“It is the daily; it is the small; it is the cumulative injuries of little people that we are here to protect....If we are able to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: THOU SHALT NOT RATION JUSTICE.”

—Justice Learned Hand

"Equal justice under law is not merely a caption on the facade of the Supreme Court building, it is perhaps the most inspiring ideal of our society. It is one of the ends for which our entire legal system exists...it is fundamental that justice should be the same, in substance and availability, without regard to economic status."
--Lewis Powell, Jr., U.S. Supreme Court Justice



"Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope."
--Robert Kennedy



"It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson



"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, . . . neither persons nor property will be safe."
--Frederick Douglass



"If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us."
--Francis Bacon



"The failure to invest in civil justice is directly related to the increase in criminal disorder. The more people feel there is injustice the more it becomes part of their psyche."
--Wilhelm Joseph, Executive Director, Maryland Legal Aid



"The only thing less popular than a poor person these days is a poor person with a lawyer."
--Jon Asher, Director, Colorado Legal Services



"Without equal access to the law, the system not only robs the poor of their only protection, but it places it in the hands of their oppressors the most powerful and ruthless weapon ever created."
--Reginald Heber Smith, Justice and the Poor, 1919



"There can be no equal justice where the kind of trial a man gets depends on the amount of money he has."
--Hugo Black, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, 1964



"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
--Martin Luther King, Jr.



"You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give."
--Winston Churchill

WHAT WILL YOUR LEGACY BE?

By including Maryland Legal Aid in your estate plans, you can continue your leadership in making our world a fairer, safer place--even beyond your own lifetime. The will you write today is your opportunity to provide for your loved ones as well as your means to further your vision for a more just world.

TOP 10 THINGS YOU CAN DO TODAY TO LEAVE A LEGACY OF JUSTICE

1. Prepare a will. Fewer than 40 percent of those who die have one. Without a will, you have no control over what happens to your assets upon your death.

2. Leave a specific dollar amount, asset or percentage of your will or trust to Legal Aid. Currently, fewer than six percent of American households include charitable gifts in an estate plan. Imagine the positive impact on our community if everyone made a bequest to Legal Aid!

3. Consider various assets for your charitable gift. They include—but are not limited to—stocks, bonds, CDs, real estate, art and jewelry. Such gifts may even provide tax savings.

4. Name Legal Aid as the beneficiary of your pension plan or IRA. If left to an individual, the funds may be subject to income and estate taxes.

5. Name Legal Aid as the beneficiary or owner of an existing life insurance policy.

6. Purchase a new life insurance policy naming Legal Aid as the owner or beneficiary.

7. Encourage family and friends to leave gifts to Legal Aid in their wills.

8. Consider establishing a life income gift that will provide current income to you and/or a loved one, while providing significant tax benefits.

9. Ask your financial advisor to encourage charitable giving as part of their counsel to clients.

10. Remember loved ones through long-lasting memorial gifts.

PLANNING FOR THE NEXT 100 YEARS

In 2011, Legal Aid is celebrating 100 years of providing critical civil legal help to Maryland's most underprivileged citizens. Please consider making a contribution to Legal Aid's endowment. We need your help to continue our success into the next 100 years. A robust endowment helps stabilize funding and will also enable us to respond to special situations of underserved populations and to fund projects as the need arises.

WAYS TO FUND OUR ENDOWMENT

Cash/Checks/Money Orders
Checks and money orders can be made out to: Legal Aid Bureau, Inc., 500 E. Lexington Street, Baltimore, MD 21202. You can also contribute online (at the top of this page on the right) or contact Asha Sampat for a pledge card at (410) 951-7719 or asampat@mdlab.org.

Stock
The IRS allows you one of its most significant tax breaks for gifts of appreciated securities. Stock transfers can be made through Legal Aid's account at Charles Schwab. If you wish to make a stock transfer gift to Legal Aid, contact Faye Gibbs, Director of Resource Development (410) 951-7706 or email fgibbs@mdlab.org).

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