Atlanta Longterm Care Ombudsman

On June 3, 1924, seventeen Atlanta attorneys signed the incorporation papers for a new kind of law firm. With little more than a $600 grant from the Chamber of Commerce, these young lawyers established the Atlanta Legal Aid Society. Their idealistic dream – and the mission of Legal Aid still today – was to ensure that justice be equal for rich and poor. The Atlanta Legal Aid Society would guarantee that justice was not served with a price seventeen attorneys used that $600 to hire a General Counsel for Legal Aid, James Boyd. By September 1, 1927, Legal Aid had handled nearly 1200 cases from the single room it occupied in the downtown courthouse. By the 1950s, Legal Aid employed four full time employees and several support staff. The operating budget would reach $40,000 by the end of the decade and an average of 5,000 cases were opened each year. A growth spurt occurred in the 1960s with the advent of funding from the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. Legal Aid found a permanent home with the purchase of 151 Spring Street in Legal Aid Society now employs over fifty attorneys serving 5 counties and has an annual budget of over $9 million dollars. Nearly 25,000 cases were opened this year. Yet while Legal Aid has grown in size and reach, the heart of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society remains intact. Legal Aid attorneys in 1927 fought for child welfare, fair loan practices, protection of the family, and the mentally disabled. In 2009, Legal aid attorneys still fight battles based in the same principles of equality and fairness under the law for all.