LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER
The Legal Assistance Center works to meet the legal service needs of our community by empowering people to face and resolve civil legal challenges, to advance justice and fairness, and to thereby enhance individual, family, and community stability and prosperity.
About LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER
The Legal Assistance Center (LAC) is a community-supported, donor-facing 501(c)(3) legal self-help center based in Grand Rapids that helps people resolve basic civil legal problems without a lawyer by providing information, court forms, guidance, and referrals. LAC operates regular in-person service hours at the Kent County courthouse and offers low-tech, accessible assistance in key areas such as family law, housing (eviction and security deposits), debt/consumer matters, small claims, guardianship, and basic probate. The organization emphasizes practical, high-quality customer service, volunteer training, and inclusive access (including Spanish-language assistance). In recent years LAC has documented measurable impact (a 2023 impact report), adopted a detailed 2023–2025 strategic plan to expand capacity and innovate service delivery (including exploring technology/AI), and maintains an active volunteer and student pipeline to sustain and grow services.
Notable achievements
Record service volume (2023)
In 2023 LAC reported a record year with 27,007 patrons served (and a record month in March 2023), demonstrating substantial community reach for legal self-help services.
Exceptional client satisfaction
Client feedback in the 2023 impact report shows very high service quality — roughly 99% of surveyed patrons found LAC information and instructions helpful, felt staff and volunteers were kind and respectful, and would recommend the center to others.
Strategic growth and volunteer pipeline
Adopted a 2023–2025 Strategic Plan committing to expand service scope and capacity (including exploring the role of AI), and operates a structured volunteer program and law-school pipeline with multi-term training and a published volunteer calendar into 2025.
At a glance
- Total assets
- $1.5M
- Annual revenue
- $406K
- Tax status
- 501(c)(3)Public charity
- EIN
- 37-1492605
- Location
- Grand Rapids, MI
- Website
- legalassistancecenter.org
- On Mahalo since
- May 2026
Financial figures from the IRS Business Master File, the IRS’s registry of tax-exempt organizations.
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