Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)

Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)

1200 18th Street NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-906-8000
Fax: 202-842-2885

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Founded in 1968 by four lawyers at the large corporate law firm of Arnold and Porter (including an individual who had "served both in the Solicitor General's Office and as an early architect of the [Office of Economic Opportunity] Legal Services Program" (Council, 1976, p. 62), and former Justice Arthur Goldberg), the Center for Law and Social Policy remains one of the most important and influential public interest law firms. Other early supporters of CLASP include Ralph Nader and Charles Halpem. As the council notes, Nader "was involved in early discussions about the design and establishment of CLASP... and his organization was an early client" (1976, p. 63). Halpem, a former director of CLASP, was the first Dean of Queens Law School, an institution dedicated to preparing students for careers in the public interest. "CLASP, in fact, has led the effort to preserve professional representation for the poor." CLASP's significance and influence on the development of public interest law stems from a number of factors. It was the "first of the general purpose, process- oriented law centers under foundation subsidy" (Council, 1976, p. 62-63) and thus served as the model for a new variety of law, dedicated to representing a generalized, rather than specialized, version of the public interest (for a full account of its early years, see Halpem and Cunningham, 1971).

CLASP "organized the first law school extern program in a 'public interest' organization to receive full credit for a semester of clinical work." In fact, within four years of its creation, CLASP had used 78 student interns participating in clinical programs "operated in cooperation with the law schools of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Yale, Stanford, and the University of California at Los Angeles" (Ford Foundation, 1973, p. 20). As many of the other entries in this book indicate, a great number of public interest law firms have followed CLASP's approach, using student interns for educational training and additional staff.

Finally, the center was one of the first organizations to establish successful specialized projects. In fact, two of its early programs, the National Women's Law Center* and the Mental Health Law Project,* were so successful that they went on to become independent entities.

Today, with few exceptions, the center's goals and activities remain unchanged. Its current purposes, for example, reflect its initial aims: to "(1) preserve an effective legal services program; (2) assure access to quality health care for poor, minorities, and disabled; (3) protect and enhance rights of disabled; (4) increase economic security for low-income families headed by women." Moreover, the center continues to create and maintain specialized litigating and research projects (including the Project on Poverty Research of Legal Services and Health Care Financing Project) and to use about nine student interns per year.

One major change for CLASP is its choice of strategies-it no longer carries out its goals primarily through litigation. Of its $360,000 a year operating budget, derived primarily from foundations (50 percent), private individual contributions (20 percent), and investments (25 percent), it allocates only 25 percent to litigation. CLASP spends the remainder on developing strategies for use by local advocates (25 percent), administrative and legislative representation (40 percent), and education and publication (10 percent).

Nevertheless, its three staff attorneys (of a total of eight employees) continue to bring about major legal changes through litigation. Over the past years, CLASP attorneys have helped to establish "the right of treatment for the mentally ill and mentally retarded," "the obligation of federal civil rights agencies to enforce discrimination laws in education and in health care," and "the right to hospital care for thousands of needy persons."

In establishing such precedents, center attorneys directly represent clients and file amicus curiae briefs. When they sponsor litigation, they prefer to do so at the higher levels of the judicial process, noting that "we are specialists and use our limited resources on major issues at [the] appellate level." Currently, the center litigates cases that involve major issues, affect large numbers of people, or are brought by an organization that they represent in these areas: disability rights, the Legal Services Corporation Act, child support, and health care access. In bringing such cases to court, CLASP often cooperates with like-minded organizations, such as the National Legal Aid and Defenders Association,* the National Women's Law Center,* and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense Fund.

The center also participates as an amicus curiae, filing about five briefs per year in appellate courts for three reasons: (1) the case raises an important issue, (2) its point of view is not reflected in the main brief, and (3) organizations it represents request its participation to "protect their rights."

When it participates as an amicus curiae, the center usually cooperates with other organizations. In Cramer v. Virginia Commonwealth University (1978), in which a white male professor charged reverse discrimination, CLASP's Women's Right Project filed a brief for the Federation of Organizations for Professional Women. In Bowen v. Kendrick (1987), the center participated as amicus curiae with several other liberal groups expressing its concern for the problems associated with teenage pregnancy. And, in Bowen v. Gilliard (1987), the center as amicus argued that Congress never intended to deprive "children of child support income if they live with needy siblings."

In addition to litigation, CLASP performs a wide array of other services: it provides technical assistance, "conducts workshops, prepares manuals, and develops and maintains a network of advocates." It also "analyzes" and researches "major new developments affecting poor people" in areas including "the feminization of poverty" and health care. Currently, in fact, CLASP is "designing a health care financing plan that assures universal access to health care and offers a realistic alternative to plans currently under discussion."

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Council for Public Interest Law (1976). Balancing the Scales of Justice.

Ford Foundation (1973). The Public Interest Law Firm: New Voices for New Constituencies.

Halpem, C. R., and J. M. Cunningham (1971). "Reflections on the New Public Interest Law: Theory and Practice at the Center for Law and Social Policy," Georgetown Law Journal59:1095-1121.