course, on the resources of the LSO and the environmentin which it is working. Effective legal awareness work is grounded inproper legal advice, and LSOs are often in the best position to givethat advice, and, in many cases, the only ones who can do it.However, doing the legal analysis is only the starting point. Putting itin an understandable format and actually delivering the informationare separate matters. LSOs may or may not be best suited to thosetasks. Frequently LSOs work on legal awareness programs in collab-oration with other NGOs or grass roots community organizations.The LSO provides the content and the NGO delivers it.

There is general recognition that some form of legal aware-ness training is essential, though generally not sufficient, to enablepoor people to gain and enforce rights. Like every aspect of theiroperations, LSOs must make decisions about legal awareness work aspart of a larger strategic plan.

3.4. Systemic Advocacy

This section will review the various techniques that are usedfor promoting systemic change. A later section will discuss strategicplanning, which involves choosing the right combination of services,including the different forms of systemic advocacy.

3.4.1. Public Interest Litigation

Litigation is the classic means by which legal organizationsseek to make lasting changes for their clients. Lawyers working forLSOs and other public interest organizations have developed a widearray of litigation techniques over the years to force changes to deep-seated social practices, strike down discriminatory laws, halt illegalgovernment behavior, reform institutions, redirect governmentexpenditures, obtain redress for widespread injuries, and right any


number of other wrongs. The techniques go by a number of names,including test case litigation, class actions, public interest litigation,and so on. Whatever the name, they all seek to invoke the power ofcourts on behalf of poor and marginalized members of society.

LSOs face a huge number of challenges in using litigation tomake systemic changes. Even when the techniques for conductingpublic interest litigation are well established, the courts are trulyindependent, and court powers are acknowledged and accepted byother branches of government and society at large, litigation forchange is expensive, time consuming, and difficult. Most LSOs indeveloping countries do not operate in such an environment.3 Courtsare often not truly independent from the political branches of govern-ment, they lack resources, sometimes they are corrupt even at thehighest levels, and they have not approved various forms of publicinterest litigation.4

In most situations, LSOs must not only develop the capacityto litigate, but they must also take on the larger issues of the role andcapacity of courts. In Bangladesh, for example, public interest organ-izations, including LSOs, persuaded the courts to adopt the form ofpublic interest litigation pioneered in India which confers legal stand-ing on advocacy organizations seeking redress for classes of poorpeople who could not otherwise approach the court.

Assuming an LSO is in, or has created, a situation in whichlitigation is possible, a number of issues must be addressed. The veryprocess of deciding what issues to litigate is complicated. The firstjob of the lawyers is to educate clients about the possible use of liti-gation to solve a problem. Experience has shown that the success ofsystemic litigation depends in large part on having a sufficient group


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3 South Africa may be the exception that proves the rule. While some litigation tech-niques are relatively new in South Africa, with the advent of the Constitutional Courtand its power to strike down laws it declares unconstitutional, as well as with theintroduction of class action type litigation, the full array of techniques appears to beavailable.

4 A different set of issues arises in civil law countries, although in many places therole of courts is changing in ways that creates opportunities for some forms of sys-temic advocacy. In addition, as international human rights forums are established,LSOs have new avenues for seeking redress for their clients.

of people directly affected by the problem at issue involved in a sus-tained way throughout the course of the litigation, from the initialdecision to file a case to the full implementation of whatever relief isobtained. Litigation in isolation is less likely to work. It must becomplemented with advocacy to change the political climate whichtolerated or created the problem being addressed. Legal victories incourt can provide a tremendous boost to poor and disadvantaged peo-ple, but action on the ground is required to sustain the victory. Thecivil rights movement in the United States is a good illustration.African Americans could not have dismantled the deeply entrenchedsystem of segregation without going to court, but the court decisionswould have had no meaning without the marches, sit-ins and demon-strations.

Ideally litigation should arise out of a group decision inwhich all means of solving the problem are considered. For many rea-sons, groups of poor people may not be in a position to make a deci-sion about filing litigation to solve a particular problem. The peopleaffected by a problem may be isolated from one another - such asjuvenile prisoners held in adult jails - or the conditions they liveunder may be so oppressive - homeless families living on the streets- that there is simply no time or energy to form a group. Whateverthe situation, experienced LSOs strive to maintain as much clientinvolvement as possible. In some circumstances litigation can actu-ally be the catalyst which leads to the formation of a group. Slumdwellers, for example, who go to court to stop mass evictions can beempowered by success in court and form a new group to makedemands for improved sanitation. On the other hand, there is a riskthat litigation can take a problem out of the hands of a group into thearcane world of judges and lawyers, which can be disempowering.LSOs need to be sensitive to these issues.

Other important issues are resources and capacity. Whilesome significant issues are purely legal - for instance, whether a par-ticular government action meets constitutional requirements for dueprocess of law - more often, advocates for change must amass a largequantity of proof about the scope and nature of a problem. This caninvolve doing in depth interviews of large numbers of people, con-ducting extensive reviews of documents, obtaining expert evidence,and putting it all together in a persuasive way. Very often LSOs do


not have the time, money, people or expertise to conduct large scalelitigation. Nonetheless, by collaborating with advocacy organiza-tions, private attorneys, law schools, and other interested parties,many LSOs have played a key role in making litigation happen wherethey could not possibly do it alone.

3.4.2. Legal and Regulatory/Administrative Reform Advocacy

The value of legislative and administrative advocacy, ofcourse, depends on the openness of the political system in which anLSO operates. Assuming there is some room to maneuver, LSOs havethe potential to make significant changes through advocacy to get thelegislative or executive branches of government to change laws, rulesor practices. This can include drafting and advocating for the adop-tion of new laws, amending or repealing of existing laws or regula-tions, urging the legislative branch to use its oversight powers to holdthe executive accountable, and getting pubic prosecutors, attorneygeneral or inspector general offices, etc., to use their powers to inves-tigate executive malfeasance or any number of other techniques bywhich government can be pressured to change rules or take action.

Unlike lobbyists for corporate or other powerful interests,LSOs do not have money to put into the political process. But theydo have the power of information and the power of collective actionthrough the people they represent. Because LSOs work directly at agrass roots level with people directly affected by problems, they area source of extremely valuable information for legislators or govern-ment regulators. They are in an excellent position to understand theproblems and propose solutions that will work. Furthermore, theyhave, or can develop, the drafting skills to translate an idea into effec-tive legislation. Legislators in most places do not have sufficient staffto do the drafting or develop the evidence to support legislation.LSOs can make the difference.

LSOs can bring important skills to the legislative and regula-tory processes, but their success depends on working as part of civilsociety networks on behalf of individual and group clients. In mostsituations, LSOs would not play the lead role in a legislative cam-paign. Rather, they serve more often as technical and strategic advi-sors to coalitions that are the voice of the people seeking the changes.


One especially critical role for LSOs in improving the effec-tiveness of legislation and regulations is to pressure for enforcementor implementation. Victories in the legislature are only the begin-ning. Even if a law creates a public enforcement mechanism, advo-cacy is often required to get the government agency to do its job, and,in many cases, laws are enforced only through private actions. LSOsare well suited to use the whole range of advocacy techniques at theirdisposal to ensure that laws are actually put into effect.

3.4.3. Investigations, Reports and Media

Because of the way they go about their work, LSOs absorb atremendous amount of information about the problems of poor peo-ple. The same skills that are used to develop litigation or lobbyingcampaigns can be used to investigate and issue reports on systemicproblems. Publicizing those LSO reports through well-developedmedia campaigns can either accomplish changes directly or lay thegroundwork for lobbying or other advocacy efforts. Collaborationbetween LSOs and other advocacy organizations can be instrumentalin publicizing such reports.

3.5. Collaborative Networks

LSOs often work in close alliances with issue-orientedNGOs. The work of Philippine LSOs, known there as AlternativeLaw Groups (ALGs), provides a good example of this approach.

3.6. Leveraging Resources

LSOs are very effective in leveraging other resources toeither provide legal assistance to poor people or create comprehen-sive solutions to problems. The following sections describe severaltypes of typical collaborative efforts.

3.6.1. Law School Programs

LSOs can expand their resources by working with lawschools to use students to represent clients, do research, and conductinvestigations. This can be done by taking on individual law studentsas interns, by creating formal clinical programs under the auspices of



Box 3.3 FROM MANY ROADS TO JUSTICEMcClymont and Golub, (Ford Foundation, 2000) Chapter 6

Alternative law groups (ALGs) mainly seek social, economic, andenvironmental progress for disadvantaged populations. ALGs address suchissues as illegal logging, violence against women, agrarian reform, housing forthe urban poor, and indigenous people's rights. Most ALGs are headed by attor-neys, and all include lawyers on their staffs. They have contributed to scores ofpost-Marcos legal reforms while also addressing an enduring Philippino prob-lem-the implementation of laws on the ground. They typically work in partner-ship with other nongovernmental organizations and with disadvantaged com-munities. Sometimes they play leading roles; more often, they play supportingones.

ALGs are organizations that promote Philippino development byenhancing popular participation in lawmaking, policy development, and othergovernment actions. They are staffed mainly by lawyers, law students, otherdevelopment professionals, or paralegals (laypersons to whom an ALG pro-vides basic legal training). ALGs are relatively small; even the largest, Saligan,has fewer than twenty attorneys. Most are based in Manila, though some haveaffiliated offices and lawyers elsewhere in the country. At the time of this writ-ing, the ALG network included twenty-one separate organizations.

Much ALG work is collaborative. Partners include low-income com-munities and individuals, other NGOs, and grass-roots associations (which inthe Philippines and this chapter are referred to as people's organizations, orPOs). ALGs depart from private practice and traditional legal aid by seeingclients as partners in development, and seeking to empower them to developtheir own legal and political strategies. Their activities embrace both conven-tional and unorthodox legal work. They may litigate; appear before quasi-judi-cial proceedings, such as labor and agrarian reform tribunals; negotiate withcorporate leaders regarding environmental and labor issues; and provide legalassistance and guidance regarding strikes and protest activities. They may alsosecure government services for partners; organize communities; train parale-gals; pursue efforts to affect jurisprudence; conduct research; produce scholar-ly articles and publications; advise advocacy groups; and work on legal andregulatory reform.

the LSO, or by collaborating with existing law school clinical pro-grams. Using individual law students is almost always a benefit tothe LSO because the student is brought in as an assistant to do workthat the staff would otherwise have to do. Clinical programs presentmore issues, because they are established to teach student skills. TheLSO must make a judgment as to whether it is worth devoting timeto activities beyond those which directly benefit clients. However, anadvantage of working with law schools and students is that it can helpbuild the next generation of legal service lawyers.

3.6.2. Pro Bono Programs

While many private attorneys do unpaid work for poorclients, there are serious limitations to what they can do on an indi-vidual basis. Often they are not familiar with the issues faced by poorpeople. They may be willing to take certain cases, but they do nothave the time to screen potential clients to find the right case. Goingto court for a poor client may be compatible with their busy sched-ules, but doing an investigation may demand resources that are notavailable.

In many places, NGOs have been established for the explicitpurpose of mobilizing private attorney volunteer efforts. Theseorganizations screen cases, find the right case for the right volunteerlawyer, offer training and support, and sometimes provide supple-mental resources to enable the lawyer to handle the case properly.While such organizations would not be considered LSOs as that termis being used in this handbook, they are part of the larger LSO com-munity and often work in close collaboration with LSOs. In addition,many LSOs serve as voluntary lawyer support programs themselves.

3.6.3. Development/Service Organizations

LSOs often form partnerships with other types of develop-ment and/or service organizations, or function as a component of alarger service organization. Some of the most effective collabora-tions have been between LSOs and health centers for the purpose ofserving women who are victims of domestic violence. LSOs also linkwith development NGOs that organize women, farmers, urban poor,fishing communities, or other disadvantaged populations aroundproblems of common concern, or problems that otherwise help the


disadvantaged to improve their incomes and other circumstances. Insuch situations, LSOs provide a crucial component that enables thesepopulations to use the law to their poverty-alleviating benefit.


4. Putting It All Together - Developing a Strategic Plan

LSOs seek to have maximum impact with their limitedresources. While most are established to provide services directly topoor people, they can never, no matter how large they are, serve allthe people in need. In order to make best use of the skills andresources they have, they must develop a strategic plan. There areseveral dimensions to the strategic planning process. Decisions mustbe made about what subject areas will be covered, what populationsto serve, and what services to offer. These are external decisions;that is, what will the organization do? Having made those, the LSOmust decide how to organize itself. Where will it be located? If it islarge enough, will it have branch offices or one central location? Willit do outreach? Will there be paralegals on staff or just lawyers?Again, if large enough, will staff be organized according to special-ties or will everyone be a generalist? What will the process be foraccepting cases? How will staff be hired, trained, supervised andevaluated? These are all operational decisions. Finally, how willthey go about their advocacy? What mix of services will they pro-vide and how will they accomplish their clients' objectives? Each ofthese issues will be discussed separately.

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4.1. Deciding What Work To Do

The overall scope of work for an LSO is decided when thefounders determine the mission of the organization. Some LSOshave broad missions to serve the legal needs of the poor. Othersfocus specifically on the needs of defined groups: women, youth, theelderly, farmers, garment workers, displaced persons, prisoners, orcultural, ethnic or linguistic minorities. Still others define their workby subject: immigration, environment, employment, consumer, hous-ing, etc. Some concentrate on particular issues: political and civilrights, for example. Finally, some have missions which emphasize aparticular type of service: running advice clinics in rural areas or han-dling appeals to international human rights tribunals.

Regardless of how specific they are, mission statements areonly the start of the process for deciding what an LSO actually does.They must decide who is eligible to receive their services. Whilesome LSOs charge fees on a sliding scale based on the ability to pay,most do not. Instead, they adopt financial eligibility criteria that areusually linked to some definition of poverty. Even for organizationsthat focus on particular groups or issues, deciding on eligibility crite-ria helps define only the general character of the organization; it doesnot determine what work is done. The latter requires clear decisionsabout what kind of cases to take and what services to offer.

Many LSOs with a general mission to serve poor people startoff by taking whatever cases "come through the door." The rationaleis that the community will "vote with its feet." The organizations’priorities are set by the demands made on it. This approach has legit-imacy but also serious limitations. It has legitimacy because it startswith an individual’s own sense of his or her problems. Any processfor setting priorities must include some method for poor people to saywhat they want. However, setting priorities mostly based on requestsfor services skews them in some significant ways. First of all, theonly people who get to "vote" are those who have some sense thattheir rights have been violated and who have the capacity to make itto the LSO to request services. Thus, the most aware and resource-ful people have their cases taken while those who struggle with dis-abilities, fear, a lack of resources or other debilitating issues, cannotget to the LSO. Second, there is a strong tendency to deal with urgentcrises rather than underlying long term problems. Third, it does not


give much weight to the judgments of the LSO staff as to where theycan have the most impact.

The most effective methods for deciding what work an LSOwill do are those that are viewed as perpetuating an ongoing andactive dialog with the communities being served. Ideally an LSOshould have a governing board that includes people who can speakfor the community and also represent the legal community. The staff,to the extent possible, should have ties to the community. (This is onestrong reason for including paralegals as part of the LSO. See follow-ing section.) The LSO needs to have visibility among the people it isseeking to serve. With all this as background, an LSO can thendevelop a priority setting process to make the necessary judgmentsabout the type of work it will do.

Any priority setting process should have a more formal sidein which relatively long term decisions are made and a more informalside in which adjustments are made to respond to shifting needs. Inthe formal part, the LSO must inform the community of the range ofpossible choices and provide some opportunity for views to beexpressed. The LSO must then evaluate the information it receives,make clear decisions, and publicize the results. In the informal part,the LSO must regularly review the requests for service, reach out topeople who may not be in a position to seek services, evaluate theimpact of the work already being done, consult with other organiza-tions and groups, and shift its priorities accordingly.

The priority process needs to deal with the substance of thework - housing, land, employment, inheritance, family violence, andso on - as well as the type of services offered, such as legal awarenesstraining, advice clinics, individual representation, group representa-tion, and the range of systemic advocacy techniques described in sec-tion 4.5. Decisions about what work to do cannot be made in isola-tion from the other elements of the strategic planning process, dis-cussed in the following two sections.

4.2. Structuring the Organization to Achieve the Mission

LSOs are often founded by a small group of lawyers who arecommitted to the ideals of social justice. In many cases, they mustdepend on volunteers to provide services. Even at this embryonicstage, there are decisions to be made about how the organization will


go about its work. Will the LSO work out of an office in the poorestarea of the community or will it be with other lawyers near the court-house? Will it form a partnership with some other organization oroperate independently? What appears to be a fairly innocuous deci-sion has serious strategic implications. Locating an office in a poorcommunity can lay the groundwork for a trusting relationshipbetween an LSO and community leaders. On the other hand, beingnear the courthouse may enable the lawyers to do more cases andestablish credibility with clients. There is no right choice for all sit-uations, and the choice made should reflect the greatest need facingthe LSO in order to establish itself with its client community anddeliver adequate services to them.

4.2.1. Staff

As an LSO grows, one of the most important organizationalissues concerns staff. An LSO can use paid staff to supervise volun-teers or have the staff provide direct services. Within limited budgets,a small number of experienced lawyers, or a larger number of newlawyers with perhaps a more expansive view of the law as a vehiclefor change, can be hired. Depending on relations with the establishedbar, LSOs may also want to create a program providing modest com-pensation for private attorneys to provide legal services to the poor.

Many LSOs have paralegal workers on their staff or providesome form of support and training to community paralegals or organ-izations made up of paralegals. Depending on their level of trainingand skill and the legal rules that apply, paralegals can provide a widerange of services. In some countries, paralegals can represent clientsin administrative tribunals. They provide legal advice to clients, con-duct investigations, serve as mediators and negotiators, and providelegal awareness training.

Because there are often no formal training or licensingrequirements for paralegals, the pool of people available to performthese functions is much larger than that for attorney jobs at LSOs.Paralegals often come from the communities being served by anLSO, which means they speak the language, and understand the pol-itics, customs, religious traditions and economics, making it mucheasier for the LSO to connect with the community.


4.2.2. Case Acceptance Procedures

Even the largest LSOs can only begin to scratch the surfaceof need, which means that hard choices must be made about whichcases to take. Various systems have been devised for choosing cases.As discussed earlier, the initial choices are dictated by decisionsabout the mission of the organization and further determined by thesubstantive priorities adopted by the LSO.

Once an LSO moves from a first-come-first-serve system toa priority system, there is the ongoing challenge of actually applyingthe priorities. Unlike first-come-first-serve, where you just take thenext case that comes through the door, applying priorities requiresgathering information and making choices. One challenge is to avoidspending so much time deciding which cases to take that you signif-icantly diminish your capacity to help people.

Several factors are usually considered in the case acceptanceprocess. Does the case fit within the priorities? How serious is theproblem for the particular person. Could the person solve the prob-lem with limited advice or will it only be solved if the LSO takes thecase? Will providing legal assistance actually make a difference?How much time will the case take and is that amount of time justifiedconsidering the seriousness of the problem? Finally, will taking thiscase help accomplish systemic changes that benefit people in additionto the person being directly represented?

This final factor provides the link between the routine casework of an LSO and its larger mission of serving entire communities.The most effective LSOs seek to do all their work in a strategic way.That means taking the individual cases that are most likely to helpaccomplish systemic change. For example, seeking protection ordersfor women who are victims of domestic violence in a court that issympathetic can establish a practice that shows the way for courtsthat are less sympathetic. Sometimes change is accomplished byundertaking a steady series of a particular type of case to demonstratethe depth of a problem. There must be strategic advocacy plans (seebelow) for individual case work as well as other forms of advocacy.With those plans in place, an LSO can provide itself with clearerguidance as it goes about the difficult task of choosing among themany people in desperate need of assistance.


4.2.3. Internal Structure

Most LSOs, even some very small ones, specialize to somedegree, with, for example, some lawyers handling domestic violencecases and others working on housing disputes. That sort of specializa-tion exists in many law firms, but LSOs face other structural issues thatare more directly linked to their mission. The longest standing debatewithin the legal services community has been how to do both "servicework" and "impact work".5 Because LSOs typically have a mission topromote broad changes, at least some of their work involves systemicadvocacy of the type described in Section 4.5. The basic question isshould this work be done by a specialized group or "reform" unit with-in the LSO or should it be part of the fabric of everyone's work?

There is no general agreement on this issue. Obviously manysmall organizations have little choice, but once an LSO gets beyonda very modest size, the issue arises. While the debate is important,there is widespread agreement on some underlying principles. Firstand foremost is the principle that any systemic reform work mustarise out of the actual needs of poor people. Top down, theoreticalreform does not work. Second, reform must be structured so it canbe implemented on the ground. The statute books are littered withwell-intended efforts that just did not work because no-one enforcedthe law or it just was not practical.

The challenges for LSOs are to connect their advocacy to realproblems and to come up with solutions that can be applied in prac-tice. This requires active, ongoing links between the service work,where LSOs learn what the real problems are, and reform, wherechange occurs, and back to service work, where change is implement-ed. The risk with having separate reform units is that they will not besufficiently connected to life in poor communities to choose the rightissues and develop effective solutions. The risk in having responsi-bility for reform work spread throughout the LSO is that it will notget done because the pressure of responding to individual demands isso overwhelming.


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5 Many different terms have been used in this debate. Service work, as used here,refers to the routine, day-to-day case work done by the LSO. Impact work refers tothe major systemic advocacy. As discussed in Sections 3 and 4, the distinctionsbetween the two types of work are often blurred, and should be.

There is no right answer to this question. The importantthing is to come up with a structure that provides the necessary timeand expertise to do the work, protects the reform work from beingoverwhelmed by the urgent service/case work, and creates sufficientlinks between poor people and the advocacy being done on theirbehalf. This works best when there is proper development and super-vision of advocacy efforts. (See next section)

4.3. Advocacy Planning

Advocacy planning takes place at both an organizationallevel and at a case or project level. While many LSOs do not havehighly formal planning processes, most give considerable thought towhat they are trying to accomplish, what strategies to follow, andhow to use their resources to accomplish their clients' objectives.

Ideally, all work done by LSOs should be done in a way thatfurthers some clear substantive purpose that goes beyond simply pro-viding as many services to as many people as possible. The goals areset through the priority setting process. They may be to enable fam-ilies displaced by conflict to return to their homes or to enable womento obtain protection from domestic violence or to get juvenilesreleased from adult jails. Whatever the goals, most effective LSOsgo through some periodic process of planning their work.

Once an LSO sets its goals, it needs to identify reasonableobjectives for making progress toward achieving the goals. Forexample, the goal may be to protect women from harm and the objec-tive may be getting the courts to adopt a system for issuing orders ofprotection. These objectives need to be clear enough so that strategiescan be developed and progress measured. Next, there must be a real-istic assessment of the resources available to work toward a particu-lar goal and an estimate of the amount of time and resources it willtake to achieve the goal. It makes no sense to list prison reform as agoal, if only one person can spend 20% of her time working on it.The assessment of resources also includes determining whether thestaff has the skills and expertise needed to work on particular issues.These issues are all internal considerations. Finally, the LSO mustlook outside itself to determine what is possible.


The planning process must include some assessment of otherresources available to solve a problem. To what extent will theclients, either individuals, a group, or both, play an active role inworking on the problem? If the client is a well organized, experi-enced community group prepared to spend a lot of time working onan issue, the situation is far different from helping juveniles locked ina prison. Similarly, if the LSO is on its own, that is one thing; if it ispart of a coalition or network firmly committed to working on anissue, that is quite a different situation.

The LSO also needs to be realistic about the strength of theopposition to whatever they are trying to accomplish. Challenges todeeply entrenched cultural practices (backed by strong religiousorganizations and the state) require substantially more effort thanadvocacy, especially when trying to enact laws that express the willof a strong social movement or broad coalition.

Finally, there must be consideration of the remedies availableto solve the problem. In some countries, the courts are independentand powerful, and they grant remedies in public interest litigation,while in many others, the courts have none of those characteristics.Legislatures may be independent and effective or totally in the gripof a ruling elite.

Having made a general assessment of the situation, an LSOneeds to produce concrete advocacy plans for particular projects. Aproject can be a specific case, such as public interest litigation chal-lenging a government practice of evicting slum dwellers withoutnotice and without providing alternative housing. It can also be acommunity education program to teach women their rights under aninheritance law. As discussed above, a project can also be a series ofindividual cases to change some practices by the courts, such as therefusal to award sufficient maintenance payments to women upondivorce.

Strategic planning for a project follows that same process asthe planning for overall organizational work. The project needs tohave a clear goal. Internal and external resources need to be identi-fied. The opposition needs to be assessed. A strategy must be devel-oped and the means for measuring progress must be determined.

The most effective LSOs perform both organizational advo-cacy planning and case or project advocacy planning in a fairly


structured way. Some have annual "retreats." Some have fairly for-mal internal review processes before projects are undertaken.Whatever the system, it must be taken seriously in order to make thebest use of limited resources.


5. Leadership and Management of LSOs

LSOs are both not-for-profit law firms for poor people andpublic service organizations that have obligations to the communityat large. In their capacity as lawyers providing services to clients,they have the customary obligations of all lawyers: to provide zeal-ous, high-quality representation to the people whose cases they haveaccepted. As service organizations, they have an obligation to extendtheir reach to as far as possible by doing their work in a way thatempowers poor people and promotes lasting systemic change. Inorder to play these dual roles effectively, LSOs must have systems inplace to ensure that quality standards are met, that staff are properlytrained and supervised, and that progress is being made towardachieving organizational goals.6

5.1. Standards of Practice

Poor people are entitled to high quality legal representation,which creates an obligation for LSOs to maintain the highest stan-dards of practice. On one level, this is a fairly straightforward mat-ter: LSOs must conform to accepted professional norms. In most

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6 Much has been written about LSO management. The website for the Equal JusticeNetwork in the United States provides a good starting point for obtaining referencematerial. www.equaljustice.org

countries, these norms are contained in codes of ethics or similarrequirements which apply to all licensed lawyers. While stated inmany different ways, they generally require that lawyers have theknowledge and skills necessary to handle a matter and that they bethorough and well prepared. This is simply the starting point for anLSO that aspires to provide quality services.

While the degree of formality in practice standards variesconsiderably depending on the size and age of the LSO, the mosteffective ones follow some core principles in representing theirclients. The essence of these standards is that LSOs respect theirclients’ dignity and autonomy. It is up to the clients to decide whatis to be done, based on proper factual investigations and legal advice.The LSO lawyer or paralegal then formulates a strategy and worksdiligently and competently to achieve the desired result, while at thesame time keeping the client informed and consulting about criticaldecisions.

The type of practice standards just discussed are usually castin terms of the individual representation work done by LSOs, butthey apply with equal force to group work and all other forms oflegal work. Loyalty to clients, skill and zealous advocacy are thehallmarks of LSO work at its best.

5.2. Training, Supervision and Evaluation

In order to achieve high standards in their work, LSOs musthave systems for training, supervising and evaluating staff and volun-teers. As with everything else about LSO operations, the degree offormality of these systems depends on the resources, size, and expe-rience of the organization. The best LSOs, whether small or large,recognize that they have a duty to their clients and to the communi-ties they serve to take the time needed to develop their skills andknowledge and to monitor their own performance.

There is no single best approach to these issues, although cer-tain methods have been developed that have proven fairly effective.They start with the recognition that formal legal training in mostcountries does not really prepare anyone to be a good lawyer. Theskills must be learned on the job. New lawyers must learn how tointerview, investigate, formulate strategies, and advocate for their


clients. Formal training programs are a luxury very few LSOs canafford, but there are other ways to learn, including seeking out men-tors among senior lawyers who are committed to social justice.

Supervision and evaluation systems are less an issue ofresources and more a question of time commitment. The pressure ofwork makes it a challenge to carefully monitor the work being doneby LSO lawyers and paralegals. Yet experienced LSOs have invari-ably concluded that careful scrutiny of their work is vital to achiev-ing significant results for poor people. As with training, there is nosingle best way to run a supervision system, although experience hasshown that a regular review of case files followed by constructive cri-tiques can make a great difference in the quality of the work pro-duced.

5.3. Impact Assessment

In order to be effective, LSOs must devise systems forassessing the impact of their work. This is especially challenging formany reasons. Much of their work involves educating and advisingpeople about their rights so they can act on their own behalf. There issimply no quick, inexpensive way for LSOs to find out whether theiradvice really worked. Furthermore, the benefit of advice is notalways just finding a solution to a particular problem. With properlegal advice, people are better able to plan their lives and makeimportant decisions, even if things are not changed much in the shortrun. For example, women who are educated about their right to befree from violence at home may gain the confidence to act independ-ently in other areas of their lives. While LSOs may not be able to eas-ily determine all the benefits of their advice work, it is important thatthey make some effort. Some LSOs use client satisfaction surveys.Others regularly solicit opinions from key groups in the communitieswhere they work. Whatever method chosen, the essential point is thatLSOs must continually strive to make their education and adviceservices responsive to the needs of the people they are serving.

It is much easier for LSOs to determine the impact of casesthey take on and to see them through to the end, whether they are sim-ple cases for individuals, or complex matters for groups lasting years.The major challenge is to set up systems for gathering and analyzingthe information that is available to them. This takes time and effort.


Almost all LSOs are under constant pressure to take new cases, so theeasiest course is to simply close a case when it is done and move onto the next one, not taking the time to assess the accomplishments inthe case being closed. The most effective systems involve reviewingfiles to determine what was achieved for the client and whether thework was done properly. That information must in turn be used tohelp set priorities (see above) and improve staff performance throughsupervision and training (see above).

LSOs face a much harder task in trying to assess the overallimpact of their work. As just discussed, it is relatively easy to deter-mine what has been accomplished in a particular case, even big cases,but for LSOs that have a goal of enabling poor people to gain morecontrol over their own lives, knowing they have won a case does notcompletely answer the question of whether they are achieving thelarger goal of empowerment. Legal victories do not always immedi-ately translate into significant changes in the daily lives of poor peo-ple. The best way for LSOs to know whether their work is making adifference is to regularly consult with their clients, the people whoseinterests they are representing, and the best way to do that is for LSOsto be deeply involved in the communities where their clients live.They must be willing to ask whether their work is making a differ-ence and must be willing to hear the answers and make changesaccordingly.

As with all the other aspects of LSO operations, dependingon size and resources, impact assessments can be very formal andsystematic or informal and anecdotal, but the long term effectivenessof any LSO depends on conducting these assessments in the best waythey can. Even the smallest LSOs can create some sort of communi-ty advisory group to guide them. Whatever the size of the LSO,impact assessments take planning and organizational discipline.Experience among the most effective LSOs has shown that the effort,however, is worth it.


6. Financing the Provision of Legal Services

Most LSOs in developing and transitional countries dependlargely on foreign donors for financial support. That reality is notlikely to change in the medium term, but creative LSOs around theworld are devising strategies for sustainability that involve domesticgovernment and private funding, combining paid services with publicinterest work, changes in the rules for obtaining attorneys fees whenthey win cases, and a wide variety of other ways to get paid for whatthey do. One of the many problems faced by LSOs is that the inter-national donor community, both government and private, has no clearframework for providing support for legal services for the poor.While funds have been provided under the rubric of rule of law, gov-ernance, and judicial reform among other themes, there are no consis-tent tests for evaluating proposals from LSOs. Furthermore, there isno network among LSOs through which they can exchange informa-tion about the availability of financial support. One goal of this paperis to start a dialogue between donors and LSOs about the criteria fornear term support and mechanisms for long term sustainability.

Many LSOs start through the volunteer efforts of lawyerswho want to make a difference for poor people. Sometimes theselawyers are senior members of the bar, other times they are new grad-uates. As more women have entered the profession, they have found-ed LSOs seeking to use the law to take on issues of discrimination

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and violence against women. Often LSOs are started as part of a larg-er political movement or following a significant change in govern-ment or as a society is rebuilding after a major conflict. Whatever theprecipitating events, LSOs can usually get started with minimalresources and operate for a while with mostly volunteers. However,there are virtually no LSOs that have operated for the long termsolely through volunteers. Even those organizations set up explicitlyto use volunteer lawyers require some level of paid staff in order toactually deliver services.

One issue LSOs must face in seeking funding is whetherthere are other ways to provide legal assistance to the poor, or moredirectly, whether LSOs are necessary at all. There certainly are andshould be other ways to provide legal services. Bar associations andindividual lawyers often provide free or reduced cost services tothose unable to pay. Some bar association programs are well estab-lished and well organized. However, neither bar associations norindividual lawyers are in a position to provide the range of servicesdescribed in Section 3, nor are they able, in a sustained way, to devel-op the type of ongoing relationship with poor communities that leadsto lasting systemic changes. While volunteer programs can be animportant component of an overall system, they are not a substitutefor LSOs. In fact, in those places where there are both bar associa-tion programs and LSOs, the bar programs work much better becauseof the support they receive from LSOs and vice versa.

LSOs seeking to move beyond the use of volunteer staff facea bewildering array of challenges in dealing with the donor commu-nity. The recognition given to LSOs in the World DevelopmentReport 2000/2001 has not yet been integrated into the operations ofdonors in a consistent way. Donors do in fact support LSOs in manycountries, but most decisions appear to be made on an ad hoc basis inthe particular country rather than as part of an overall developmentprogram.

LSOs and donors need to come together to develop a consis-tent approach to determine the eligibility of LSOs for their support,as well as the most effective ways of providing that support.Enabling the poor to have their voices heard and facilitating theireffective participation in the development process have been emerg-ing themes in recent years. As argued throughout this paper, LSOscan provide critical support in these efforts. As a starting point,


donors can educate themselves about the work of LSOs and teachLSOs about how best to work with donors. This, along with morenetworking among LSOs (see below), could lead to clearer guidelinesfor all parties and ultimately more services for poor people.

Regardless of how it is arranged, most LSOs in developingand transitional countries need stable international financial supportfor anywhere from 5 to 10 years just to get themselves established.During that time, they can begin to develop plans for long termdomestic funding, although the more immediate task is to provideservices and demonstrate that they can make a real contribution toimproving conditions in their countries.

At the same time, LSOs are developing and demonstratingtheir own capacity and their ability to make the case for support fromwithin their own countries. The experience of the Bangladesh LegalAid and Services Trust (BLAST) shows the value of gaining credibil-ity with the local bar and then building on that to convince the govern-ment of the value of supporting legal aid for the poor.7 Ultimately,access to justice for all must be seen as a public necessity requiringgovernment support. As BLAST demonstrated, LSOs can show theway.

Even if government support for access to justice programsbecomes available, LSOs need financial support from other sources ifthey are to continue to play the role of independent advocates for thepoor. Since so much of their work involves constructive challengesto government action or inaction, LSOs cannot be truly effective ifthey are totally dependent on the government for funding. Variousideas have been developed to address this issue. LSOs have lobbiedfor changes in attorney's fee rules, to enable LSOs that win cases tocollect fees from their opponents. LSOs have also charged for theprovision of training to government agencies and organizations withmore resources. In addition, some LSOs combine fees for servicework for clients who can afford to pay with free services for poorclients. Sometimes this is done on a sliding scale. Moreover, barassociations have been convinced to add a surcharge to dues pay-ments to be put in a legal assistance fund, while charitable founda-tions have been solicited for funds.


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7 See Malik, Shahdeen, Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust: Activities,Strategy, and Vision, (2003).

LSOs that have managed to gain some stability have recog-nized that raising money is a permanent part of operations. Theyrealize that it takes a substantial amount of time and that there areskills to be learned. Larger LSOs frequently include staff whose pri-mary job is to ensure the financial viability of the organization. Indeveloped countries, many LSOs have established networks to shareinformation and provide training specifically on the issue of raisingmoney. With the increasing ease of communication through e-mailand the Internet, similar exchanges could take place among LSOsaround the world.


7. Next Steps for the LSO Community

LSOs have existed in various forms in many countries for along time, but in the last ten years they have grown substantially innumber and greatly expanded the type of work they do. While someserve clients regardless of income or status, the most common themeis service to the poor and disadvantaged. A wealth of knowledge andskills has been developed, but exchanges between LSOs outside thedeveloped world have only occurred sporadically. The recent work-shop at the World Bank, sponsored by the World Bank Program toDevelop New Practices in Civic Engagement, Empowerment andRespect for Diversity (CEERD), which brought together representa-tives of 8 LSOs from 5 continents, provided a graphic illustration ofthe value of establishing connections. In a three day period, thegroup found common ground on topics that included the mission androle of LSOs, models for providing services, challenges in establish-ing an LSO, leadership and management, financing, strategic advoca-cy, delivery of services, and creating networks, among other topics.Every member of the group came away with new ideas about how todo a better job serving clients back home.

With World Bank support, the group intends to launch aneffort to stay connected and create a much larger network of LSOs.The precise goals of the networking effort will be developed by themembers, but several themes have already emerged. Beyond thebasic need to share information among LSOs, there is a need to make

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the case for the provision of legal services to low income groups.Although it can be stated in many ways, the essential conclusion isthat there can be no real change in the lives of poor people withoutjustice, and that LSOs are an essential part of any effort to achieveequal justice for all.

Many efforts to reform justice systems focus largely on courtsystems and policing systems and seem to make the assumption that,if the institutions are changed, justice will follow. While it is certain-ly the case that there is a need for court reform and police reform, thatis far from enough. Many aspects of poor people's lives are subject tocontrol by various government bureaucracies which are often corruptand arbitrary. Legislative bodies, from municipal councils to parlia-ments, impose laws which exclude or discriminate against the poorand disadvantaged, especially women and children. Regulatoryagencies leave people unprotected against harmful business practices.Access to justice, if it only means opening up the courts, will neverbe enough to address these problems. Courts can play a role, butmuch more work is required and LSOs are well situated to performthat work.

Achieving justice is not simply a matter of adopting andenforcing laws that protect people from harm. Justice requires thatpeople be able to play a meaningful role in the public events thataffect their lives, to be heard in all the forums that matter. People cantake part if they have knowledge and skills and systems are forced toopen up. Again, LSOs have a key role to play in giving people theinformation and tools they need to make themselves heard.

In order for LSOs to achieve their own potential, they mustget the word out about what they are and what they can do. No onedoubts that education and health are absolutely necessary for devel-opment and that schools and health centers are part of the solution.There is growing awareness that justice is necessary for equitabledevelopment, but there is not yet widespread understanding thatLSOs are a significant part of the solution. In order to be advocatesfor the poor, LSOs must also be advocates for themselves. The pro-posal to form a network of LSOs is a step in that direction.


8. Initial Recommendations for Bank and Donor Assistance

Development agencies, including the World Bank, are look-ing for ways to make community-driven development (CDD) moresustainable than has been the case through funding of small invest-ment projects. Interest is shifting to supporting the capacity-buildingof community-based organizations that provide services to poor com-munities and constituencies. One avenue of sustaining CDD anddeveloping poor people's agency is to build the capabilities of CBOsthat help poor people to articulate their interests and to solve prob-lems and exert influence on government, in order to improve publicservices. LSOs that help poor groups, communities and organiza-tions to beat back administrative barriers; advocate for representationin local government decision-making and for public transparency;help poor people's organizations and groups to devise practical solu-tions for problems as they arise; provide poor constituencies witheducation in their legal rights and procedures to protect and exerttheir rights; recommend and advocate for law reforms to improve theequity of rights and services available to poor people; and work innetworks of poor people's organizations, can contribute significantlyto poor people's agency, capabilities, and the sustainability of CDD.

With the above focus in mind, it would be beneficial forCDD lending to include support to strengthen the capacities of LSOsto provide the above types of services to poor people's groups,

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organizations or communities. Such capacity-building support wouldnot be well spent if targeted to LSOs that focus only on individualrepresentation and advice. Support would be more beneficial if tar-geted to LSOs that have a record of group and impact work (and wishto expand it) or have developed a credible plan to shift significantlyto group and impact work and want to learn from LSOs that haveexperience with this type of work.

The priority for LSO support would be to build the organiza-tions’ capacities to expand and deepen their effectiveness in groupand impact work or to develop the capacity (skills, organizationalstructure, network links) to shift heavily into group and impact workand continually improve their impact and effectiveness. Support tocapacity-building is a sustainable investment, whereas support to theoperational costs of service delivery would need to be complementedwith a resource mobilization plan.

Types of support that should be considered include:

llllInternships for senior LSO staff at established LSOs (such as llllLRC South Africa) with long experience in impact work llllinformed by group representation and advocacy.

llllTraining in resource mobilization through established networks llllsuch as the Management Information Exchange in the US.

llllTechnical assistance in developing group and impact work and in llllLSO organization and management to do so (could be intensive llllfirst, then periodic).

llllLeadership training for LSO heads.

llllSharing of experiences through networks and communities of llllpractice, using study visits, workshops, and video-linked lllldiscussions/clinics between LSOs (e.g., using the world-widellllnetwork of Global Development Learning Network centers).


The world Bank

Tel: (202) 477-1234Fax: (202) 477-6391E-mail: [email protected] Wide Web: http://www.worldbank.org/ljr

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