News + Events
Find updates on our programs and services as well as information about our upcoming events.
ELAP welcomes 2 new staff members.
Eastside Legal Assistance Program (ELAP) is pleased to announce the addition of two people to our staff.
Brandy Andersson joins ELAP as our Staff Domestic Violence Attorney. Brandy is a graduate of Gonzaga University Law School, JD, and University of Washington Law School, LLM. She has served in the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in Lewis County, and as City Prosecutor for the Cities of Auburn and Bellevue with special experience handling domestic violence cases. Brandy will be working with Jennie Bigley, ELAP’s program director, to provide brief services to victims and survivors of domestic violence.
Stan Kehl joins ELAP as our Executive Director. Stan is a graduate of the University of Washington College of Engineering, BSChE, the University of Washington Law School, JD, as well as Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry, MA. Stan has over 10 years of experience in the nonprofit and political sectors advancing social justice and human rights causes, including working with Washington Information Network 2-1-1, Religious Coalition for Equality, Seattle Community Court and AmeriCorps.
Also, we want to thank Joan Eads for her service to ELAP as our Interim Executive Director. Joan brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to ELAP during this time of transition and ELAP is grateful for her support. We wish Joan well in her current and future endeavors.
if you have not already met them, we hope you will have an opportunity to meet these new members of our team in the near future.
ELAP recipient of Eastside Community Aid Thrift Shop Grant
Eastside Legal Assistance Program (ELAP) received a grant for $5,000 to support ELAP's legal aid work to low-income survivors of domestic violence. ELAP will use this generous grant from the Eastside Community Aid Thrift Shop to recruit and train additional volunteers to meet the rising demands for legal assistance in King County. Follow this link to view the entire story.
King County Council Restores Funding for ELAP's Domestic Violence Legal Program for 2010!
Through an amendment to the King County 2010 budget, the King County Council has restored funding for domestic violence programs including ELAP’s Domestic Violence Legal Aid Program. During these difficult economic times this decision by the Council recognizes the critical needs of women and children suffering from abuse. Further violence and homelessness will be averted for many victims because of the Council’s decision to restore critical legal aid.
ELAP will be able to continue in 2010 advice clinics for survivors of domestic violence, provide brief services, direct representation, self-help workshops and consultations for obtaining protection orders and addressing custody issues.
ELAP would like to thank the many supporters of legal aid to low-income survivors of domestic violence for giving testimony on the essential nature of ELAP’s services. You made this possible!
ELAP also thanks the King County Council for hearing our pleas to restore this critical and essential funding, at time when it is most needed.
Below is a letter from the Alliance for Equal Justice:
Dear Friends,
We have some good news - the Alliance for Equal Justice legal aid programs that were zeroed out in the King County Executive Budget had their funding nearly fully restored! Eastside Legal Assistance Program, Solid Ground's Family Assistance Program, the Unemployment Law Project, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, and the King County Law Library all received funding at roughly last year's levels. Unfortunately, TeamChild did not see their 25% cut restored, but 75% of their funding was protected.
All in all, this is a positive result for the Alliance and the people we serve. Thousands of families struggling to survive poverty in King County will get legal assistance to protect their basic needs. We appreciate that the County Council recognized the critical services provided by legal aid programs, but we are also cognizant that many other important services (many of which serve our clients) did not have their funding restored.
THANK YOU to all of you who took action on our alerts, testified at the hearings, or wrote letters and made phone calls in support of legal aid funding. We could not have done it without your help!
Sincerely,
Eastside Legal Assistance Program,
Solid Ground's Family Assistance Program,
The Unemployment Law Project,
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project,
TeamChild,
The King County Law Library, and
The Equal Justice Coalition
Program Updates - July, 2009
- Clinics – ELAP held its second day shelter clinic and our second domestic violence survivor’s workshop/clinic.
- A CLE for ELAP volunteer attorneys on landlord/tenant issues too place facilitated by another ELAP volunteer attorney.
- Through Vice-President Judy Jennison, ELAP has recruited and is mentoring 5 new volunteer attorneys whom work at Microsoft.
Click here to view the mid-year "ELAP Facts and Figures 2009".
2008 Annual Report
The 2008 Eastside Legal Assistance Program is currently available for review.
2009 Annual Report
The 2009 Eastside Legal Assistance Program is currently available for review.
Free Legal Consultation Clinics
Eastside Legal Assistance Program, a nonprofit that provides free and low-cost legal services in King County, announced that its volunteer attorneys are offering a free legal consultation clinic at the Kirkland/Northshore Hopelink. The clinics, which are designed to help low-income residents of east King County understand and assess civil legal issues, will take place twice a month.
“They definitely help low income people who have nowhere else to turn and cannot afford an attorney,” said volunteer attorney Paula Miller of the clinics. She said that ELAP holds general advice clinics like this on a regular basis, but that this is the first time that it will do so at the new Northshore/Kirkland Hopelink. According to ELAP’s annual report, in 2009, over 800 people received legal advice through clinics and workshops offered by the nonprofit in the Seattle area.
At the clinic in March, two attorneys will donate a total of four half hour appointments for low-income residents of the area. They will be able to provide advice about all civil legal matters and refer clients to other sources if possible.
Vlick here to get more information or to make an appointment, call Eastside Legal Assistance at (425)747-7274.