5/15/06

Corporate and legal leaders will gather at Detroit's Renaissance Club on Tuesday, May 23 for a Southeast Michigan Corporate Luncheon in support of the Access to Justice (ATJ) Campaign, one of the State Bar of Michigan's justice initiatives. Led by E. Christopher Johnson of General Motors, who chairs the ATJ Campaign's Southeast Michigan Corporate Committee, the event will celebrate the campaign's success, thank donors, and encourage future support from the corporate community.

The ATJ Campaign raises money to support services that help low-income residents across the state gain access to the civil legal system each year, including assistance for 43 nonprofit programs eligible to receive designated donations. A list of nonprofit programs to which donors can earmark their gifts can be found at www.atjfund.org. Donors may also make an unrestricted operations or endowment gift to address needs throughout the state. ATJ Fund contributions are received, managed, and distributed by the Michigan State Bar Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) charitable organization.

Last year, 1,748 donors gave nearly $1 million in cash and pledges to the ATJ Fund. Pledges, gifts, and contributions currently total more than $6 million since the program's start in 1998. With the number of people in Michigan living below the poverty line growing and the government funds for civil legal aid shrinking, the need for support from private sources is critical. According to recent estimates, there is one attorney for every 319 people in the state, but just one legal aid lawyer for every 6,119 Michigan residents who are poor.