Legal Services of Eastern Michigan (LSEM) has its roots in local bar associations providing voluntary legal services to the poor. A legal aid society was established in Flint in 1951. With the advent of the War on Poverty in 1965, the federal government funded separate legal aid organizations in Genesee, Saginaw, and Bay-Midland counties. To provide the most efficient and cost effective service to clients, these organizations merged to create LSEM. With formation of the federal Legal Services Corporation (LSC) and access to expansion grants in the late 1970's, LSEM expanded to include six new counties. The most recent addition to LSEM’s service area occurred in 2005 when LSC mandated mergers of legal services agencies throughout the country.

LSEM’s current service region includes 14 Mid-Michigan Counties: Arenac, Bay, Clare, Genesee, Gladwin, Gratiot, Huron, Isabella, Lapeer, Midland, Saginaw, Sanilac, St. Clair, and Tuscola. LSEM’s enlarged service region is a mix of rural and urban areas. Services are delivered from four offices: Flint, which also houses the administrative offices, Saginaw, Midland and Port Huron. LSEM also has interview sites in all counties, in which it does not have an office and provides homes visits, including nursing homes, for the frail and/or disabled.

The firm's priorities are those legal issues that focus on survival concerns. LSEM now offers free legal assistance in the following areas of poverty law: family law, including domestic violence; housing, including fair housing; public benefits, including health; senior law, including elder abuse; credit repair/bankruptcy including foreclosure prevention, education, and employment law. The firm assists clients through community legal education, brief service, counsel and advice, as well as representation which can take the form of negotiated settlements or litigation. LSEM is proud of its ability to settle cases short of litigation.

Over the past five years, LSEM has provided free legal assistance to approximately 6,500 indigent individuals annually. This number does not reflect the number of family members who may also have benefitted from such services. Nor do these service numbers include the added people assisted through LSEM’s pursuit of systemic change projects that attack the underlying causes of poverty, i.e. assisting a County Treasurer’s Office in implementing a program for handling property tax arrearages that has saved 1000’s of owner occupied homes since its inception. Numbers helped through such projects are incalculable.

LSEM staff is highly qualified and to ensure their skill sets are updated local, regional and national training are regularly provided. Advocates are assisted by an equally competent management, with an average experience level of 15 years, and long-tenured support staff. LSEM is also able to expand its services by enlisting the help of over 400 Pro Bono attorneys who offer clients free legal service.

LSEM is a highly sophisticated law office. The firm makes excellent use of technology to provide more productive, quality service. The staff's legal work is supported by an excellent law library available on the Internet and one of the most complete brief banks on poverty law in the country. Technology is also used as a tool for ongoing staff training, i.e. access to webcasts and a virtual training center. LSEM makes use of technology as a means to better serve its clients.