Law Day: Atlanta Legal Aid - 97 Years and Counting

THIS IS A HYBRID CLUB MEETING Limited to 40 people onsite.  To Register to attend in person, CLICK HERE or on the registration link in the events section or email KiwanisClubAtlanta@gmail.com.  Registration Opens at April 27, 1:15 pm and closes April 30 at Noon.

To view on Zoom, CLICK HERE to register.

Steve Gottlieb was part of Atlanta Legal Aid’s first summer student class in 1968.  After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1969, he received a Reginald Heber Smith fellowship to work at Legal Aid as a new lawyer.  In the next five years, he handled a wide range of cases, developing expertise in consumer protection issues, and managed three of Atlanta Legal Aid’s offices.  He then managed the Savannah Office of the Georgia Legal Services Program. In 1977, he returned to Atlanta as the Deputy Direct of Atlanta Legal Aid. He became its Executive Director three years later in 1980 and is among the longest serving legal aid directors in the country. 

Steve has weathered at least three major funding storms during his tenure and has overseen a diversification of revenue sources that has permitted Atlanta Legal Aid to continue its core functions in good times and bad.  In addition to its five core areas of practice—family law, housing, healthcare, consumer finance and government benefits—Steve has presided over the development of numerous special programs.  He inherited the still-thriving Senior Citizens Law Project and encouraged the institution and growth of other new programs including the Disability Integration Project (which litigated the seminal Olmstead case), the Home Defense Program, the Health Law Unit (formerly the AIDS/ALS & Cancer Initiative), the Hispanic Outreach Project, the Grandparent/Relative Caregiver Project, the Georgia Senior Legal Hotline, and the Health Law Partnership (a medical-legal collaborative with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Georgia State’s College of Law). For his leadership, Steve has received numerous state and local awards and has been recognized by the American Bar Association and the National Legal Aid and Defender Program for his work.