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CLASP was founded as a public interest law firm in 1968 by Charles Halpern and three other young lawyers, with the assistance of Justice Arthur Goldberg. For 14 years, CLASP helped develop new areas of legal work on women’s rights, mental health, environmental protection, international human rights, health care for the poor, international trade, employment rights, and mine health and safety. Several prominent organizations, including the National Women’s Law Center and the Bazelon Center on Mental Health Law, began their work as part of CLASP. Some of our nation’s premier lawyers began their law careers here.
In 1981, the CLASP Board of Trustees decided to focus on issues affecting low-income and disadvantaged persons. Since then, CLASP has worked to advance the economic security, educational and workforce prospects, and family stability of low-income persons. To achieve this goal, we promote progressive policies on welfare reform, child support, child care, early education, workforce development, child welfare, low-income fathers, disconnected youth, and ex-offenders reentering society. In addition, CLASP has sought to secure equal justice for all Americans by promoting and protecting programs to expand access to our civil justice system for low-income persons by promoting racial justice and by stimulating innovations in the delivery of civil legal assistance.
CLASP led successful efforts at the federal and state levels to improve the child support system and to establish child support as a major work support for low-wage families. We have improved the quality and flexibility of policy in a variety of areas, including welfare reform, job training, and child care. We have helped states develop more effective welfare programs, welfare-to-work programs, transitional jobs programs, and education and training programs. And we have led state efforts to improve and integrate child care and early education systems. We have also successfully promoted increased access to work supports for low-wage workers through alliances with both business and government agencies. In addition, CLASP has been at the helm of successful efforts to prevent the dismantlement of the Legal Services Corporation and to develop a comprehensive state and national civil legal aid system. We also helped transform the technologically backward civil legal assistance system into a leader of innovation in information technology.
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