6/21/10 - Trust President Named to The Task Force to Expand Access to Civil Legal Services in New York

New York State Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman named Lorie Slutsky, president of The Trust, to a task force charged with spearheading a court-led effort to get adequate State funding for the representation of low-income New Yorkers in civil cases. Ms. Slutsky joins 27 civil legal services leaders in an important effort to ensure access to justice for poor people.

Judge Lippman in a June 9th statement charged the task force to come up with permanent funding mechanisms to support "affordable representation" for the state's low-income residents. An adequate level of state funding, he said, is indispensable to enable the courts to carry out their "constitutional mission" to ensure "justice for all."

Task force members include judges, law firm partners, union officials, heads of legal services groups, and managers of corporate legal departments. Serving as ex officio

members are Justice Fern Fisher, the director of the courts' Access to Justice Program, John Sampson, the chairman of the state Senate Judiciary Committee, and Helene E. Weinstein, chairman of the state Assembly Judiciary Committee.

Read the New York Law Journal piece on the appointments. >>