Legal Aid Recruitment, Retention, And Diversity (2022)

For the ideal of equal access to justice to become a reality, some very practical challenges must be overcome. To provide civil justice to people who cannot afford to pay for legal help, California needs more legal aid lawyers to serve more clients. Fortunately, funding has continued to increase for attorneys interested in public service positions. Now, however, legal aid organizations in California face additional practical challenges to recruit and retain the needed additional lawyers, and to enhance the diversity of their legal staffs.  The California Access to Justice Commission prepared the Legal Aid Recruitment, Retention, and Diversity report in the hope that our recommendations, and the research and analysis that support them, will help relieve the crisis in hiring a diverse workforce of legal aid lawyers and keeping them in their jobs.