Free Law Project
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 463342480
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2019–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2018, Form 990-N 2014
- Location
- Oakland, CA, USA
- Phone
- 9095764123
- Rating
- 77
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Public Interest Law
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,347,431
- Expenses
- $997,897
- Assets
- $1,097,414
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- William Palin (Employee): $131,183 total reported compensation
- Michael Lissner (Ex Director): $121,784 total reported compensation
- Jenifer Whiston (Employee): $118,102 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
We make the legal ecosystem for fair and competitive by a collecting, curating and supporting free, pulic and permanent access to primary legal materials b developing, implementing and providing public access to technologies c create an open ecosystem for legal research and materials and d support academic researchers and journalists
What it reported doing in 2024
We run various legal based services including Court Listener and RECAP, APIs and Replication
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 77% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 63
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 79
- Sustainability: 63
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 62.3%; rating input score 62
- Program expense ratio: 85.3%; rating input score 85
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Limited
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 25.9%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.1; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 37.2%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 28.1% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 30.4% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 30.1% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 62.3% of revenue deployed · 85.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 4 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $851K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $131K · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2019 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 46/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 4/100.