Judith Garlow, 63; longtime director of the State Bar’s legal aid fund for the poor

Judith Garlow, 63, a leader in securing funds for legal services to the poor, died June 2 at her San Francisco home, the California State Bar Assn. announced. She had suffered from brain cancer.

Garlow, a longtime director of the State Bar’s Legal Services Trust Fund Program, was recognized as an expert in the funding of legal services through interest from lawyer trust accounts. The concept of using interest on settlement money that is held in trust by lawyers until it is dispersed took hold after the federal government cut legal aid funding in the 1980s.

Garlow directed the funding program, which now raises about $13 million a year, from 1993 until her retirement last year. Garlow also helped get legislation passed in 1999 that provided $10 million a year from the state government for legal services, her successor, Mary Flynn, told the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this month.

Garlow grew up in Escondido, Calif., and graduated from Stanford University in 1965.

She worked with neglected and abused children through San Diego County’s welfare department before moving to San Francisco to work for the State Bar in 1972.