On March 24, 2018, a group of Legal Aid attorneys gathered to attend the March for Our Lives. We were joined by a client and her three teenage children. After the March, our client’s thirteen-year-old daughter, Jade, wrote about her experience, and how she is inspired to take action in her community.

Jade’s mother came to Legal Aid for assistance obtaining a Civil Protection Order against her husband, who was showing signs of mental illness and threatening our client and their children. With Legal Aid by her side, she obtained a Civil Protection Order which grants her custody of the children, and orders no visitation for her husband. Read more →

The Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia is pleased to announce that we will be honoring Jahnisa Tate Loadholt with the Klepper Prize for Volunteer Excellence at the 29th Annual Servant of Justice Awards Dinner taking place on April 24th.

Jahnisa is a senior associate with Alston & Bird, and has been handling pro bono cases referred from Legal Aid since she arrived in D.C. in 2015. As Legal Aid board member and Alston & Bird counsel Jon Fee told us: “On her first day in the D.C. office, Jahnisa sought me out and asked for pro bono assignments. And as soon as she completed one, she asked for another.” Read more →

Chinh Le, Legal Aid’s Legal Director for the past seven years, was recognized by the Asian Pacific American Bar Association Educational Fund (AEF) last night with its Community Service Award, which recognizes the work of an organization or individual who has tirelessly served the Asian Pacific American community in the greater Washington, DC area.

“Thank you to AEF and all of you for this honor,” Chinh told the nearly 200 attendees. “I don’t deserve it, but I’ll do what I can to earn it.” Read more →

Recent incidents in Maryland have reminded us just how critical it is to help domestic violence survivors get to safety.

Last week, a Prince George’s County police officer was shot and killed as he stood guard while a domestic violence survivor attempted to flee. The survivor had filed for a protection order just days earlier and was in the process of having the locks changed at her home when her abuser appeared, threatened her, and shot the officer. The abuser had a history of domestic violence; his ex-wife had filed for protection orders against him several times in the past. Read more →

Ten law firm teams once again sizzled in the kitchen at CulinAerie during Legal Aid’s 5th Annual Generous Associates Campaign Cooking Competition. Susan Holt, Co-Founder of CulinAerie, graciously hosted the event and emceed the evening, unveiling this year’s secret ingredient: Cherries! Read more →