Currently, 52 law schools are involved in medical-legal partnerships (MLP) by offering MLP courses to students, providing MLP externships, and running MLP clinics that help address the civil legal needs of patients.
Legal aid agencies provide free civil legal services and representation to low-income individuals and families. These agencies are a mix of federally funded programs, and those that receive state and private funds. Currently, 126 legal aid agencies across the United States operate medical-legal partnerships.
A LSC-funded legal aid agency is one that receives federal funding (from the Legal Services Corporation) to support its work. Of the 126 legal aid agencies that currently operate medical-legal partnerships, 58 of them are LSC-funded legal aid agencies; that’s nearly half of all federally-funded legal aid offices in the country.
A non LSC-funded legal aid agency is one that does not receive any federal funding to support its work. Instead the work of these legal aid offices is supported by state and private funds. Of the 126 legal aid agencies that currently operate medical-legal partnerships, 68 are non LSC-funded agencies.
There are 64 private law firms and corporate legal offices that provide support to medical-legal partnerships by taking complex legal cases and augmenting the capacity of legal aid offices and law school clinics. Many also provide critical research and policy support.
