Lawyers for America

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
454716513
IRS 990 coverage
2016–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2015, Form 990-N 2013
Location
San Francisco, CA, USA
Phone
4155654676
Rating
72
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Housing Support

Reported finances

Revenue
$184,297
Expenses
$100,432
Assets
$244,674
Liabilities
$9,607

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Marsha Cohen (Secretary and Executive Director)

People named in this filing

  • David Faigman (Board Chair)
  • Sandra Thompson (Board Treasurer)
  • Marsha Cohen (Secretary and Executive Director)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

To improve the lawyering skills of new lawyers, while expanding the availability of legal services by providing two-year work experiences fellowships in the public and nonprofit sectors.

What it reported doing in 2025

During 2025, 9 fellows were serving either in the training or service year of their two-year fellowship experience four as student externs, five as paid employees. They worked for government law offices Solano CA Public Defender and Contra Costa CA Superior Court and legal nonprofits Center for Biological Diversity, If/When/How, Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles, and Veterans Legal Institute. To date, almost 80 percent of the fellows who have completed this program remain employed with government agencies or legal nonprofits several of those who work for private law firms do work consistent with that which they did for nonprofits and government e.g., environmental and municipal law.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 100% 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 total spending goes to programs. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 63
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 76
  • Sustainability: 72
  • Growth: 20

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 53.6%; rating input score 54
  • Program expense ratio: 98.3%; rating input score 98
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 45.5%; rating input score 89; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.44; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -8% per year; rating input score 0; 12th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -2.4% per year; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 14.8% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 53.6% of revenue deployed · 98.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $99K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 17 of 17 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 10 filing years from 2016 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 54/100.
  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 29/100.