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    Public Interest Membership

    Supporting your commitment to public interest work is our mission.

    public interest membership

    For public interest lawyers serving the common good, the American Bar Association is your home for building a public interest legal practice and championing the issues important to you.

    Your Mission is Our Mission

    While some only hope for change, ABA members make it happen. Learn how ABA membership has helped one public interest practitioner make a difference.

    What Members Have to Say

    Member Testimonial

    Keeping Connected to National Legal Developments and Trends

    As a lawyer in a small rural State, ABA membership has been essential in keeping me connected to national legal developments and trends. Reviewing the ABA Journal Weekly Newsletter, monitoring and using its CLE offerings, and reading the in-depth monthly Bar Journal articles are all essential resources for my work. As the Director of a statewide legal aid program, I value the ABA’s ongoing creativity and commitment to build understanding of and support for our work through its committees, membership activities, and related initiatives. On both counts, an investment in ABA membership makes good sense for legal aid attorneys.

    Nan Heald

    Executive Director, Pine Tree Legal Assistance

    Member Testimonial

    Allowed Me to Take a Leadership Role

    As a trial lawyer, I have always done my small part to provide pro bono services to the indigent and underserved and to ensure that every litigant has a voice in our courts. Being a member of the ABA connects me with colleagues around the country who are as passionate and committed as I am about our obligations as a profession to the public and the rule of law, and allows me to take a leadership role in the broader access to justice movement.

    Henry C. Su

    Partner, Constantine Cannon LLP

    Member Testimonial

    Building Part of a Community with Conscience

    ABA membership benefits legal aid attorneys in so many ways. SCLAID helps focus ABA support on our issues and develops policies and research that support access to justice. The Resource Center for ATJ Initiatives is an invaluable clearinghouse of ATJ ideas and best practices to help guide our own work. And being in the ABA means we are learning from and guiding the whole profession at a national level - building part of a community with conscience.

    Lillian Moy

    Executive Director, Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York

    commitment to providing life-changing pro bono legal services to service members

    Commitment to Providing Life-Changing Legal Services to Service Members

    As a veteran and Co-Vice Chair of Holland & Knight’s Veterans Group, I sincerely appreciate the ABA’s commitment to providing life-changing pro bono legal services to service members and their families worldwide through the ABA Military Pro Bono Project, which is an integral component of Holland & Knight’s military and veteran pro bono initiatives. As an ABA member, and also an ABA Standing Committee on Legal Assistance for Military Personnel (LAMP) member, I am grateful to be involved with developing policies that advocate to protect the legal rights, and to expand free and affordable legal assistance, for service members and veterans.

    Nicholas Hasenfus

    Associate, Holland & Knight LLP

    Member Testimonial

    Vital to My Role as a Civil Legal Aid Attorney

    Membership in the ABA has been vital to my role as a civil legal aid attorney. The resources provided through the ABA Center for Pro Bono have allowed me to better serve low-income clients, and access to relevant CLE courses has help me understand emerging legal issues.

    Scott Wylie

    Executive Director, Volunteer Lawyer Program of Southwestern Indiana

    Member Testimonial

    Enhanced My Skills As A Lawyer

    I have been a member of the ABA for just short of 50 years and believe it has served to make me a far better and more skilled lawyer and has, in no small measure, allowed me to work in legal services throughout my professional life. I believe, and always have, that the ABA serves to enhance my skills as a lawyer and protects and defends, so effectively, the legal services work to which I have chosen to devote my professional life. Without the ABA, my skills would be less, LSC might very well not exist, and legal services and the rule of law would be greatly diminished. I and all in legal services owe a great deal to the ABA and can express our appreciation in no better way than in joining, supporting, and actively engaging in the important work of the ABA.

    Jon Asher

    Executive Director, Colorado Legal Services

    Member Testimonial

    Helps Us Fight for a More Just World

    The ABA has always been a strident supporter of legal aid as well as the movement for equal access to justice. As a career legal aid attorney, I benefit enormously from ABA membership--there is an enormous amount of relevant programming, CLEs and other resources that help me do my job better, and my membership helps me connect with and join forces with like-minded colleagues as we fight for a more just world.

    Nikole Nelson

    Executive Director, Alaska Legal Services Corporation

    Member Testimonial

    Supporting Professional Development

    The ABA Center for Pro Bono was my first call when I became the executive director of the Indiana Pro Bono Commission. My association with the ABA has been such an important part of my professional life and has made me a better lawyer in so many ways.

    Monica A. Fennell

    Pro Bono Manager, Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

    The Value of Public Interest Membership

    The ABA offers a special, reduced membership rate for public interest lawyers. Lawyers in the first four years of practice pay $75, and those with more experience pay only $150. Join the ABA and take advantage of exclusive membership benefits, including:

    Stay Up to Date

    Get content tailored to your interests delivered to you and e-newsletters to keep you up-to-date on the latest legal news and important case developments

    CONNECT WITH LIKE-MINDED ADVOCATES

    Receive discounted registration to national conferences where you can obtain CLE and network with colleagues from across the country.

    BUILD YOUR NETWORKS AND EXPERTISE

    Access referral resources and networks to better equip you to support your clients, and obtain free technical assistance on best practices and model programs.

    BECOME A LEADER

    Take advantage of opportunities to be appointed serve on ABA entities that drive policy and program advancement.

    PROMOTE CHANGE

    Join our annual ABA Day on Capitol Hill to meet members of Congress and advocate for public interest policies, and engage with our Grassroots Advocacy Team year-round to promote issues you care about.

    FOCUS ON YOUR WELLNESS

    Explore the resources, tools, and information that we have available to support your health and professional and personal well-being, and to maintain an effective work-life balance.

    Exclusive Membership Benefits

    The American Bar Association is your home for building a public interest legal practice and championing the issues important to you.

    ABA Entities

    The American Bar Association works to improve the profession and advance the rule of law by promoting pro bono and public service and ensuring meaningful access to justice for all persons. These goals are carried out by the ABA through a number of its entities, including:

    Division for Legal Services

    Division for Legal Services

    The Division for Legal Services seeks to support and expand access to justice for all persons through the provision of, and appropriate funding for, legal assistance, counsel, and representation in the nation’s civil, criminal, and military justice systems. The Division actively promotes the quality and accessibility of these legal services through its entities’ programs, initiatives, and policy-making, by supporting civil legal aid, indigent defense, and military attorneys in their practices and professional development, as well as the institutions and organizations that work to ensure access to justice for all.
    Standing Committee on Pro Bono & Public Interest and the Center for Pro Bono

    Standing Committee on Pro Bono & Public Interest and the Center for Pro Bono

    The Committee works to ensure access to justice through the expansion and enhancement of the delivery of legal and other law-related services to the underserved through volunteer efforts of legal professionals nationwide. We foster the development of pro bono programs and activities throughout the legal community; analyze the scope and function of pro bono programs; and propose and review policy that affects lawyers’ ability to provide pro bono legal services. Along with policy initiatives, we actively engage in outreach to every segment of the legal profession. We are the primary sponsor of the annual Pro Bono Publico Awards, co-sponsor the annual Equal Justice Conference with the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, and provide technical assistance and planning advice to a wide range of constituents in the field.
    Center for Public Interest Law

    Center for Public Interest Law

    The Center puts the ABA motto of “Defending Liberty, Pursuing Justice” into action through advocacy, education, and initiatives implemented across the country, at the border, and around the world. With staff and members leading efforts related to children and families, death penalty representation, domestic and gender-based violence, elder law, election law, gun violence, homelessness and poverty, immigration, veterans, and pro bono projects, the Center is your gateway to resources to support and amplify your efforts as well as to connect with other lawyers who share your passion to improve systems and change lives.

    ABA Public Interest Entities