OneJustice
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
At least 8 million low-income Californians experience between 1 to 3 legal problems each year. These problems create barriers to life necessities, like housing, medical care, food, and freedom from violence. California's system of over 100 nonprofits work hard to provide legal services to those in need — but they can't reach everyone. Insufficient resources mean that around 66 percent of everyone seeking help is turned away. The situation is even worse in rural communities, with few local attorneys and nonprofits to help. The legal services system is stretched too thin, and as a result, millions are suffering — needlessly — from legal problems that are often simple and solvable.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Pro Bono Justice Program
The Pro Bono Justice program brings life-changing help to people in need by transforming the ways in which pro bono attorneys and law students are engaged in the legal aid sector.
The Pro Bono Justice teams works with stakeholders—including legal services nonprofits, law firms, corporate in-house groups, and law schools—to develop and execute innovative pro bono programs that efficiently leverage the skills, time, and enthusiasm of pro bono volunteers for the benefit low-income and otherwise underserved communities.
The PBJ’s Pro Bono Prototyping work includes the Justice Bus Project, the Bay Area Rural Justice Collaborative, IMPACT LA, and Rural Immigrant Connect. For each of these projects, OneJustice has created a highly-innovated model of pro bono engagement and is actively coordinating each of the models (rather than merely sharing the model with others).
Healthy Nonprofits Program
The work of OneJustice’s Healthy Nonprofits Program addresses the need for a coordinated system of highly effective civil legal aid nonprofit organizations. Our work with the staff and board leaders of these organizations – through our Executive Fellowship program, our consulting work with individual organizations, and our national advocacy efforts – aims to build skilled and creative managers and stewards of organizations that maximize staffing and financial resources, bring life-changing legal help to low-income clients, and ultimately, transform the civil legal aid sector.
The Nonprofit Management Resource Center and HNP’s consulting projects are the heart of OneJustice’s work providing training on nonprofit management for legal services nonprofits. We provide a range of training, resources, coaching, and consulting support to both IOLTA-funded and non-IOLTA-funded legal services nonprofits in California, which include webinars on topics like supervision, management, and reading financial statements, hosting a listserv on human resources topics, and connecting organizations with resources and expertise on technical questions. This work aims to improve how legal services organizations in California are run, so that they follow best practices set by leading experts within and outside the nonprofit sector, in order to deliver services more effectively and efficiently to low-income clients in need of civil legal aid.
OneJustice’s Executive Fellowship Program trains legal services leaders in management and leadership skills to expand the capacity of their organizations. This is an intensive 10-month course in nonprofit management. Some of the hallmarks of the program are regular in-person sessions, group work and group intersession "hot seat” calls, and a culminating capstone project applying what Fellows have learned. We’ve already seen the capacity of the Executive Fellowship program to transform leadership and legal services delivery in California – Fellows report increased knowledge, skills, and confidence in their ability to lead legal services nonprofits after completing the program. The Alumni Network has proven to be a strong resource for sharing best practices.
OneJustice coordinates and supports the Project Directors Association (PDA), which consists of the 11 legal services nonprofits in California that receive Legal Services Corporation (LSC) funding. In addition to convening PDA for meetings, OneJustice serves as the statewide communication and advocacy hub for the National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA), and participates in federal advocacy efforts. This work aims to ensure adequate funding for the 11 largest legal services organizations in California, as well as advocating for other policies that support a strong, coordinated system of civil legal aid delivery.
Californians for Legal Aid
Every year, hundreds of thousands of low-income Californians need legal services to stay in their homes, access health care, escape abuse, and provide for basic necessities. Because of inability to pay, many of these residents would go without legal assistance if not for high-quality pro bono legal aid programs funded in part by federal and state dollars.
Changes to the federal budget may completely eliminate federal funds to support legal aid services – a cut of over $40 million for California. If these changes go into effect, thousands of poor Californians will suffer the impact of serious legal problems, all of which are completely solvable with the help of a lawyer.
At OneJustice, we care deeply about maintaining access to high-quality legal assistance for all California residents, regardless of their ability to pay or their geographic location. But we can’t do this alone. We need the help of motivated, dedicated legal justice advocates such as yourself to stress the importance of these programs and maintain pressure on lawmakers.
Californians for Legal Aid maintains two strategies for protecting legal aid services:
Direct Lobbying
OneJustice works hard to send our team to Washington, D.C., to meet with lawmakers and promote the important work of legal aid services groups. Backed by our statewide network of volunteers and concerned citizens, we can make a greater impact and preserve the funding for legal aid services for years to come.
Grassroots Advocacy
Through Californians for Legal Aid, OneJustice maintains a statewide network of people who believe that everyone deserves equal access to quality legal representation. Our advocates receive:
-Occasional policy alerts and press statements when an issue arises
-Calls to action to help preserve funding and access to legal aid programs
-Opportunities to advocate for those whose voices would otherwise go unheard
Where we work
External reviews

Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
OneJustice brings life-changing legal help to those in need by transforming the civil legal aid system. With this transformation, the organization and its network will create equal access to high-quality civil legal aid. For the next three years, our key initiatives include sustaining and expanding quality programming to best transform the system; develop and launch innovative approaches; and strengthen the civil legal aid infrastructure. By working together, we can move the legal aid sector into its next phase of development, reaching its full impact by ending needless suffering for those struggling with legal problems and thereby transforming lives.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
To make this happen, we will focus on succeeding with our Southern California expansion and expanding our reach in underserved communities across the state. We will continue our national work as a thought partner and resource, sharing what we have found works, supporting efforts to change policy and systems at a national level, and identifying effective practices from outside the state, resulting in both the import and export of innovative ideas.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
OneJustice has served for over three decades as the backbone for the civil and social justice legal infrastructure in California. OneJustice's expertise is in its analysis of systems and strategy, and in understanding the most pressing issues and how the system can address them. While individual staff may hold substantive expertise in support of a specific project, as an organization we are systems-level experts on effective legal aid management and delivery.
We are a strategic partner across the spectrum of civil legal aid provision. OneJustice uses its systems expertise to support continuing transformation of the legal aid safety net, making it more effective and cohesive on behalf of clients. We create space and tools that promote innovative thinking; import creative ideas and practices from other sectors; convene thought leaders from across the sector to tackle issues; test, model and incubate new projects and delivery techniques; develop services and partnerships that address the complexity of clients' issues; and train, coach, and support professionals across the sector.
We work side-by-side with legal services organizations to strengthen the success factors and improve the system that connects them with private firms and law schools in order to serve low-income clients.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
To meet the need of trainings, OneJustice with fellow organizations launched the Pro Bono Institute, which produces universal, interactive, and on-demand trainings that will be available to any pro bono attorney, law student, or advocate who would like to volunteer at a legal aid organization. With this new training platform, OneJustice is helping ease local nonprofit organization's work.
OneJustice continues to serve hundreds of Californians through its projects: Justice Bus Project, the Bay Area Justice Collaborative, and IMPACT LA but is still working on prototyping these projects and packaging them for duplication.
Our Healthy Nonprofits program continues to support IOLTA funded organizations and its Executive Fellowship has graduated over 100 Fellows. Its currently developing and expanding its advocacy efforts. In addition, this program assists The Legal Services Funders Network ("LSFN") by providing legal and other content for its meetings, events, and websites and also coordinates statewide meetings for the California Project Directors Association.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
OneJustice
Board of directorsas of 02/22/2022
Ms. Kyuli Oh
Electronic Arts, Inc.
Rebecca Justice Lazurus
Matson, Inc
Term: 2011 - 2020
Judi McManigal
No Affiliation
Rebecca Lazarus
Matson, Inc.
Maureen Alger
Cooley LLP
Ethan Dettmer
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Rahul Kapoor
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
David Lash
O'Melveny & Myers LLP
Robert Nolan
DLA Piper LLP
Matthew Werdegar
Keker Van Nest & Peters LLP
Max Ochoa
Alation, Inc.
Amelia Hansen
Stanford University Graduate School of Business
Emily Kane Miller
Ethos Giving
Ellen LaPointe
Fenway Health
Vanessa Frank
The Law Office of Vanessa Frank
Toby Rothschild
TRJLAW
Ellen Sueda
Ropes & Gray LLP
Tamika Butler
Toole Design
Cindy Panuco
Public Counsel
Ben Adams
PayPal
Christian Abasto
Disability Rights California
Rachel Williams
Morrison & Foerster
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
No data