The Volunteer Attorney Support (VAS) pro bono program at Alaska Legal Services Corporation (ALSC) is celebrating 20 years of service this fall.  Since 1983, thousands of low-income Alaskans have received free civil legal services through the generosity of members of the Alaska Bar Association and other professionals.

The program’s mission has been and remains to offer high quality legal services to those that otherwise would not have access to the legal system.  VAS is currently housed in the Anchorage ALSC office and offers services to qualifying persons throughout Alaska. Since its inception, the pro bono program has steadily grown, and currently over 900 attorneys and other professionals have become members of the pro bono panel.  Just in the last six years, these lawyers, working in offices ranging from solo practices to large firms, have donated more than 40,000 hours to assist indigent clients.

In celebration of 20 years of service, Erick Cordero, the program’s coordinator, has been contacting long-term volunteers to express appreciation for their commitment to equal access to justice and to encourage continued support for this important work. 

“The much-maligned legal profession doesn't get enough credit for the tremendous amount of time volunteered by private and public attorneys to represent Alaska's poor.  These aren't headline-grabbing cases, they're just individual legal problems, routine and everyday to the attorneys handling them, but they mean the world to the clients who find themselves actually having our system's promise of equal access to justice fulfilled, thanks to the selfless voluntarism of these pro bono attorneys” said ALSC’s Executive Director, Andrew R. Harrington. 

Alaska Legal Services Corporation is a non-profit organization established in 1966 and the largest statewide provider of free legal services in Alaska.  For additional information, please visit their website at www.alsc-law.org, or contact Erick Cordero at 907-222-4521.