2026 NALA Charity

2026 NALA Charity

NALA’s selected charity for 2026 is the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS), a national, independent research organization that innovates and advances solutions that make our civil justice system more just.

Every day, IAALS reexamines how the American civil justice system can better serve the needs of us all. Through purposeful collaboration, listening, and research, we jumpstart the groundbreaking and achievable solutions that will clear a path to justice for everyone. Because justice for all will never be a reality if those seeking justice cannot access the system designed to deliver it. For more information about IAALS, you can visit their website at https://iaals.du.edu.

One of IAALS’s major projects is in support of the Allied Legal Professional (ALP) program model, fostering the enhancement of the legal role paralegals can play in participating states and jurisdictions.

Establishing a new, affordable tier of legal professionals

Up and down the income scale, the legal needs of Americans are going unmet. The inability to afford a lawyer, among other factors, has led to ballooning rates of self-representation in our justice system, with over 70 percent of civil and family cases including a party without a lawyer. People in these situations are not only facing life-altering challenges alone—like child custody hearings or landlord/tenant issues—they also face disproportionately bad outcomes in their cases. Allied legal professionals hold a key to bringing more accessible and affordable legal help where it is needed most. Like nurse practitioners working alongside doctors, these legal professionals work alongside lawyers and are beginning to show great potential for lower-cost, excellent public service—and IAALS’ Allied Legal Professionals project is working to standardize and grow these successful programs nationwide.

For more information about IAALS’s ALP Project, please visit https://iaals.du.edu/projects/allied-legal-professionals.

An Urgent Need

In order to innovate our civil justice system to meet today’s challenges and opportunities, we need to better understand the problems people face.

  • Nearly half of Americans experience legal problems for which they can’t find a solution.
  • 120M legal problems are either not resolved or resolved in a way that’s seen as unfair each year.
  • 10M people experience a family justice issue each year.
  • 70% of civil and family disputes include at least one side that doesn’t have an attorney.

Make Your Donation to Support IAALS’s Efforts

Together, we can help shape a better system. Scan here to support solutions that help more people get the legal help they need.