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Lawyers for One America (LFOA)


Self Description

November 2006: "MISSION STATEMENT

Our mission is to advocate for and actively promote greater racial and ethnic diversity in the legal profession nationwide, so that our law schools, judicial systems and lawyers more accurately reflect the communities they serve. To better serve our diverse communities, we also provide civil pro bono legal services to underserved communities in Northern California so that disadvantaged individuals and micro-businesses may gain economic self-sufficiency to combat community deterioration.

HISTORY

In the summer of 1999, President Clinton summoned hundreds of the United States leading attorneys, Democrats, Republicans and Independents, to the White House. He did so in the tradition of President Kennedy, who in the summer of 1963 had asked more than 200 prominent lawyers to the White House, seeking their support in the fight against segregation. In his address thirty-six years later, which became known as “A New Call to Action,” President Clinton asked the legal profession’s assistance again, this time to fight discrimination and revitalize America’s poorest communities. President Clinton proposed that American lawyers fight poverty and discrimination by increasing pro bono legal services to households with no access to a lawyer, helping inner-city businesses and entrepreneurs, and aiding and mentoring minority law students.

The President’s Call to Action was the catalyst for Lawyers For One America. Teveia Rose Barnes serves as the founding Executive Director and spearheads the collaboration of lawyers, law firms, corporations, bar associations and public interest organizations from around the nation to head the New Call to Action. As recommended in Bar None: Report to the President of the United States on the Status of People of Color and Pro Bono Services in the Legal Profession (2000), Ms. Barnes incorporated Lawyers For One America as a nonprofit public benefit 501(c) (3) tax exempt corporation to advocate for and actively promote greater racial and ethnic diversity in the legal profession, so that this nation’s law schools, judicial systems and lawyers more accurately reflect the communities they serve. To better serve our diverse communities, LFOA provides civil pro bono legal services so that disadvantaged individuals, micro-businesses and nonprofit organizations may gain economic self-sufficiency to combat community deterioration. LFOA’s mission is implemented through the Lawyers For One America Diversity and Pro Bono Law Center."

http://www.lfoa.org/mission/index.htm

Third-Party Descriptions

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Director/Trustee/Overseer (past or present) Eric H. Holder Jr., Esq. Person Nov 1, 2006

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