History

The Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago has its roots in the 1960's War on Poverty initiated by President Lyndon Johnson. For the first time starting in 1965, Congress made federal money available for free legal services to the poor, and in 1965 and 1966 federal grants in Chicago were made to one organization to support a neighborhood-based delivery structure for legal services to the poor, and to another organization to support lawyers engaged in "law reform", including class action lawsuits and representation of groups of the poor. Within a decade, both of these grants were combined and awarded to the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago.

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From its beginning, LAF was committed to expanding its services to reach vulnerable groups in Chicago, and year after year, LAF sought and secured funding for new initiatives. In 2000, LAF expanded its service areas to include the suburbs of Cook County, by taking on the programs of the Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation. We then changed our name to Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago.

During the past 40 years, LAF has made its mark on justice for the poor in Cook County.  We have defended, expanded, and protected the federal and state constitutional and statutory rights of the poor. We have exposed the failings of every agency and department of federal, state, and local government whose actions have adversely impacted on the poor.  We have prodded and, when necessary, sued these agencies to reform their policies and operations to comply with all of the federal and state laws that govern their actions.

We have spent 40 years protecting the legal rights of the most vulnerable in our society, including battered women, people with disabilities , public housing residents, applicants for and recipients of subsistence benefits and Medicaid, immigrants, children, the elderly, low-paid workers, people with HIV-AIDS, and nursing home residents.