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This May, a star-studded group of more than 600 dignitaries—including former President Bill Clinton, California gubernatorial hopeful Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Warren Christopher—honored Shriver as the architect of the national legal services program at a Los Angeles tribute dinner hosted by the National Center on Poverty Law. It was Shriver who used his influence to work with Congress, the American Bar Association, and leading law firms to create a locally based, nationally supported legal aid network nearly four decades ago. The program that began under the Office of Economic Opportunity is today embodied in the work of LSC.
Shriver,
in accepting the award, gave his assessment of the need for a stronger
federal commitment to legal services: “We have got to become the
actual leader of the world in legal leadership. We have recently
demonstrated our military might. Now we must demonstrate our commitment
to equal justice for everyone, everywhere.”
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Few
politicians have left as enduring a mark on American social and
political institutions as Sargent Shriver, the pre-eminent Kennedy
in-law who came to represent the national conscience for his leading
role in establishing the Peace Corps, HeadStart, and JobCorps and for
running on the Democratic ticket with George McGovern. Perhaps
Shriver’s single greatest accomplishment, though, came during the
1960s when he surveyed the country’s legal landscape and realized
America was falling short in its promise of “liberty and justice for
all.” 
President
Clinton called Shriver “a warrior for peace and against poverty” and
quoted Judge Learned Hand, saying, “If we are going to keep our
democracy, there must be one commandment, not ten: ‘Thou shalt not
ration justice.’ Sargent Shriver’s whole life has done honor to that
commandment. He wanted equal justice under law; he wanted every child in
America to have a chance to live his or her dreams…. He gave a
lifetime, and he is still giving.”