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AVLF's Mission Statement
The Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation develops and coordinates programs that provide legal representation, education and advocacy for at-risk, low income individuals by tapping the enthusiasm and commitment of volunteer legal professionals to address the unmet civil legal needs in the Atlanta community.
AVLF's Vision Statement
Our five-year vision is that the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation is the leader in leveraging the full power, resources and passion of the legal community so that people in greater Atlanta are not deprived of basic civil legal needs without the benefit of a lawyer.
Thank You for a Terrific Year!
Dear Friends of the Foundation:
Amazingly, we are but days from the end of the year. It has been a very difficult year for so many organizations that serve those in need of free civil legal services, and this note could speak to how the poor and working poor of our community- and those that seek to promote equal access to justice for them- continue to struggle. And the sadness and frustration of so many is an ongoing story that should be told, and in bleak, real terms.
But forgive me, fellow lawyers, if in the middle of the pain and strain I instead recount how well the pro bono programs of AVLF continue to serve those desperate for your and our help. I write of the success, rather than of the distress, because no matter the difficulty the AVLF staff and the Atlanta legal community have not backed down or looked away, so I am able to write from pride and from hope.
Although our funding from traditional grant sources has all but disappeared, we have managed to sustain and in some instances even improved every pro bono program. The Saturday Lawyer Program is revitalized, and in 2011 an average of 240 volunteer attorneys have met with and served an average of 320 clients with an array of housing, consumer and other civil legal concerns. Supporting the Saturday Program, in 2011 the new Dollars for Judgments Program, through which State Bar of Georgia Creditor's Rights Section members collect judgments secured by AVLF clients or their volunteer attorneys, became a reality: we believe that this is the first such project in the country. AVLF's Eviction Defense Program continued to borrow on the talents of volunteer attorneys primarily from King & Spalding, Troutman Sanders, Seyfarth Shaw and Carlton Fields to represent individuals in imminent danger of losing their homes. The value of this program becomes more evident every year, as more Fulton County residents now rent their homes than own them, and as foreclosures continue to overwhelm home owners and their frequently unsuspecting tenants.
![iStock_000013775714Large[1].JPG](http://static.wix.com/media/dac899_e5ba446560bd683067e4b6d58851eda5.jpg_128)
