Mission
Community Law Center, a nonprofit law firm, provides legal services to community and nonprofit organizations throughout Maryland to promote stronger and more vibrant neighborhoods.
Community Law Center is Maryland’s only legal services organization dedicated solely to strengthening neighborhoods and the nonprofit sector. We seek partnerships with community organizers, nonprofits, businesses, law enforcement, educators, and governmental agencies to realize each client’s strategic goals. With staff attorneys and over 250 volunteer attorneys, Community Law Center is equipped to provide representation to neighborhoods and nonprofits for all of their legal needs.
Community Law Center empowers communities and nonprofits that lack the financial resources to pay for private legal representation. Community Law Center makes an important and unique contribution to the region as it utilizes its expertise and effectiveness in using the law to overcome or mitigate many of the social, economic, and environmental problems that plague neighborhoods. Through our programs, we have assisted in the formation and growth of hundreds of community associations and nonprofits, facilitated the revitalization of blighted land and vacant structures, reduced crime and nuisance activities stemming from residential and commercial properties, and helped communities and nonprofits accomplish their goals and achieve their missions.
History
Community Law Center was founded in 1986 by a group of lawyers and community organizers who saw the need for residents in Baltimore City to band together and advocate effectively for their neighborhoods.
Community Law Center Timeline
1983 – Incorporates and forms an informal network of volunteer lawyers interested in providing legal assistance to small, nonprofit organizations.
1986 – Receives initial grant funding to open its office.
1989 – Files suit against the owners of 1300 illegal billboards blighting the city by advertising alcohol and tobacco primarily in low-income communities.
1990 – Hires the first Staff Attorney.
1991 – Advances a new weapon for renovating vacant houses with a Baltimore City Circuit Court victory in which a receiver was ordered to oversee a vacant property owner’s repair of housing code violations.
1992 – Develops a self-help nuisance abatement strategy to allow community members to board up vacant houses in the city.
1993 – Files the first drug nuisance abatement case.
1994 – Establishes the Community Legal Services Program to provide comprehensive legal services to support communities with anti-crime efforts. In its first year, violent crime is reduced from 25 – 56% in those communities represented by CLC.
1995 – Establishes the Pro Bono Program to dramatically expand recruitment of volunteer attorneys to serve the needs of nonprofit, grassroots and community-based organizations.
1996 – Initiates the “Community Bill of Rights” legislation enacted to allow community associations to seek enforcement of housing, building, zoning and health codes.
1997 – Focuses anti-crime and vacant house reduction strategies on Patterson Park communities, initiating over 70 drug nuisance abatement cases in its first year. This strategy, with many partners, proved successful in creating a “neighborhood of choice.”
1998 – Argues the first drug nuisance abatement case in Baltimore City, which resulted in the eviction of a drug dealer from a property that he owned.
1999 – Attacks open-air drug markets in the city by forcing the removal of hundreds of illegal payphones routinely used in the drug trade and files the first case against owners of vicious dogs after drug dealers routinely used them to intimidate neighborhoods leaders.
2000 – Establishes the Project to End Predatory and Deceptive Real Estate Practices to conduct research and analysis designed to curb illegal and unethical property transactions, after recognizing that the high rates of vacancy and foreclosure in the city were largely the result of property scams and mortgage fraud.
2001 – Drafts legislation enacted to allow state funding to be used for the creation of side-yards out of vacant lots.
2002 – Protects the health and environment of city residents after forcing the closure of a corner store selling rotten meat labeled with altered expiration dates and drafts legislation enacted to protect city residents from stores selling expired foods. The Community Law Center launches the Environmental Justice Project to give communities a voice in land use decisions impacting neighborhoods, as well as environmental contamination threatening health and safety.
2003 – Uncovers unscrupulous practices by national mortgage servicers and sparks HUD investigation. Nationwide and industry-wide changes are made to the industry to better protect consumers from losing their home to foreclosure.
2004 – Expands its self-sufficiency and furthers its mission with the establishment of two fee-for-service programs: the Real Estate Services Project to focus on vacant property acquisition and renovation in the city and the Small Business Legal Services Project to focus on economic development in distressed city neighborhoods.
2005 – Honors Anne Blumenberg for her service as Executive Director of the Community Law Center for 18 years. Kristine Dunkerton is hired as the Community Law Center’s new Executive Director.
2006 – Sponsors city-wide effort to remove “We Buy Houses” signs from city streets leading to the removal of over 1,200 illegally posted signs.
2007 – Participates in the resurgence of communities fighting problem liquor licenses in Baltimore City.
2008 – Awarded first annual Collaboration Award from the Maryland Asset Building and Community Development Network for work with the Enforcement Committee of the Baltimore Homeownership Preservation Coalition.
2009 – Establishes an Honorary Board with Chief Judge Robert M. Bell as its first inductee.
2010 – Realigns all CLC program areas to emphasize Community Law Center’s mission: To provide legal services to community and nonprofit organizations throughout Maryland to promote stronger and more vibrant neighborhoods.
2011 – Celebrates 25th anniversary!
