Our Leadership

A message from the Campaign Leadership Council Chair

Good work takes time. AT your fingertips, you can click around through a celebration of the many successes achieved through legal aid in our community. Several of the stories featured on this site, however, were years in the making.

• 603 Legal Aid Pro Bono volunteer, Roger Phillips, spent seven years helping an elderly woman fight a forged power of attorney that threatened her family’s home.
• NH Legal Assistance (NHLA) paralegal Megan Dillon worked throughout the COVID pandemic to help a group of clients, all women with disabilities, fight to fix a broken system that denied them vital medical insurance.
• Since 2017, legal aid advocates have been strengthening connections with New Hampshire’s Nepali refugees to ensure vulnerable families with limited English proficiency receive equal protections under the law.
• After decades on the bench watching pro se litigants struggle, the Honorable Edward “Ned” Gordon dedicated his recent term in the state legislature to a pioneering project that expands the ranks of legal service providers by empowering paralegals when and where they are needed most.
• And then there’s Jack. “It was a race against time,” said his NHLA attorney, Stephanie Bray. Jack, a retired Marine, was driven to despair when he faced tax deeding on his home after losing income during the pandemic. Two days before he was to be  locked out, Stephanie secured federal aid that saved Jack’s home.
  I hope these stories fill you with pride.

Our donors make them possible. When you give to the NH Campaign for Legal Services, you provide critical support that gives staff the time it takes to do this work.

The Campaign pursues a vital mission: to level the playing field of civil justice by supporting the work of NHLA and 603 Legal Aid. Community support for legal aid remains vital to the success of that mission.

Shockingly, there is less than one legal aid attorney for every 10,000 residents living with low income in New Hampshire. For all the battles they fight, the hardest moments for many staff at NHLA and 603 Legal Aid are not in a courtroom. Instead, they are  during their weekly case review meetings when staff agonize  over cases just like these; cases they know can be won, but which they cannot accept because they simply do not have the time and resources. By supporting the Campaign, you are helping NHLA and 603 Legal Aid reach more people, in more parts of the state. Your support enables legal aid staff to provide advice, guidance and critical referrals. Just as importantly, your contribution gives assurance to people that someone is listening; that help  is available; that yes, they have legal rights; and yes, we will protect them. Together, we can make this the time when equal access to justice becomes a reality for everyone in New Hampshire. On behalf of my colleagues on the Campaign’s Leadership  Council, thank you for being part of this work with us.

Megan Hilson, Chair, Campaign Leadership Council
Shareholder, Sheehan Phinney