As much as she can get her hands on, as quickly as she can.

Lives, literally, depend on it.

As the administrator charged with expanding and diversifying Clark County Legal Services' funding portfolio, the Nevada attorney has been tasked with a mighty feat. She must find the funds to support a desperately needed, large-scale increase in legal services for Southern Nevada's poor at a time when no one seems to have a dime to spare.

The agency's budget has never been large enough to help everyone who qualifies for its services. A recent study by a Supreme Court commission said only about 20 percent of the state's need for legal aid is being met.

And as the economic downturn stretches its tentacles across Southern Nevada, more people need legal aid than ever before.

Etkins' position - development director - was created a year ago to move the organization forward and meet more of the community's need for legal services: to help more foster children find stable homes, to help more victims of domestic violence escape abusers for good and to help more impoverished residents recover money or property after being duped by shady or unethical salespeople or businesspeople.

And with so few Las Vegas attorneys offering to donate their legal services, meeting those needs means raising money.

It's Etkins' second stint at the legal services agency. From 2000 to 2004, she ran the pro bono project as it switched from an independent nonprofit agency to a wing of Clark County Legal Services.

She's also worked as a public defender and district attorney in California and most recently, in the Florida attorney general's economic crimes unit.

Two years of hurricanes in the last job were enough to send her back to Las Vegas in 2006, when she took a job as the director of the state's Access to Justice Commission.

She's now firmly planted at Clark County Legal Services and reaching out to the community and foundations to attain the agency's goals.

Lynn Etkins SAM MORRIS / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Answer: This is a new position the board of directors created last year when it came to the determination that we needed to do two things: One, we were growing so much that we were running out of space and we needed to have a larger facility. And No. 2, we wanted to start to diversify our funding sources a little bit more. So the board of directors authorized this new position. In the past the executive director and legal administrator had done most of the grant writing and any fundraising that was done, and the board decided that because we had gotten so big that it was about time that we had a full-time person doing that. Most legal aid offices of our size across the country have a full-time development director.

Our mission is to ensure that everyone has access to an attorney, that everybody has the right access to the courts and access to justice, regardless of income.

So our mission is primarily focused on civil matters. The public defender is there to assist low-income people for criminal matters, and we assist low-income people on civil matters, primarily family law, domestic violence, consumer-related issues, Social Security.

We don't do things such as personal injury and those sorts of things where lawyers take a contingency fee.

So we help low-income people who generally would need to pay a lawyer to assist them.

We have 23 attorneys, and including our summer law clerks, we have a staff of 50 now. We have a permanent staff of about 45. And we have just grown leaps and bounds.

Since I started working here, and as we've gone out and started talking to community members about our organization, we have confirmed that there is a misconception that we are a government agency. Clark County just denotes the area we serve, not that we are a government agency.

But in light of that, we're actually changing our name this year to Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada. Our board has voted to change the name, and we're in the process of doing that. We'll unveil that whole plan this fall.

We have clients that also think we're a government agency and that their taxes are paying for us, and then we have the business community that thinks that we are part of the government ... Most people know they need to go to "legal aid," but since it's not in our name, they can't find us. That's a big piece of that puzzle ... Most of our funding actually comes from filing fees. So when people file lawsuits at court, a portion of that money comes to legal aid organizations across the state. About two-thirds of our operating budget is from the filing fee money.

We also operate on grants. We get grants from the county; we get grants from the Nevada Law Foundation; we get grants from the Justice Department for representing domestic-violence victims and so all of that comprises our budget. We do get some donations. Not a lot. Historically, we have not gone out to really get people to donate money.

We do get a small amount of money from lawyers who donate $500 in lieu of doing pro bono service, which is one of the State Bar rules. So we do get some funding from that.

The demand for legal services has increased exponentially. One of the simplest barometers for us, is demand for our workshops. We offer, in conjunction with the Boyd School of Law, free community legal classes. And we offer those classes in divorce, paternity, bankruptcy, small claims and guardianship. And they're free to the public. We have a set schedule, and the law students help teach with the supervision of our staff attorneys. Those programs have been going on since about 1999. And we've helped more than 23,000 members of the community in those classes.

People come in, they get a booklet on how to represent themselves on whatever area of the law they signed up for, they are taught the basics: "Here's how it works. Here are the forms you need to fill out." We give legal information and not legal advice.

One of the easiest barometers on the state of the economy is the popularity of our bankruptcy class. Demand for that class has more than doubled. We've had to increase the size and add another bankruptcy class, so we have two every week now. That's been one of the overwhelming things we've seen as a result of the state of the economy.

We also have the walk-in hours for people who have consumer issues. And the demand for that has gone up. We've seen a lot more garnishments on people's paychecks. They didn't know they were being garnished; they may not have been served papers; they're not quite sure what's going on - people being sued for debts on payday loans - just problem after problem.

We have people coming in saying, "I had someone knock on my door, and they told me they were going to save my house from foreclosure, and the next thing I know I get an eviction notice from them and they now own my house. What has happened? I don't understand."

So the consumer-related part of this has increased exponentially. So it's been a bit overwhelming for the staff.

Last year we served more than 11,000 people and that includes the classes, direct representation, brief service - everything combined. We do anticipate that this year that number will be higher, but we won't know exactly how much until the end of the year. The walk-in numbers and the bankruptcy (class) numbers have increased significantly.

And unfortunately, one of the other areas that often increases when finances are tough is domestic violence. We have seen some growth, and unfortunately, we anticipate more assistance needed with that.

We operate the pro bono project. In 2000 the Clark County Pro Bono Project was a free-standing nonprofit organization, and it merged with Clark County Legal Services back then.

Since the merger, the program has exploded - in a positive way - and has really grown incredibly. When the organizations first merged the pro bono project was placing less than five cases a month and we are now placing about 40 cases a month. We've helped more than 2,000 people since the merger to actually get lawyers.

We have a project director who recruits lawyers from the bar. Our highest demand is in family law, that's about 80 percent of the pro bono cases that are placed. We offer the lawyers free training, and the State Bar and County Bar help us with that. We give lawyers manuals, we give them mentors - sometimes from our office and sometimes from outside law firms. And so we'll train them in those areas, and we'll match them up.

The pro bono program helps us with our overflow work. We always have too much work, so if we have domestic violence victims or children in foster care, and we are unable to offer assistance because our case loads are at their max, we'll place them with private attorneys.

They can also help us in areas that we don't have anyone specializing in. For example, we don't have anyone in-house who works on bankruptcy. We have the class, and we'll give people information, but we don't represent people directly in bankruptcies. So we have lawyers in the community who volunteer to be on the pro bono project for bankruptcy.

That's been critical and a great partnership, and we're working tirelessly to get more lawyers to sign up so we can help more people.

I wouldn't say we're seeing things we haven't seen before. But I think times change. If you asked maybe five years ago, we saw a lot of mobile home evictions. We had a lot of mobile home litigation and evictions. We saw very few garnishments and very little suing on debt related to cars. If somebody has a car repossessed, the company then sells the car, but the owner owed more than it's worth, the owner still has to pay that money.

We're seeing a lot more aggressive litigation on all these general financial things, whether they be payday loans or wage garnishments, auto deficiencies and the housing issues.

People in foreclosures are getting involved with unscrupulous people who are stealing their houses from them, basically. We have seen some of that before, but it's just increasing more and more.

Absolutely. We always have people waiting for pro bono lawyers, so we absolutely have a greater need. If we have 30 people on our waiting list, even if we were to get 30 new lawyers to take those, the volume is just always there. For every lawyer who could assist, we could absolutely match them up with a case, and there will be continuing need.

One of the things that the Nevada Supreme Court has done as far as all of these access to justice issues, is they've created a Supreme Court commission on access to justice, and that's in its second year. Justice (James) Hardesty and Justice (Michael) Douglas are chairing that commission, which has representatives from the bar, the bench, and legal service providers.

One of the things they've done is commissioned a legal needs assessment. One of the things that was determined was that only about 20 percent of low-income legal needs in Nevada are being met. So there's a lot of work to do out there.

We don't advertise, and we can't advertise. All the providers are always worried about actually advertising because we would be inundated. And we're at peak capacity all the time without advertising because we get referrals from the court; we get referrals from the bar associations; we get referrals from lawyers. So we are always at capacity, but there's a lot of work to do.

We've been fortunate that we haven't seen a huge decrease in funding from grants.

Last year the Justice Department cut the state from domestic-violence funding. And that affected all the legal service providers. We were fortunate that the Nevada Law Foundation came to the rescue and saved all of us. The foundation gives out grants from interest made on lawyers' trust accounts. So we were very fortunate that it came in to rescue everybody on that particular program.

From that we've learned that we want to diversify our funding base even more. Part of my job is assisting in getting a more diversified donor base, including grants, private donors, private foundations and those sorts of things - and also having a larger facility for us so we can help more people.

This has been one of the best things that's happened with the law school coming to Las Vegas. It's done a whole host of things.

(Founding Dean) Dick Morgan, when he was hired on, wanted the law students to have a public service or pro bono component to their curriculum. And out of that they developed these free classes that we give to the community. So these students can learn the fundamentals about an area of the law and then impart that knowledge to the community. Through that program, in and of itself, we've helped tens of thousands of people. So that's a huge benefit.

The other piece is that by educating the law students while they're at law school, starting in their very first year, about legal aid and about the needs of the poor, and about the fact that they're a specialized group of individuals and the legal community has a professional responsibility to step up and help those who are unable to access an attorney. That has just been phenomenal. Boyd lawyers give their time to pro bono at a greater rate than the legal community at large. They have really stepped up.

We are so fortunate this year, we have about 10 externs, interns and volunteers from the law school. So we have law students year-round in the office and they get to learn an area of law; they get to do intakes; they get to do advocacy. Having them learn in an actual practice environment has been incredible, and we've had the benefit of having externs and law clerks throughout the years. And that's increasing. They really enjoy working here, and they tell their friends at the law school about their experiences, and that's been really great.

The law school has been critical to our growth; critical to our outreach to the community; has increased our services - it's just been all good. I just can't emphasize that enough.

Also, there's the pro bono partners program where we match pro bono lawyers with Boyd law students to work on a case. We get around 20 to 25 students who participate in that every year. It's another great partnership with the law school.

Our pro bono participation has increased over the years, and we're so thankful and grateful and so happy for those who do volunteer. We need more, though. We need more to sign up, at the end of the day.

There are more than 4,000 practicing lawyers in Clark County, and we had about 300 of them take on new cases last year. Some were working on older cases that started before that. But there's a lot more talent and expertise out there, and we absolutely continue to tap into that and to make headway. The courts have been very helpful on that project and trying to get more lawyers to help, but we need them to do more.

In addition to the assistance and training we provide in conjunction with the bar associations, we offer recognition.

We publish the names of lawyers who do pro bono work in the State Bar magazine to thank them for taking cases. They also report their pro bono hours to the State Bar yearly. The State Bar requires that they report the pro bono hours they've done, but doesn't require them to do a certain amount. So any of the work they've done through our agency can count toward the pro bono hours they report to the bar.

We also have an annual pro bono awards luncheon to thank lawyers who've gone above and beyond the call of duty. The Clark County Bar Association also honors them in the access to justice issue of their newsletter.

In addition, we've worked hard to make it possible for more lawyers to participate. We offer malpractice insurance for anyone doing pro bono work for us, and we worked with the Supreme Court to get an emeritus rule that allows retired lawyers or those licensed in another state to practice pro bono. And we cover their malpractice insurance.

We try to make it as easy as possible for them.

Some reasons why attorneys don't do pro bono are because they are busy with their own cases, especially if they are solo practitioners; some aren't comfortable practicing outside their area of law - even with training - and some just don't know about us and the opportunities available. This is why articles like this help our efforts in educating both the general public and the members of the bar.

I think it might be easier to answer why lawyers do pro bono. And there are many reasons. One is because some lawyers are raised with the understanding that they should be giving back to the community. If they see their parents or peers contributing to charities, they feel an obligation to give back. Some do it to learn a new area of law. We do a lot of family law, and if they feel they want to move in that direction, they can get experience here. Also, sometimes lawyers, if they're starting new business or are new to the profession, they need experience in court or in depositions. They can get that experience here.

The idea behind self-help centers generally is that it's another way to get people access to the courts. Some people who can afford to hire an attorney choose not to. They don't want to spend the money. Maybe they've amicably resolved their divorce, and they don't have to hire an attorney, and they just want to handle it themselves. So the self-help centers serve a variety of functions. They help low-income people; they help people who are income overqualified for our services. It's a place where they can get the forms. Without the forms, it's very difficult to maneuver in the courthouse. If you're given a form, and it has instructions, it makes access to the courts easier for everybody. We're trying to do a similar model at the District Court to handle some of the more common litigation: probate, landlord-tenant, more traditional garnishment types of things. I just think it's an extra piece to the puzzle. We can't be all things to everybody. Private attorneys can't be all things to everybody and the law school can't be all things to everybody. This is another outlet where people can go and get assistance.

We think you want people who live in your community to feel they've been heard, that they've had access to the courts to air a grievance or to answer a grievance. And the more avenues you open up for them to be heard, the better it is for everybody. That's what the court system is about.

I don't know. I think because the new one is not coming up until the fall, we'll have to see how it goes. I think everybody would love to expand the family law one at some point. There's just so much need.

Would we love to get more pro bono lawyers and have them over there two days a week or three days a week? Absolutely. But you need resources and staff and pro bono assistance before you can do that.

The "ask a lawyer" program has been incredible, so if we could expand that, we could reach so many more people.

Oh no! (Long pause.) I think the point we want to get across is that access to the courts should not be a luxury. It's not just a bonus you get because you have money. That these are critical services - social services - and we are part of the social landscape of the community.

What we do does change lives - whether we're representing a child in foster care who has been abused and neglected and helping that child achieve a more permanent stable home life; or if we're helping victims of domestic violence begin a new life away from their abuser; whether we're helping someone save their home; whether we're helping someone with a bad car they've purchased so they can get to work. What we do is part of the foundation of society. The problems our clients have are part of the social landscape. That would be our message.

They should care because their employees come here. We see casino workers every day. We see people who work at the School District every day. We see folks who work at restaurants, retail establishments. Any business has folks that qualify for our services and come here. And every day - as the economy continues to struggle - more people qualify for our services. We see people today who last year would not have qualified for our services.

The members of the business community should care about us because they want their employees to have stable lives, to be able to get to work, to have a home, to not be abused. They don't want their employees to get their car repossessed and have no way to get to work or to face overwhelming legal distractions. They'll lose that employee.

All these things going on in society affect the business community.

I think they can recognize how important we are. I think it can be hard for people to get their arms around legal aid and understand what it is. I would love to talk to them about our services and what we do and how it affects them directly. We'd love for them to support our work, whether it be financially or just letting their employees know there is a place to go if they need services in these areas.

Obviously, we'd love financial support from the business community, but you can't underestimate the importance of having a global understanding of what we do and that it benefits the community as a whole and just supporting us in general.

No. That's because the businesses that we might have cases against, more often than not, are businesses that are set up with the sole intention to prey upon poor people. We hear from legitimate businesspeople that they support what we do. When these businesses are defrauding people, that makes the business community look bad. So we hear from most businesses that they support the work we do and that they feel it helps create a better community when poor people aren't defrauded.

When we do sue legitimate businesses, we find it is usually a result of a rogue employee who is not living up to the standards that the business owner expects. Our best compliment is when an owner of a business who we have sued, says we have done a good job and gives us their cell phone number to call if any other complaints arise. That has happened on more than one occasion.

We're celebrating our 50th anniversary this year. We've been around 50 years, so we're going through the history of legal services and looking through the old board minutes. We've seen that everybody in town from 50 years ago has been on our board or has had some relationship with our office. So that's been kind of fun to do. We're having a big celebration in September.