Nonprofit offers funds to groups assisting legally disadvantaged

The Nevada Law Foundation provides funding statewide to programs that assist legally disadvantaged children and victims of domestic violence.

Executive director Suzan Baucum said she "couldn't even begin to estimate" how many people need free legal aid in Nevada. Most don't know it's available.

Last year, the nonprofit raised $1 million in grants -- 85 percent of which came from interest earned on lawyers' trust accounts, the rest from private fundraising. Among its beneficiaries: Clark County Legal Services, Nevada Legal Services and the Senior Citizens Law Project.

Since it was founded in 1983 by a state Supreme Court ruling, the foundation has funded $5 million for programs statewide.

Among the thousands of beneficiaries of the foundation's funding each year is a woman who, Baucum explains, was nearly choked to death by her drug-addicted husband before agreeing to sign her house over to him. With help from Clark County Legal Services, a program funded by the Nevada Law Foundation, she got the deed nullified and was granted a divorce settlement awarding her one-half interest in the property and back child support.

"Domestic violence is extremely prevalent, and without funding from the Nevada Law Foundation, and the efforts of other organizations, incidents like these would be much more prevalent," Baucum says. "This case is a very typical example of what happens daily."

Baucum, a former Reno attorney who joined the foundation 16 years ago, runs the foundation with a staff of one full-time and one part-time employee, plus volunteers.

"Even with all the attorneys in Nevada taking pro bono cases to help alleviate the need," she said, "there is still a growing need that we're trying to meet every day."

For more information about the Nevada Law Foundation, call 384-1204.