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Since our office opened over five decades ago, the demand for assistance from those in need reaching out to Legal Aid Service of Broward County has steadily grown. A tenant faces eviction. A grandmother needs custody of the grandchildren she is raising. A senior receives a foreclosure notice. A child who has survived abuse needs someone to speak for them in court. We answer that call every day, at no cost to the client, because civil legal help should not depend on the size of a family’s bank account.
But something has changed in the past few years, and it is worth talking about because it is reshaping what we believe is possible in Broward County.
And thanks to the support of our grantors and other donors, our capacity to meet the needs in the community has grown rapidly and it is reshaping what we believe is possible in Broward County.
That is a runway and we intend to use it.
With this funding, we have hired more staff, raised salaries to retain the experienced advocates our clients depend on and served thousands more people every year. In 2025 alone, more than 14,000 individuals and their household members received the benefits of our services across legal areas such as housing, homelessness, homelessness prevention, children’s advocacy, consumer law, veterans, immigration, victims of crime and impact litigation. We are also currently awaiting class certification in a case against the private owners of a Ft. Lauderdale property where families have lived in deplorable conditions for more than 20 years. That is the kind of ambitious, systems-level work steady funding makes possible.
Looking ahead, our goal is to keep expanding: to serve more people, in more substantive areas, and to reach parts of our community that have historically fallen through the cracks. When we identify a grant that aligns with a service we want to launch, we apply. When we find a service gap, we look for the funding to fill it. Nothing about grantmaking is guaranteed, and we know we are competing with many worthy Broward County nonprofits for the same dollars, but we are optimistic about the trajectory.
We are also investing in our pro-bono community. More than 1,200 private attorneys already volunteer with us — some taking cases from start to finish, others providing telephone advice through our Tuesday Advice and Counsel Hotline. Growing that pool is one of the most powerful ways we can extend our reach without waiting on the next grant cycle.
Our organization is always passionate about ways to expand access to justice and to serve as many clients in need as possible. To that end, we have launched a new Mobile Legal Project. We recently secured a van retrofitted into a full-scale office to serve underserved areas of Broward County and client groups who face barriers traveling to our office.
And that brings me to why our annual gala matters so much.
Grant funding, by definition, comes with restrictions. Every grant dollar we secure must be used only for the purpose for which it was awarded — even if unmet needs cannot be addressed. The dollars raised at our annual A Night for Justice Gala are different. They are unrestricted and cover the operational costs grants do not. They let us respond quickly when a new client walks in with a problem that does not fit neatly into a service our grants cover for client services. The gala fills these gaps and helps us — along with our generous grantors and donors — fund the future we are trying to build.
The gala is also where we say thank you — to the honorees, judges, elected officials, fellow nonprofits and volunteer attorneys whose partnership makes the entire enterprise work. Those relationships turn into pro-bono volunteers, board members and long-term supporters. They are worth every bit as much as the checks written that night.
Consider this: a study some years ago found that for every $1 furnished to Legal Aid to assist clients, the community receives an economic impact of $7 flowing from this work. Legal help keeps a family in their home. It keeps a child in school. It keeps a working parent on the job. In short, the free legal services Legal Aid delivers offer invaluable assistance to the client and impactful contributions to the entire community.
I hope you will join us on Thursday, October 29 at the Design Center of the Americas in Dania Beach for A Night for Justice. Whether you come as a guest, sponsor, donor or volunteer, you are helping us build the Legal Aid this community is going to need in the years ahead.
To learn more, purchase tickets, or volunteer for pro bono work, please visit browardlegalaid.org.
Debra Koprowski is executive director of Legal Aid Service of Broward County For more information on Legal Aid Service of Broward County, visit BrowardLegalAid.org.