Mission & Core Values

Our Mission

Minnesota Justice Foundation (MJF) creates opportunities for law students to engage in public interest and pro bono legal service. MJF provides law students with access to professional experience and training while increasing the capacity of legal service organizations that serve the public interest. By strengthening law students’ commitment to public interest and pro bono legal service, MJF builds a culture of service that students carry forward in their legal careers.

Our Core Values

Access to Justice
We recognize that many people in our communities are unable to access legal services or exercise their rights due to lack of resources and structural inequality. Race, disability status, geographic location, and other factors even further widen the justice gap for many Minnesotans. Lack of access to justice threatens the rule of law.

Professional Responsibility
MJF upholds the rules of professional responsibility and ethics of the profession. We believe that it is a privilege to be trained in the law, and that it is the duty of law students and lawyers to exercise this privilege in service to our communities to increase access to justice for all.

Inspiration
We seek to instill in law students, and in all lawyers, an ethic of providing high quality public interest and pro bono legal services.

Integrity
We uphold high ethical standards and vigilantly protect MJF’s role as an honest broker of public interest and pro bono opportunities among law students, law schools, public interest agencies, and law firms.

Connection
Law students founded MJF with the goal of creating opportunities to serve their communities through pro bono and public interest legal work. MJF derives its energy and direction from law students. By connecting the skills, energy, and enthusiasm of law students with pro bono attorneys and public interest law programs to expand their service capacity and help more clients, MJF seeks to help close the justice gap. MJF partners with law students, law schools, public interest law programs, government agencies, and law firms to promote engagement in pro bono and public service. We value the opportunity to support law students, law schools, and the legal community through volunteer opportunities to educate the public, to encourage civic engagement and social change, and to enable the legal community to provide enhanced services.

Diversity
Diversity is central to MJF’s strength. A diverse board of directors brings a broad range of personal, professional, and cultural perspectives to bear on decisions. A diverse staff reflects the diversity among the law students and service providers whom MJF serves. Diversity among volunteers ensures that service opportunities are available to all interested students, chosen only by ability, interest, and performance.