Who We Are

The American Prepaid Legal Services Institute (API) is a professional trade organization representing the legal services plan industry. Headquartered in Chicago, the API is affiliated with the American Bar Association.

  • API provides information on how legal service plans work, what they offer in benefits and where you can find them.  
  • API monitors developments in legal service plan regulation at the state and federal level and participates in advocacy efforts where needed.  
  • API educates its members on technical, regulatory and businesses aspects of legal service plans through its Annual Conference and its publications.
  • API presents networking opportunities for lawyers, plan sponsors and administrators to help them pursue their business and professional objectives and to promote interchange of ideas among all segments of the industry.

Our members - lawyers, sponsor representatives, administrators and marketers of legal service plans - are the people who have invested their time, money and organizational resources to build legal service plans into the premier mechanism for supplying affordable legal services.

Most of the legal plans in existence today were developed with the help of an API member - a lawyer, a professional administrator, a marketer, an insurer, a legal service fund trustee, a union official, an association executive or a human resource specialist. All of the largest and most well known plans are run or serviced by current API members.

You do not need any special qualifications to become an API member except an interest in legal service plans.

Need More Information?

If you are a lawyer, you should get The API Concise Guide to Legal Plans. The Guide is designed to acquaint you with some of the details of how plans are constructed, how lawyers provide services, funding mechanisms and the different arrangements open to lawyers interested in providing services. We also have samples of contracts and other forms you may want to look at

If you administer a legal plan, become an API member and plan to attend the API Annual Conference to tap in to our network of experts.

If you are designing a plan for a client, make sure you know the rules with our Regulation Reporter a ready reference to the statutes, rules and decisions needed by legal service plan professionals, we have developed Prepaid Legal Services Regulation Reporter --a 1200-page four-volume loose-leaf binder set, updated quarterly