Your Gift at Work

Your gift supports the training of public interest lawyers who represent low- and moderate-income clients. With your gift, MCLE helps lower the barriers to access to the legal system for the most vulnerable members of our society by providing scholarships to MCLE training programs to the lawyers who serve them, including:

• Private practitioners who accept cases from pro bono organizations around the state.
• Legal aid staff attorneys and paralegals in agencies throughout the Commonwealth.
• Other deserving lawyers who certify financial need.
  (To apply for a partial tuition scholarship to a specific program on a needs basis, email your request identifying the program and certifying your financial need to MCLE's Scholarship Committee at scholarships@mcle.org or fax it to (617) 482-9498.)

MCLE's scholarship program is a vital component of MCLE's mission to educate Massachusetts lawyers and advance the quality of legal services provided to the public. Each year, MCLE awards over 1,300 scholarships to these lawyers who, without financial assistance, would not be able to attend MCLE programs. Legal aid and pro bono organizations around the state rely on MCLE scholarships to recruit, train and retain their staff attorneys and volunteers and to free up their organizations' funds for direct client services—an increasing need given their severe budget and staff cuts in recent years due to significant decreases in state and federal funding.

In order to sustain and grow the scholarship program, MCLE is building a scholarship endowment of $5 million to endow 2,000 scholarships annually.

Annual Legal Services Conference

In response to the legal services community's request, MCLE has developed an annual conference devoted to legal aid and pro bono attorneys to provide a unique educational forum to discuss the changing face of poverty and the implications for legal services providers, from day-to-day practice issues to broader policy initiatives. Along with the support of benefactors within the legal community, MCLE's scholarship program helps to keep the cost of attending this conference low.