Support for Leadership of Legal Services NYC

We write as the four most recent former board chairs of Legal Services NYC, to express our support and appreciation for the current leadership of the organization during this difficult time.

The board, led by the current chair, Joseph Genova of Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy, with the able assistance of the management staff, led by Raun Rasmussen, is pursuing difficult but we believe necessary steps to provide fairly for both the staff and the clients of Legal Services. The combination of benefits that is far more expensive than are found in comparable organizations, and a draconian cutback in federal funding, mandate difficult decisions. Instead of cutting back further on the number of staff members available to assist those in need, the leadership has sought to moderate some of the benefits now given to members of the staff, while maintaining those benefits at or above the level of comparable organizations. The growing number of poor people in this city in need of legal services makes that the right direction at this time.