Contributions Celebrate Alaska Legal Services Corporation's 40th Anniversary

Guess & Rudd, CIRI Offer Challenge Grants to Support Legal Services for Low-Income Alaskans

The Anchorage and Fairbanks law firm of Guess & Rudd P.C. is celebrating Alaska Legal Services Corporation’s (ALSC) 40th anniversary by renewing the contribution challenge it made last year to Alaska law firms to support the non-profit legal services provider. ANCSA Regional Corporation CIRI has issued a separate $5,000 challenge to each of the other eleven Native Alaskan Regional Corporations to support ALSC. Both challenges will benefit ALSC through its Robert Hickerson Partners in Justice Campaign. 

Guess & Rudd P.C. has pledged to donate $10,000 to the campaign if sixteen other Alaska law firms or members of the legal community will each make a $5,000 donation or pledge by Dec. 31, 2006. Last year, ten challenge matches were donated, resulting in a total of more than $110,000.  

Similarly, CIRI has issued a challenge to all Native Alaskan Regional Corporation to donate $5,000 each before the end of the year.  

“CIRI understands the challenges faced by ALSC when serving our Alaska Native communities,” said Margaret Brown, CIRI president and CEO. “We have issued this challenge because we are acutely aware of the obstacles confronting low-income Alaskans faced with civil legal problems.” 

“We are both honored and grateful that CIRI and Guess & Rudd are supporting ALSC’s mission with these contribution challenges,” said Andy Harrington, ALSC executive director. “Every staff attorney who has ever worked for ALSC has at some points felt overwhelmed by the extent of the need for legal aid.  It means a lot to them to know that their efforts have this support from both one of Alaska’s largest corporations and one of its most prestigious law firms.”  

Alaska Legal Services Corporation is a private, non-profit law firm that provides free civil legal assistance to low-income Alaskans. ALSC stands for the principle that Alaskans’ ability to achieve justice in our civil legal system should not be a function of wealth. Its staffers work to prevent unjust evictions of Alaska families, help with adoptions, represent domestic violence victims, assist seniors in obtaining necessary medical coverage, protect family incomes and rectify consumer rip-offs. 

ALSC receives about 40% of its funding from the Legal Services Corporation, but also relies on other sources including private contributions through the Robert Hickerson Partners in Justice Campaign. The late Robert Hickerson devoted much of his career to ensuring equal access to the civil justice system for all Alaskans, serving ALSC initially as chief counsel, and later as executive director from 1984 until his untimely death from cancer in 2001. Under Hickerson’s leadership, ALSC provided traditional legal services related to domestic relations, governmental benefits and tenants' rights. It also has provided representation on issues particularly important to rural and village Alaska. 

The deadline for meeting the challenges is December 31, 2006, with payment due by June 30, 2007.  Learn more by visiting ALSC's campaign website at www.partnersinjustice.org.