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40 Harbinger 1 (2015-2016)

handle is hein.journals/harbg40 and id is 1 raw text is: LEVERAGING CIVIL LEGAL SERVICES: USING ECONOMIC RESEARCH AND SOCIAL IMPACT BONDS TO CLOSE THE JUSTICE GAP BEN NOTTERMAN* In order to address the dearth of available legal services for indigent communities, we should put ideology to the side and focus instead on the verifiable economic effects of legal aid. These effects can be leveraged to secure funding from private sector investors using innovative investment platforms called social impact bonds. INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................1 I. FISCAL SAVINGS AS A PATH TO BROAD POLITICAL SUPPORT ..............................2 A. Traditional Arguments for Civil Legal Services have Failed to Secure A dequate P olitical Supp ort............................................................................. 3 B. The Way Forward: Civil Legal Services As Effective Fiscal Policy..............3 II. SOCIAL IMPACT BONDS AND PRIVATE SECTOR FUNDING ...................................5 A. How SIBs Work ..............................................................................................5 B. How SIBs Could Fund Civil Legal Services ..................................................7 CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................10 INTRODUCTION Since attorney Reginald Heber Smith introduced the concept of access to justice nearly one hundred years ago, political resistance to funding of civil legal services has been continuous and unrelenting.' Debates about civil legal services expose fundamental disagreements about both the proper role of government and society's obligation to care for those in need. The arguments of both supporters and opponents of civil legal services lean heavily on constitutional and ideological principles. Proponents argue that equal access to legal resources is both a moral imperative and a fundamental right implicit in the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. To opponents, civil legal services are an emblem of government waste and inefficiency, a misguided effort that breeds dependence on government programing. There has been little in the way of progress or compromise. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court's decision in Turner v. Rogers has Ben Notterman is a recent graduate of the New York University School of Law, having received his J.D. in 2014. While in school he found a passion in criminal procedure and criminal justice reform, leading him to workfor the Brennan Center and the Center for Death Penalty Litigation. He believes that an interdisciplinary approach to the law, drawing on social sciences and empirical studies, can lead us to more rational public policy. Mr. Notterman is currently in private practice in commercial litigation in New York. 1I EARL JOHNSON, TO ESTABLISH JUSTICE FOR ALL, at 1X-XIII (2013). 1

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