Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS) is marking its 125th anniversary this year and they asked us to produce a video to celebrate the occasion. Their core mission is to provide legal counsel to individuals who otherwise would not be able to afford the service. “The law is for everyone,” as one of their clients told us, but many times people without resources have to represent themselves, which leaves them at a severe disadvantage.
The scope of GBLS’ services is broad. Just a few of the people they represent include individuals with housing problems, survivors of domestic violence, elders, immigrants, low-wage workers and individuals in need of healthcare or disability benefits.
Individual representation is GBLS’ bread and butter, but they also are involved in larger, class-action lawsuits. The lawsuit that they brought against the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) was one of their largest and most successful, and it transformed the MBTA to make it more accessible to riders with disabilities.
At the conclusion of the case, the MBTA committed to make 200 different changes for riders with disabilities, ranging from improved messaging systems, to faster repair of elevators, to new buses that allowed riders to enter more easily, to new training for MBTA staff. The case served as a model for transit systems elsewhere in the country.
The salaries of attorneys at GBLS don’t match those of their legal peers elsewhere, but all of them are proud of their work and are committed to fighting inequality in our court system.