The network of state and federal support and training entities formerly funded by LSC has been curtailed, and some of its components have been substantially dismantled. However, many critical components still exist.
Since the loss of their LSC funding, most of the national centers have continued and received funding through national and regional foundations and some IOLTA programs. Many have thrived and grown in funding, national recognition and effectiveness. Examples include:
- National Center for Law and Economic Justice
- National Housing Law Program,
- National Center for Youth Law
- National Health Law Program
- Justice in Aging (formerly the National Senior Citizens Law Center)
A number of the national support centers that had focused solely on issues affecting the low-income community have broadened their focus to attract new sources of funds and also grown in effectiveness. Examples include:
- National Consumer Law Center
- National Employment Law Project
- National Immigration Law Center
- Insight Center for Community Economic Development (formerly the National Economic and Development Law Center)
Several (e.g., National Center on Women and Family Law) closed their doors when they were unable to raise sufficient funds to operate effectively.
The National Clearinghouse became the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law. It is a major state level advocacy entity. It also incorporated the Center for Legal Aid Education and now is a leader in providing substantive, skills, advocacy and racial justice training for civil legal aid programs. It stopped publishing Clearinghouse Review in hard copy in 2015, and ceased publication altogether in 2018.
Although the Regional Training centers no longer exist as such, some programs which housed the centers have continued some training activities. NLADA also ensures substantive law training at national conferences, conducts a substantive law training program for newer attorneys and paralegals every two years and conducts a conference for litigation directors every two years. The Management Information Exchange (MIE) provides management training for executive directors, managers, supervisors and fundraising staff.
At the state level, the network of LSC-funded support centers has been replaced by a group of independent non-LSC funded entities engaged in state advocacy that operate in over 30 states. Only 12 of the current state entities are former LSC-funded state support centers. Several states have been unable to recreate a significant state support capacity at all. The Project for the Future of Equal Justice surveyed state advocacy and support during 2000 and 2001 (The Missing Link in State Justice Communities: The Capacity in Each State for State Level Advocacy, Coordination and Support). The survey revealed that, since the loss of LSC funding for support in 1996:
(1) A few states have preserved and/or strengthened the capacity for state level advocacy, coordination and information dissemnation, have increased training and developed very comprehensive state support systems;
(2) in a number of states, there has been no state level policy advocacy, no significant training of staff, no information sharing about new developments, no litigation support and no effective coordination among providers; and
(3) in a number of states, some state support activities have been undertaken by new entities or carried on by former LSC-funded entities.
Those activities that do exist vary widely. In some states an existing entity continued to exist but at lower funding. In other states, a new entity was created to replace an existing entity or to work alongside an existing entity. In still other states, entirely new ways of providing state level advocacy, coordination and support have emerged, such as the Michigan Poverty Law Project, a joint endeavour of Legal Services of South Central Michigan and the University of Michigan Law School.
In 2015, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law received foundation funding to create the Legal Impact Network of state advocacy organizations. This network has helped pull together existing state advocacy and support programs, convene meetings of such entities, and develop new state advocacy programs.