Seasoned Wisdom: Executive Directors Insights

Explore how legal aid executive directors lead their organizations with a deep commitment to justice, guided by insights from serving low-income communities throughout their careers.

Overview

Legal aid executive directors lead their organizations with a deep commitment to justice, guided by insights from serving low-income communities throughout their careers. During LSC’s 50th Anniversary Celebration in April 2024, LSC’s Office of Training and Technical Assistance recorded a panel entitled “The Evolution of Legal Aid: A Fireside Chat with Experienced Executive Directors.” This panel captured these insights to share with other legal aid leaders.

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Moderator

Vicki Schultz

Executive Director, Maryland Legal Aid

34 years dedicated to legal aid

Question 1: What is the most pressing, unsolved issue facing legal organizations?

Funding resources. When I joined [NLSLA] in 1978 and several years after, we didn't know whether would exist year to year. Funding was so precarious. Fast forward to today: I believe LSC-funded legal services are here to stay, and they change lives and transform communities. The real question is if we’ll be funded adequately to meet the needs of our clients today. We've diversified our funding source, yet maintaining the financial resources to recruit and retain talent remains a pressing problem for legal aid organizations across the country.

Yvonne Mariajimenez

President & CEO, Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County (46 years dedicated to legal aid)

Access to technology has really come to the forefront. We operate a statewide hotline that complements our 21 offices around the state and operates as an entry point for other legal aid programs in Washington as well. For so long, the hotline worked in a
certain way. We had a call center and screeners, and cases were transferred to us on the hotline. The [COVID-19] pandemic was a good sort of pivot and reference point. The [technology] resources have not kept up [and] the access issues have really come to the forefront."

César Torres

Executive Director, Northwest Justice Project (39 years dedicated to legal aid)

Question 2: How did you adapt your organization to economic and political changes over time?

I’ve been in this job under how many [state and federal] administrations and how that pendulum has swung. With the support of my phenomenal board of directors, we have treated our staff equitably so that they can service the clients in our region. It took a lot of communication to get staff to understand that we needed to have net assets to rely on. The one year when our state budget wasn’t passed and we had no state money coming in … our offices stayed open. Our staff were paid. We were still able serve clients.

Rhodia Thomas

Executive Director, MidPenn Legal Services (34 years dedicated to legal aid)

To me, the most important responses we can give to economic and political uncertainty are to build relationships along with funding sources that are not receptive to us at this time, but maybe eventually. In 1981, LSC was the Virginia Legal Aid Society’s only funding source. In 1981, federal cuts decimated programs across the country. That was the last time VLAS laid off advocates because I worked heavily to diversify our funding sources. We now have more than 50 ongoing funding sources. All of those required relationships.

David Neumeyer

Executive Director, Virginia Legal Aid Society (45 years dedicated to legal aid)

Question 3: What advice would you pass on to future legal aid leaders?

People don’t care what you know until they know that you care. That’s true of clients, staff, relationships, opposing counsel, and the government. If you act deeply professionally and respectfully, that goes a long way. Lastly, I thought my job was planning, budgeting, board relationships, hiring, disciplining on occasion, and fundraising. That’s not really my job as director. Those are simply tasks. My one job was to try to model the behavior I expect of others: honesty, transparency, integrity, fairness, inclusiveness, and equality.”

Jon Asher

Executive Director Emeritus, Colorado Legal Services (52 years dedicated to legal aid)

We hired a coach to work with the executive team … It’s been incredibly valuable to me. One of the things I’ve learned is I need to understand myself, my motivations, my skills, and my weaknesses so that I can do a better job and leverage the people around me. [The coach’s] point was, you are accountable if that person doesn’t do what they need to do. You’re the CEO. Let them do it. Empower them to do it and take it off your shoulders because it’s too much to carry all of that responsibility.

Colleen Cotter

Executive Director, The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland (34 years dedicated to legal aid)

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Explore how legal aid executive directors lead their organizations with a deep commitment to justice, guided by insights from serving low-income communities throughout their careers.

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