Audit of the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation Overview of Audited Entity

This section describes the makeup and responsibilities of the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation

Overview

The Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation (MLAC), created in 1983 under Chapter 221A of the Massachusetts General Laws, oversees and funds civil legal aid programs in Massachusetts. According to its website, MLAC “is the largest source for civil legal aid funding in the Commonwealth.” MLAC is governed by an 11-member board of directors, 10 of whom are appointed by the Supreme Judicial Court. The 11th member is the Chief Justice for Administration and Management of the Trial Court or that Justice’s designee.

MLAC’s mission is to ensure that residents of Massachusetts whose incomes are in the lowest income bracket have legal services available to them for civil matters. MLAC collaborates with the general public, the legal services community, the Massachusetts bar, and the state Legislature.

MLAC receives funding from the state budget and the Interest on Lawyers Trust Account (IOLTA)¹ as well as various other sources. In fiscal year 2020, MLAC received a state appropriation of $24 million, IOLTA funds of over $7.3 million, and grants and other revenue totaling over $5.7 million, and MLAC awarded over $32.6 million in grants. In fiscal year 2021, MLAC received a state appropriation of $29 million, IOLTA funds of over $6.5 million, and grants and other revenue totaling over $13.7 million, and MLAC awarded over $44.4 million in grants.

General Support Grant

MLAC distributes funds to legal aid organizations (LAOs) through its General Support Grant. LAOs offer legal advice and representation for civil legal matters to Massachusetts residents whose incomes are in the lowest income bracket. MLAC awards grant money to local and statewide LAOs. To be eligible for legal services, a family of four would have to have an annual income at or below 125% of the federal poverty level;²125% of the federal poverty level was $32,750 in fiscal year 2020 and $33,125 in fiscal year 2021. According to Section 9 of Chapter 221A of the General Laws, MLAC must award at least 80% of General Support Grant funds to local LAOs, which only serve clients in a specific county, city, or town in Massachusetts, and up to 20% can be distributed to statewide LAOs. MLAC also provides funding for the Disability Benefits Project, the Domestic Violence Legal Assistance Project, and the Medicare Advocacy Project, which are special projects run by LAO staff members.

General Support and Special Project Funding

	Source	Fiscal Year 2020	Fiscal Year 2021
Local LAOs
	De Novo Center for Justice	$         153,664	$       178,720
	Greater Boston Legal Services	6,842,192	7,828,718
	Metro West Legal Services	965,868	1,047,024
	Community Legal Aid	5,945,356	6,675,802
	South Costal Counties Legal Services	3,643,972	4,065,119
	Northeast Legal Aid	3,254,504	3,681,055
	Children’s Law Center of Massachusetts	203,516	235,787
Subtotal*		$   21,009,072	$ 23,712,224
Statewide LAOs
	Center for Law and Education	$       206,420	$       238,764
	Center for Public Representation	386,984	441,184
	Children’s Law Center of Massachusetts	43,348	50,140
	Disability Law Center	595,096	659,781
	Mass Advocates for Children	163,072	188,623
	Prisoners Legal Services	268,346	310,391
	Massachusetts Law Reform	2,559,904	2,948,020
	National Consumer Law Center	206,420	238,764
	Political Asylum Immigration Representation	61,128	70,708
	Veterans Legal Services	122,258	141,414
Subtotal		$    4,612,976	$    5,287,789
Total		$ 25,622,048	$  29,000,013

*    Any discrepancies in totals are due to rounding.

LAO Peer Reviews

MLAC uses a peer review model to assess the performance of local and statewide LAOs. MLAC’s policy is to select several of its 16 grantees each year on a rotating basis. As MLAC told us, the peer review model consists of MLAC contracting with attorneys outside of Massachusetts to serve as independent consultants. These are individuals who have work experience with LAOs and backgrounds in organizational evaluations. They assess each organization’s operations against a framework of LAO performance standards developed by MLAC (based on the American Bar Association’s standards) that focus on the following areas: Strategic and Collaborative Planning Partnership, Development and Utilization of Resources, Client Access, Quality Assurance, Effective Management and Administration, and Governance.

Office of the Comptroller of the Commonwealth’s Pandemic Response Guidance

On September 30, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Commonwealth provided guidance in response to the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic for state agencies. The guidance helped state agencies that were experiencing significant changes identify their goals, objectives, and risks associated with COVID-19. Objectives included telework; return-to-office plans; a risk assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on department operations; changes to the business process; safety protocols for employees and visitors; and tracking of COVID-19–related awards and expenditures, which are tracked separately from other federal, state, and local expenditures.

 

1.    The Supreme Judicial Court established IOLTA as a program to assist in delivering legal services to clients whose incomes are in the lowest income bracket. This program requires law firms and individual lawyers to hold client deposits in an interest-bearing account from which the interested earned is used to support the program.

2.    The federal poverty guidelines are listed on the United States Department of Health and Human Services’ website.

Date published:	June 16, 2023