Connecticut Bar Foundation Inc.

Filing Period

Jan 1, 2012 to Dec 31, 2012

Signed

May 13, 2013

Return Version

2012v2.1

Gross Receipts

$14,895,318

Mission

Major Activities

Activity 2

The interest on lawyers' trust accounts (iolta) program funds legal services to the poor and law school scholarships based on financial need. The program funded ten grants to non-profit organizations providing legal services to the poor and underprivileged, and grants for law school scholarships to the three connecticut law schools. The foundation's efforts help thousands of low-income and disadvantaged residents of connecticut by enabling them to obtain critical legal information, advice and legal representation. The foundation helps the most vulnerable members of our community, including children who are abused, neglected and otherwise disadvantaged, disabled people, elderly victims of consumer fraud and other abuse, immigrants, many of them children, low-income families trying to protect their right to safe housing and fight unlawful evictions, women and children victimized by domestic violence, and nonprofit community organizations. The foundation sponsors programs for the legal community and the public. These programs are made possible by the generosity and commitment of hundreds of volunteers and supporters and by the efforts of the james w. Cooper fellows.

Activity 3

The james w. Cooper fellows program was founded to promote a better understanding of the legal profession and the judicial system among the citizens of connecticut, and to address matters concerning the legal profession and the administration of justice in connecticut. In 2012 the fellows program sponsored an essay contest for high school students, work was accomplished on the oral history project of connecticut women in the legal profession, a truancy intervention project, and a mentoring project for new attorneys in new haven, connecticut. The fellows program sponsored three symposia in 2012, "our history, our future: celebrating attorneys of color in connecticut", "adr in hard times: can alternative dispute resolution maintain access to justice when resources are limited?" and the judge mark r. Kravitz inaugural symposium "exploring the vanishing trial phenomenon. The fellows also began a project to assist newly released exonerees who have been recently released from prison based on proof of actual innocence of the crimes for which they were imprisoned. The fellows assisted the connecticut innocence fund in reaching the goal of raising $50,000 to provide monetary advances to assist exonerees with immediate financial needs. The fund's first loan to an exoneree was executed in 2012.

Filer

EIN

06-6079763