45 Lose Jobs at Legal Aid Center : Cutbacks: The layoffs at the nonprofit foundation--the largest provider of lawyer services to the poor in California--will deprive many of assistance.

In what local lawyers call a devastating blow to access to legal services for the poor, the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles has laid off a third of its 128 employees in response to major anticipated cuts in federal funding.

Thirteen attorneys and 32 other employees have received layoff notices in recent days after the layoffs of 10 employees in June, said Pete Parnell, general counsel to the foundation.

The foundation, which dwarfs other nonprofit legal centers in the area, provides free services to poor people needing legal aid for problems such as tenant-landlord disputes, Social Security and domestic violence. It expects its federal funding to drop to between $4 million and $4.5 million next year from about $7 million this year, Parnell said.

“This is a devastating blow to access to legal services for poor people in Los Angeles,” said Stewart Kwoh, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, whose lawyers sometimes work together with Legal Aid Foundation attorneys. “Where are those poor people going to go?”

The cutbacks at the Legal Aid Foundation are the first in what local lawyers fear may be a wave of reductions in the availability of legal aid nationally. Congress has sharply cut funding to the Legal Services Corp., which funds local legal aid services, and there are proposals to completely eliminate the corporation.

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Cuts in other federal programs, such as those provided under the Older Americans Act and in community development block grants, may also hit a number of Southern California legal aid organizations.

Because of these cuts, “people at the bottom of the economic heap won’t have access to the courthouse,” said David Lash, executive director of Bet Tzedek Legal Services in the Fairfax district, which provides help to the elderly and poor who need legal assistance in fighting evictions or getting medical coverage. “It means homelessness, hunger and lack of medical care.”

Carolyn Jackson, a former Legal Aid Foundation client, credits the organization with saving the South-Central house she lives in with her husband and three children. After the Jacksons were swindled out of their title, Legal Aid attorney Ronald Kaye filed suit the day before they were to be evicted and subsequently won their case.

“If it weren’t for Legal Aid . . . I’d be out on the street now,” said Jackson, who said she couldn’t afford private lawyer fees. “They were a help to us and I’m sad to see they’re getting cut.”

Beverly Edmon, who has severe osteoarthritis and is nearly blind, said that the cuts are “a disaster” for a group of disabled people she is leading in a class-action suit to maintain their Medi-Cal coverage. Staff attorney Elena Ackel, who is taking their case to the U.S. Supreme Court, has been laid off.

“Legal aid is essential, it’s like life and death for people,” Edmon said.

The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles is the largest provider of civil legal services to the poor in California, and helps about 35,000 people a year. Parnell said that although there are other organizations that provide free or low-cost legal services, he is not sure that they will be able to take on all the people who lose access to help at the Legal Aid Foundation.

Lawyers at smaller legal aid centers said that in the past, the foundation’s budget was bigger than those of all the other law centers combined.

Lawyers at those other nonprofit legal centers compared the cutbacks at the Legal Aid Foundation to cutbacks in the county’s health care system. When the largest provider of services cuts back, other providers expect to be flooded with clients, and may have to turn some away.

“Every such legal aid service is already completely maxed out,” said Gary Blasi, professor of law at UCLA and former Legal Aid Foundation attorney. “It means that instead of turning away 10 people a day they’ll turn away 60.”

Aside from its federal funding problems, the Legal Aid Foundation has been shaken by internal disputes in recent years.

Blasi was among a number of lawyers critical of recent management and the way the layoffs were carried out. A number of very senior lawyers were let go, depriving clients of the benefits of years of experience, he said.

Laid-off lawyer Ackel is the most senior attorney at the foundation, with more than two decades of law experience in working with the poor, and is nationally recognized for her work.

Looking merely at the number of lawyers laid off does not accurately show “that this is a devastating blow to legal resources available to 1 million poor people. It’s not only laying off one-third of the staff, but more than one-third of experience and ability,” Blasi said.