In 2000, three Bay Area legal services programs, each with its own identity, history, and resources, came together to form Bay Area Legal Aid.

The vision that brought these programs together is simple. They believe the scope and quality of the legal assistance you receive should depend solely on the merits of the case, not on where you live. Thus, they set out to build a program with a regional vision grounded in local communities. They learned what many of us already believed – despite differences among various counties, the legal problems of poor people are substantially similar.

They also believe that the civil justice community in the Bay Area has the resources to build an integrated, comprehensive delivery system capable of addressing the clients’ most pressing needs. BayLegal has more legal service programs and spends more dollars per poor person than any other region in California. They operate in a tremendously supportive environment, including some of the best law schools, the largest and most effective pro bono programs, and the most progressive private bar and law firms in the country.

They are mindful, of course, that as rich as they may be, the resources fall far short of what they need to provide legal assistance to all the people who need it. Yet, they must recognize the responsibility to rationally allocate the resources they do have throughout the region. Bay Area Legal Aid serves clients through regional offices in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties.

They hope that some day, working with the sister legal services programs and other members of the civil justice community, regional boundaries will no longer determine the availability of legal services, nor influence the vision of what they can accomplish together.

Mission and Vision
BayLegal’s mission is to provide meaningful access to the civil justice system through quality legal assistance regardless of a client’s location, language or disability.