Page 11 - 2021 Annual Awards Celebration

2021 OUTSTANDING SERVICE AWARD WINNERS
Gregg Trautwein
Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota
Advocate Award
Gregg Trautwein graduated from Moorhead State University in 1980 with a degree in accounting, and within a week began his career with Northwest Minnesota Legal Services, now known as Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota (LSNM). He had no idea what legal aid was all about, and certainly wasn’t expecting it to be targeted for elimination by the Reagan Administration the following year. Fortunately, legal aid survived, receiving “just” a 25% reduction in funding, and within
a couple of years, the State of Minnesota had stepped up to provide grants to fill this gap.
In the late ’80s, with a wife and two small children to support, and
a legal aid salary that wasn’t quite enough to survive on, he began preparing income tax returns in the evenings and weekends, while
also taking and passing the CPA exam. It was during this time that LSNM began to transition from a purely “Judicare” program, to a combination Judicare/Staff Attorney program, adding attorneys to
their administrative office in Moorhead, while opening branch offices in Bemidji in 1989, and Alexandria in 1992. The plan to open a fourth office in the Thief River Falls area had to be scrapped due to funding cuts.
In 2003, in addition to his job at LSNM, Gregg “temporarily” took on the role of financial administrator at Anishinabe Legal Services, to combine financial resources. This lasted 15 years!
Today, LSNM is a thriving program reaching clients wherever they
may be, with three staffed offices, a Judicare/PAI component, several remote/virtual advocate offices, 59 legal kiosks throughout NW Minnesota, and a traveling Justice Bus. For Gregg, it’s been a very satisfying career to have been a part of this, knowing he can eventually “walk off into the sunset,” with LSNM continuing to meet the needs of low-income clients for years to come.
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