Public Counsel

History and Leadership

Public Counsel was founded as the Beverly Hills Bar Association Law Foundation in 1970 by Beverly Hills Bar Association president and Committee on the Future of the Bar chairman Fred Nicholas. Nicholas formed the pro bono law firm after attending a speech by left-of-center environmentalist activist and future presidential candidate Ralph Nader in 1968. ²

Public Counsel received nonprofit status from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 1971. ¹ In 1975, the Los Angeles County Bar Association joined the Beverly Hills Bar Association to co-sponsor the organization, and it changed its name to Public Counsel. ²

Kristen Jackson has been Public Counsel’s interim president and chief executive officer since November 2023. While at Public Counsel, Jackson led the organization’s Immigrants’ Rights Project and the Audrey Irmas Project for Women and Girls’ Rights. She has advocated supporting asylum seekers with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ³

Activities and Funding

As of January 2024, Public Counsel has more than 140 staff and works with thousands of volunteers to provide free legal services to tens of thousands of people, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations. ²

Public Counsel’s three main objectives are representing immigrants, fostering the critical race theory-influenced concept of economic justice, ⁴ and supporting the legal rights of disadvantaged children. ¹ In support of these objectives, the organization conducts coordinated advocacy and outreach efforts in addition to mobilizing volunteers in support of its policy priorities. ⁵

Public Counsel supports legal activism and aims to align its efforts with grassroots left-of-center legal activism. ⁶ In 2021, Public Counsel spent $13,218,836 on its programs. These expenditures included $2,653,365 on the Immigrants’ Rights Project; $2,524,344 on the Children’s Rights Project; $1,995,107 on the Homelessness Prevention Law Project; $1,810,719 on Community Development Project; $1,633,727 on the Consumer Rights and Economic Project; $1,311,530 on Opportunity Under Law; $718,530 on Audrey Irmas Project for Women and Girls’ Rights; and $571,523 on Center for Veterans Advancement. ⁷

In 2023, Public Counsel’s policy agenda included supporting the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s controversial Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) mandate, opposing a rule that would prevent foreign nationals from claiming asylum and gaining a pathway to citizenship in the United States, and rescinding Trump administration-enacted entry and transit bans in their entirety. ⁸

In 2021, the group filed a lawsuit with IntegrateNYC against New York State and New York City to assert children’s supposed right to a far-left “antiracist education.” ⁹

Public Counsel’s 2024 award dinner will present an honor to former U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). ¹⁰

Funding

Public Counsel receives funding from individual contributions, ¹¹ grants, and program service revenue. ¹² In 2021, the organization reported revenue of $17,516,532 and expenses of $16,405,380. ¹³ In 2020, Public Counsel reported revenue of $22,640,331 and expenses of $15,480,138. ¹³

In January 2024, Public Counsel received a $3 million gift from Yield Giving, which is a project MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, to focus on critical race theory-influenced economic justice and racial justice issues. ¹⁴

In 2022, Public Counsel received $31,250 from the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation. ¹⁵ Public Counsel received $1,147,642 from the left-of-center Vera Institute of Justice (VIJ) ¹⁶ and $374,000 from the left-of-center California Endowment in 2021. ¹⁷ Public Counsel received $225,000 from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation ¹⁸ and $150,000 from the left-of-center Smidt Family Foundation in 2019 ¹⁹ and $1,055,700 from the California Community Foundation in 2017. ²⁰

The organization has also received grants from left-of-center organizations including Liberty Hill Foundation, ²¹ PayPal Charitable Giving Fund, ²² Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust, ²³ Pasadena Community Foundation, ²⁴ Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, ²⁵ Jewish Community Foundation of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, ²⁶ Kirkland and Ellis Foundation, ²⁷ Perkins Coie, ²⁸ Silicon Valley Community Foundation, ²⁹ Borealis Philanthropy, ³⁰ Local Initiatives Support Corporation, ³¹ Hispanics in Philanthropy, ³² NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, ³³ Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, ³⁴ Aspen Community Foundation, and others. ^{35 36 37 38}