About CLASI
Founded in 1946, Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (CLASI) is a statewide nonprofit organization offering free civil (non-criminal) legal assistance to Delawareans in need. CLASI is the oldest and largest civil legal aid organization in Delaware, and one of the oldest legal aid programs in the United States.
Our attorneys and advocates work to protect and advance our clients’ most fundamental rights and ensure that everyone has equal access to justice, regardless of their background. Through our offices in Wilmington, Dover, and Georgetown, we help individuals and families across Delaware to access the services and support they need to live healthy, safe, and independent lives.
CLASI provides free legal assistance to Delaware residents who meet certain eligibility criteria, including:
- People with disabilities, as Delaware’s Protection & Advocacy system
- People age 60 and over
- People with low incomes
- Survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault
- Immigrant victims of crime, abuse, and neglect
- Victims of housing discrimination
Legal Practice Areas
Individual Assistance and Impact Advocacy
Through individual case representation, we help our clients obtain shelter, government benefits, educational services, medical services, orders of protection from abuse, legal immigration status, and other civil legal remedies.
CLASI also engages in broader impact advocacy through litigation, community education, and legislative and policy advocacy on the state and national levels to further the interests of the clients and communities we serve.
Learn more about the work of CLASI’s programs and units:
Our Impact
CLASI delivers life-changing legal support to individuals and families across Delaware—protecting health, safety, and civil rights for people of all ages and backgrounds. In 2024, we handled nearly 8,000 cases, helping more than 18,000 Delawareans. Our advocacy goes beyond individual cases to tackle broader issues like lead paint removal, prison conditions, school funding, and the right to representation in eviction cases.
“There is no way I could have kept myself or my children safe if it wasn’t for all of the hard work and expertise of my CLASI lawyer. There was no way I could have afforded a lawyer since I was being financially abused. I cannot emphasize enough what a valuable and essential resource CLASI is for victims/survivors of domestic violence and their children. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
– Former CLASI Client, Domestic Violence Unit
Learn more about our impact, read our client stories, and view our annual reports here:
Client Stories
Our Mission, Vision, & Strategy
CLASI’s mission is to achieve equal justice through creative and persistent civil legal advocacy that protects Delawareans’ most fundamental rights and secures access to basic needs.
CLASI has adopted a strategic plan to help guide our work and development as an organization. Incorporating the perspectives of our clients, employees, and the community at large, our vision includes the following pillars:
- CLASI provides high-quality legal aid to individuals and communities in order to promote a more just Delaware. We protect and advance the most fundamental rights of people across Delaware, including persons living in poverty, individuals age 60 +, persons with disabilities, victims of crime, and survivors of domestic violence.
- CLASI is a healthy, well-run, collaborative, and transparent workplace.
- CLASI, along with its civil rights partners, works to enhance financial support for civil legal services in Delaware, its visibility in the community, and the variety of its funding sources.
For more details – including our goals for serving our community and ensuring equal access to justice for all Delawareans – we encourage you to review our full strategic plan using the link below.
Careers
As we continue to grow our organization, we are actively seeking talented individuals to join our team. Visit our Careers page to discover exciting opportunities for meaningful work in civil legal advocacy with CLASI.
Our History
Nearly 80 years ago, four leaders of the Delaware Bar – J. Caleb Boggs, William Poole, Collins J. Seitz, Sr., and Clarence A. Southerland – recognized the urgent need to provide free legal services to people with low incomes in Delaware.
They were inspired by a speech given at the American Bar Association’s annual meeting in 1945 by attorney Harrison Tweed. He implored his colleagues to “engage more wholeheartedly, and perhaps even a little dangerously, in things which concern the public good and are – and this is important – things of which lawyers possess special knowledge.”
Tweed argued that legal aid was essential to achieving equal justice and to the success of the adversarial court system, and that the Bar was obligated to provide these legal services to those who could not afford them.
On the plane ride back from the meeting, Poole and Seitz discussed creating a legal aid society in Delaware, and the Delaware State Bar Association appointed a committee the following year to organize legal aid services in the state.
The committee was chaired by Clarence A. Southerland, who went on to become the first chief justice of the Delaware Supreme Court. It also included Deputy Family Court Judge J. Caleb Boggs and Vice Chancellor Seitz, who later served on the Delaware Supreme Court and as chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
The Legal Aid Society of Delaware was incorporated on May 2, 1946. In its first year, it had a budget of $3,600, which was donated by members of the Delaware Bar. It employed just one part-time attorney and served 204 clients.
Since then, the organization today known as Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (CLASI), has grown to include 80 full-time staff members and serve over 7,800 clients a year. CLASI has continuously evolved and innovated to meet the most pressing legal needs of our community and achieve our founders’ vision of equal justice for all Delawareans.
Drawn from the article “Legal Aid” by Judith A. Schuenmeyer in The Delaware Bar in the Twentieth Century, published by the Delaware State Bar Association.
- 1940s
- 1950s
- 1960s
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- 1980s
- 1990s
- 2000s
- 2010s
- 2020s
- Today
CLASI Through the Years
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1980s
- CLASI continues to grow its staff and programming, and begins receiving funding from the Delaware Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts (IOLTA) program, established by the Delaware Supreme Court.
- CLASI develops a new unit in response to the growing Spanish-speaking population in Delaware, staffed by a bilingual attorney, paralegal, and receptionist.
- The federal government creates a Protection and Advocacy program for people with mental illness, expanding the scope of the advocacy efforts of the Disabilities Law Program.
- CLASI establishes a Patient Advocate position to protect the rights of patients at the Delaware Psychiatric Hospital.
- CLASI continues to grow its staff and programming, and begins receiving funding from the Delaware Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts (IOLTA) program, established by the Delaware Supreme Court.
Board and staff
Get to know the passionate and talented members of our team who are dedicated to creating a more just Delaware.
STAY CONNECTED
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