Shortly after Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner retired from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in September, he launched a pro bono legal services organization dedicated to helping pro se litigants.

It's now been re-named The Posner Center of Justice for Pro Se's, and it has a bold vision: to provide pro bono representation, but also to focus on assisting pro se litigants behind the scenes to help them to successfully represent themselves.

“Representing oneself in court is often the best way for a pro se to obtain justice,” Posner said in news release. “Unlike judges, juries tend to be impressed by a lone litigant standing up against a gaggle of lawyers.”

The center already has about 80 lawyers and non-lawyer advisors spread across 27 states, and expects eventually to have representatives in all 50 states as well as U.S. territories.

All staff are currently unpaid—though the center says that could change. “But not for Judge Posner, who has announced 'This work is a labor of love and I will not accept even a single penny for my work on behalf of pro se's,'” according to the news release.

Legal stars in academia who have joined the center include law professors Lawrence Lessig (Harvard), Abbe Gluck (Yale), Rebecca Stone (UCLA), Daniel Klerman (USC), James Geiser (University of Michigan), Shon Hopwood (Georgetown), Sandra Aistars (George Mason University), Christopher Ogolla (Savannah Law School), as well as Eric Posner, Alison Siegler, Thomas Miles, Joshua Avratin, David Zarfes, and William Landes (all from the University of Chicago).

“We are just touching the surface, for there are reliably believed to be at least a million pro se's in the United States,” Posner said. “Many of those pro se's, however, don't realize they can obtain legal assistance. Therefore, I will continue to work to get the message out that our organization exists, and then try to assist as many deserving pro se's as possible.”