Over the last decade, the legal aid landscape has changed considerably in the U.S., with many LSC programs merging and reconfiguring. The federal private money restriction and LSC's program integrity regulation have contributed to the reconfigurations by requiring physical separation between LSC-funded and non-LSC funded programs. At the same time, LSC's separate consolidation initiative has compelled many programs to join together on grounds of efficiency. The Management Information Exchange (MIE) Journal has devoted a special feature, "A Decade of Mergers and Reconfigurations," to this topic in its spring issue. A series of articles examines how LSC's decision in 1998 to consolidate legal services programs has affected the ability of LSC and non-LSC-funded programs to meet the legal needs of low-income individuals and families. Melissa Pershing, Executive Director of LSC grantee Legal Services Alabama, writes that if LSC-funded programs in a state do not have a history of close collaboration, "then merger is probably the only way to achieve an integrated, planned, and meaningful approach to more effective advocacy." Charles Greenfield, who soon will leave his post at Northern Virginia Legal Services to take the reins as Executive Director of the LSC-funded Legal Aid Society of Hawaii, describes the challenges and rewards of merging programs, and how the reconfiguration in Virginia may have enabled legal services programs there to serve more low-income clients. Gordon Bonnyman, Executive Director of the non-LSC Tennessee Justice Center (TJC), reflects on how the 1996 substantive restrictions and the private money restriction have impacted low-income communities: "The division of services between LSC grantees and TJC has diminished the availability of advocacy resources in those areas that Congress restricted, and it has made the services that do exist less efficient." He adds, "The restrictions add a hollow ring to the words of the Pledge of Allegiance that promise justice for all." The feature also includes articles from New Hampshire, Maine, and Texas.

20 Management Information Exchange Journal, 1 (Spring 2006).