question: What amount did the Oxley foundation donate and what was it used for? answer: $200,000 to expand a client hot line paragraph: Historically, LSEO letter-writing campaigns generated from $11,000 to $25,000 annually, recalls Dallas Ferguson, a Tulsa attorney and board president of the new LASO. That amount hardly offset enormous cuts, beginning in 1996, by Congress to Legal Services Corp., the chief funding source for state legal-aid agencies. Threatened with extinction, LSEO clawed its way back with the help of state funding, grant money and the Tulsa Area United Way. Meanwhile, the clients keep coming. At least three-quarters are women and children living in poverty. The agency helps more than 12,000 children a year. A third of LSEO's clients are the working poor who receive no government benefits. Many are senior citizens. Riggs regrets that retired Tulsa attorney John Athens, a champion of legal aid, did not live to see how much the money has meant. Athens died last year. In his honor, The Oxley Foundation donated $200,000 to expand a client hot line. That service, which will be expanded statewide, enables needy people to consult an attorney about civil legal problems, including rent and contract disputes, domestic abuse, consumer issues and custody matters. Attorneys handle no criminal cases. R.H. Harbaugh, foundation trustee and a colleague of Athens at the Conner & Winters law firm, said his mentor had "a special interest in people who could not afford legal services. He was aware of the hot line and supported its expansion." Said Riggs: "We use lofty phrases such as 'with justice for all,' when we talk about our legal system. That phrase is etched on our U.S. Supreme Court building. Those are just empty words if people don't have access to that system." 