2006 Equal Justice Conference -- Workshop Material
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A Fair Days Pay for a Full Days Work: Private Enforcement of Minimum Wage and Overtime Rights for Low-Wage Workers
Document Available: Dietrich Handout To combat declines in basic work standards, organizing, advocacy and research capacity is growing to raise the level of enforcement for workers in sweatshops, including the right to be paid minimum wage, overtime and promised wages on time. The session will highlight strategic litigation private attorneys can bring to change entrenched wage violations in many sectors of our economy, and feature targeted enforcement undertaken by private firms for individual workers. Workshop presenters will provide practical suggestions and substantive legal materials.
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A Helping Hand Where It's Needed Most: Holistic Advocacy for Those at Risk of Homelessness Holistic advocacy can be a powerful tool fo assisting those who are homeless, formerly homeless, or at risk. This presentation will demonstrate how legal and social service advocates can work hand-in-hand to cause effective change in the lives of clients who are living on the edge.
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A Roadmap to Involving Senior Lawyers as Volunteers
Document Available: Connolly Outline Retired lawyer volunteers can expand and enrich the delivery of legal services, but their inactive status raises unique management and logistical issues for volunteers and programs alike. Presenters will examine those issues and discuss state bar and ABA initiatives to promote volunteerism by retired and other inactive lawyers, including the "Second Season of Service" and pro bono practice rules.
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A Whirlwind Tour of Louisiana and Mississippi Law
Prepare for pro bono work for Katrina victims! An overview of the laws and resources that volunteer attorneys and law firm pro bono coordinators need for their pro bono legal work for Katrina victims in Louisiana and Mississippi. These states have expanded what out-of-state attorneys can do for persons affected by the hurricanes. |
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Analyzing and Maximizing Quality in Hotline Services Assessing quality in the hotline environment can be challenging, yet it can lead to great improvements programwide. Telephone based delivery systems offer unique insight into how a program is performing and whether it is addressing the needs of the client community. This workshop will present tools and technologies successfully in use that foster high quality legal services, including call center statistics, client satisfaction, staff performance, outcomes, matters and legal needs. Presenters will also discuss strategies to build on performance with the goal of maximizing quality.
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Battered and Abused Immigrants Need Pro Bono Attention The number of immigrants identified as the victims of domestic violence, crime and human trafficking have increased and there are not enough low cost or free civil legal providers to meet the demand for this work. Expanding pro bono opportunities in this area will serve these victims and enable them to access justice. This workshop will offer participants insight on how to replicate or modify a pro bono project for this immigrant population through a discussion of problem solving, model representation and strategy on delivery of services.
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Blueprint for a Multi-lateral Approach to Involving Law Students in Pro Bono
Document Available: Advocate Reception Law schools, law firms, and legal service organizations afford law students a variety of means to represent indigent clients under the close guidance of experienced practitioners. This session will be highly interactive with several facilitated small groups in which participants will have the opportunity to share and compare effective practices for forging partnerships among law schools, law firms, and public interest organizations; developing successful pro bono programs and trainings for students; and sharing resources among the pro bono community to improve the delivery of legal services to the poor.
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Brief Services and Self-Help Technology Tools in the 21st Century Pro Se clients look to their state website for information and resources. Two very important resources are now beginning to make a significant appearance on the state websites: more sophisticated online forms/document generation and LiveHelp support. In the last few years, documents could be created online using HotDocs software--the evolution of this tool sees a growing community of developers creating online forms in their individual states, a growth spurt in available documents, and the ability to create visually interesting front ends (by the use of a tool called A2J Author) to gather information from a Pro Se user which is then used to generate the document required. LiveHelp is the capability for staff at a state website to immediately communicate in real time with a person pressing a button on the website--either through a webchat session or phone--and to help them through a shared navigation of the website's resources.
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Building Support from the Judiciary for Access to Justice This roundtable discussion will follow up on the preceding session, The Bench, Bar and Legal Services: Working Together to Increase Funding, taking a broader look at engaging the judiciary in expanding access to civil justice. We will hear from state Supreme Court justices, trial court judges, legal aid and pro bono providers and other stakeholders. Topics include: what courts can do to support legal aid; how legal aid can assist the courts in expanding access to justice for low-income people; questions concerning judicial ethics; and building relationships between legal aid and the courts.
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Business Law Pro Bono In The Time of Disaster: Lessons Learned From Hurricane Season Document Available: Handout This workshop focuses on how business lawyers, in a pro bono capacity, can play a critical role in helping individuals, small businesses and community-based organizations recover from hurricanes and other disasters, using the experiences following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as discussion catalysts.
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Clients Helping Clients: Innovations that Allow Legal Services Programs to Empower Their Clients to Help Each Other with Their Legal Problems Low income people in similar circumstances often help each other by sharing information, experiences and support. Learn how to use this principle to empower your clients who have similar legal problems to help each other. This gives legal services programs a new resource for meeting the over-whelming needs of its clients -- other clients.
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Collaboration and Communication Through Technology: Blogs, Wikis and RSS Feeds Document available: Presentation slides People today are in danger of being overrun by electronic messages and information. How can you keep track of what you need? How can you find new information? How can you share information with others? What types of technology exists to assist people in business? This presentation will demonstrate, with concrete examples, the types of programs that allow people to work more efficiently while managing the ever growing amount of information available to them.
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Confronting the Predatory Mortgage Crisis: The Philadelphia Story Predatory lending is a topic foremost on the economic justice agenda, as we have come to see mortgages transformed from a necessary product associated with first-time homeownership and the building of wealth into a vehicle for equity stripping in low-income communities. In this program, experts in the field will describe the problem of predatory mortgage lending and will describe innovate responses developed by advocates in Philadelphia. Topics covered will include litigation, research, use of the media, private attorney involvement and partnerships with government agencies
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Cultivating Champions of Pro Bono: Developing and Empowering Pro Bono Leaders An effective and innovative pro bono program requires more than the efforts of dedicated staff; it also requires the commitment and service of volunteer leaders to advance the goals and needs of the program. This workshop will explore the role of the volunteer leader as ambassador, spokesperson, and champion of pro bono. Panelists will address the cultivation of leaders through development and renewal of advisory and governing boards or committees as well as through bar associations and other organizations.
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Cultural Competence: Nuts and Bolts What is cultural competence? And what are the core approaches I should apply to engaging issues of culture in my organization and with the communities we serve? To answer these questions, join us for a lively discussion of the nuts and bolts of cultural competence.
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Effective Use of Teams on Business Pro Bono Projects Document Available: Handout Business Pro Bono Projects often thrive when they team ups various volunteer and resource constituencies. The four speakers on our panel will enlighten attendees on how a variety of partnerships can be developed and successfully implemented in the business pro bono setting. These include partnerships between law students and practicing attorneys, between in-house counsel and attorneys in private practice, and between business lawyers and other, non-legal resources available in the community to assist their clients.
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Empirical Studies of Pro Bono and Their Implications for Pro Bono Programs This workshop will summarize recent studies of pro bono by lawyers and law students' attitudes towards pro bono and extract practical lessons for program coordinators, such as how to invite lawyers to participate, what types of service may be most appealing, what types of support new participants desire.
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Energizing Sisyphus: Creating and Sustaining Healthy Work Environments for Stressed Staffs The work of administering and providing legal representation for clients on the social margins is highly stressful. This highly popular workshop focuses on the causes of stress and burnout, with an emphasis on concrete practices for both avoiding and handling the stresses inherent in the practice of poverty law. In a relaxed, interactive environment, participants will be encouraged to identify beliefs and practices that promote health and well-being.
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Energizing your Online Seminars This short course will explore interesting tips and tricks for improving your online presentations. Experienced online trainers will share proven online techniques that can be used to make meetings and training events more interactive and effective. Through discussion, demonstration, and hands-on practice, you will develop skills and techniques that can you can use in your next online meeting.
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Engage Business Lawyers and Empower Nonprofit Organizations
Document Available: Handout Explore innovative approaches to engaging more business lawyers in pro bono while enhancing the governance and management of community based organizations. Panelist will discuss pro bono opportunities that utilize the unique skills sets of transactional lawyers. Models discussed will include performing pro bono legal audits for nonprofit organizations; developing and teaching workshops on business legal issues to entrepreneurs and nonprofit community groups; and providing assistance with issues such as real property transactions or tax counseling.
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Equal Justice and Empowerment Through Mediation: Where Do We Stand?
Document Available: Handout 1 The workshop will present recent initiatives in resolving conflicts through mediation, with an emphasis on conflicts of elders but applicable to the needs of other legal services clients. The session will use role play/interactive techniques and panel presentations to explore working relationships between legal programs and mediation resources. How does mediation empower parties in conflict? Can it erode rights? What are the barriers to ready use of mediation? What should a legal services - mediation referral protocol include?
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Expanding Access with Unbundled Legal Services This workshop provides practical ideas and options for the application of unbundled services in the pro bono, legal services and marketplace settings. From identifying appropriate cases for discrete task representation to assessing substantive projects conducive to an unbundled approach, presenters will offer ideas for ways in which unbundling can improve and expand access. The workshop will also provide direction on state initiatives to amend rules that clarify the roles of lawyers who are providing limited scope representation.
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Exploring the Challenges and Creative Solutions: Providing Family Law Pro Bono Services
Document Available: Denton_Outline Recruiting sufficient family law volunteers is a continual challenge for pro bono programs. This workshop will examine creative approaches to providing pro bono family law services. Additionally, this session will address the effects of disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, on demand and supply for assistance in family law matters.
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Family Law Insight and Successful Innovative Models Empowering the Civil Justice System & Clients There are many ways pro bono attorneys can provide assitance with family law. This panel will highlight some successful models available for duplication, including the use of pro se clinics to provide education to the consumer; batch clinics; and a discussion about the North Carolina Central University's Domestic Violence Advocacy Project serving victims who are often disproportionately women of color.
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Grant Writing and Successful Funding Strategies for Telephone-based Delivery Systems and Technology Fundraising and resource development is a primary focus for legal services programs seeking to implement or expand telephone systems. This workshop will provide specific information on proven strategies and innovative approaches to resource development centered on funding new technology and systems. Program staff will share successful efforts and lead a discussion on new directions.
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Grow from Your Strength: How to Identify and Develop New Revenue Sources for Your Program Successfully raising new funds for your program in an increasingly competitive environment requires that you understand your program, your community, and your potential funding sources. This workshop is aimed at management staff of programs who have limited resource development experience and are looking to increase their skills and knowledge so that they can raise the funds needed to increase civil legal services in their community.
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Helping Homeless Families and Youth Affected by Domestic Violence Access Housing and Education
Document Available: Handout 1 Domestic violence often leads to homelessness among women and young adults. Homeless survivors of domestic violence may face discrimination in obtaining housing and may encounter difficulties enrolling in school. The presentation provides a legal framework for addressing these obstacles and highlights school resources for homeless families fleeing domestic violence. In particular, presenters will discuss VAWA s new housing protections for domestic violence victims/survivors, the McKinney-Vento Act, as well as special education law and how it relates to homelessness.
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HIV/AIDS Prevention: What's Law Got to Do with It U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines urge health care providers to help prevent spread of HIV by referring newly HIV-positive patients to legal services to prevent discrimination in employment, housing, & public accommodation. This program traces the history of laws to protect those with HIV/AIDS; assess current medical, sociological & legal issues; offer ideas about creating pro bono involvement in the community; explore the vital links between the legal and public health communities in preventing the spread of HIV; & examine the innovative HIV Legal Check-up model.
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Hot Topics in Legal Aid This session will focus on developments at the Legal Services Corporation, the funding outlook for LSC for FY 2007, the ongoing revision of the ABA Standards for Providers of Civil Legal Services and the work of the ABA Task Force on Access to Civil Justice and an array of other issues affecting civil legal aid. Participants will be able to question panelists regarding matters of concern to them as well.
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Hotline Outcomes Debate: What Are They, How Do You Measure Them, What Do They Mean?
Document Available: Ehrlich_Outline This session provides an opportunity for panelists and attendees to engage in an open and candid debate about outcome measures in the hotline portion of legal service delivery. The focus of the session will NOT be the presentation of results from recent hotline outcome studies. Rather the panelists and attendees will discuss such issues as what outcomes are reasonable and appropriate for hotlines to expect and measure, how such measurement can be accomplished, and what the outcomes mean for resource allocation and service delivery decisions when resources are scarce.
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How to Start and Grow a Bankruptcy Pro Bono Program
Document Available: Handout A recent survey by the ABA Section of Business Law found at least 132 legal services and pro bono programs that offer bankruptcy pro bono services. This panel discussion will discuss how to start, grow and fund bankruptcy pro bono programs. The workshop will also explore available resources for programs, including the handbook "How to Begin a Pro Bono Program in Your Bankruptcy Court, A Starter Kit for Lawyers and Judges."
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Immigrant Access to Health Care: Tools and Trials This workshop will cover the basics and not-so basics of immigrant access to health care. Using Pennsylvania as a model, but referencing the federal landscape, we will discuss immigrant access to medical assistance, access for the uninsured, and we will pay special attention to emergency medical assistance. We will look at efforts in Pennsylvania to streamline the emergency medical assistance application process and a local medical-legal collaborative that has expanded advocates ability to secure medical assistance for eligible immigrant clients.
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Law Students: Cultivating the Next Generation of Volunteer Lawyers
Document Available: Handout 1 This presentation will focus on developing and implementing a volunteer program for law students with a focus on techniques for establishing similar programs, insights on creating and maintaining inter-organizational relationships and ways to encourage student and attorney involvement. Panelists will also discuss the dual goal of the student program: the delivery of legal services utilizing law students and instilling the commitment to pro bono service in future lawyers.
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Leadership in the Legal Aid Community: How Executive Directors Can Support Leadership Development Leadership is not simply the responsibility of the person at the head of the organization. It is a group responsibility requiring contribution from all team members. Leaders are staff attorneys, support staff, paralegals, directors of advocacy and litigation, regional directors, senior staff, managers, fundraisers and administrators. Using MIE's Principles of Leadership in the Legal Aid Community and its accompanying Discussion Guide, as well as showcasing some best practices developed in other venues, this session will assist executive directors and managers to appreciate the critical importance of leadership development and to design processes which in a multitude of ways support leadership development throughout the program.
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Leading Change: Strategies for Successful Transformation Getting beyond communicating the message that change is coming and actually changing organizations and their behavior is a fundamental challenge for leaders and managers. This interactive session will help participants identify helpful models and approaches for leading and managing change.
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Leading From the Bench: How the Judiciary Can Promote Pro Bono This panel will discuss the role of judges in supporting, implementing, encouraging and having an impact on participation in pro bono programs. Panelists will specifically focus on judicial leadership at both the statewide and local levels.
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Legal Issues Faced By Non-Profits Document Available: Handout With accountability being the buzz-word of the day, even organizations with impeccable records are feeling the wrath of the public s perception that there is a reason to mistrust nonprofits. This issue is increasingly making a difference in the ability to obtain funds from grant-makers and the general public alike. This will first review the basic requirements for managing a nonprofit ;then it will explore a series of case studies which typify both the best, and the worst, practices among organizations.
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Let Justice Ring: Innovative Pro Bono Partnerships Partnerships with the private bar expand access to justice for the poorest and most vulnerable citizens who otherwise have nowhere to turn for legal aid. These cooperative efforts vary is size and scope but all result in increased opportunities for bar members to engage in community service and provide leadership in efforts that address critical legal needs facing the poor.
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Lifetime of Lawyering
The first hour of this session will encourage discussion between lifetime public interest attorneys and Equal Justice Works program participants. These lawyer will share how they have been able to successfully maintain a balance between their professional aspirations and their personal lives. Non-EJW participants are encourage to stay for the last half-hour of the program during which departing Equal Justice Works fellows and AmeriCorps attorneys will be celebrated and recognized for their work.
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Making a Commitment to Empowering Clients Who Have Limited Literacy Skills
Document Available: 082_2006_Godfrey_Handout 1 This program will explore tools and techniques for helping clients with limited literacy skills. Points that will be covered include: the range of literacy skills, how to identify clients with limited literacy, how to communicate effectively with such clients, how to develop outreach materials, and how to draft letters and other documents for these clients. These points will be illustrated with relevant examples. Participants will then form small groups, be given mini case studies and asked to develop and share strategies for overcoming issues raised in the case study.
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Meeting Unmet Legal Needs: Unique Partnerships between Law Firms and Non-Profits This program will explore unique partnerships between the private bar and legal services that make a tremendous difference in the lives of children, death row inmates and homeless veterans. Topics will include recruiting the private bar, training and mentoring pro bono partners and institutionalizing a pro bono project within a law firm. Panelists will also discuss how to avoid common mistakes in these types of partnerships.
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Multidisciplinary Trainings for Attorneys Representing Children The ABA Child Custody Project has produced a six-hour multidisciplinary training series covering nine topics of critical importance to attorneys representing children in custody cases. This workshop will train attendees on implementing the training for their own staff and volunteers, as well as experiencing some of the substance of the training. The Delaware Office of the Child Advocate will discuss local training components to compliment and enhance the ABA trainings. The trainings are available on DVD or VHS, with an extensive written manual, free of charge to any program.
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National Technology Showcase This workshop highlights eight important technology projects designed to support the legal community in the delivery of services to the public. The provider community continues to use LegalMeetings as an important training and conference tool, and anticipates user-friendly web-based Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software to help allocate program resources more effectively. The important developments in online document fill-in and processing taking place in both HotDocs and I-CAN! due to the deployment of A2J Author software will be discussed. Other useful tools will also be profiled--the use of LiveHelp software on state websites in Iowa and Montana, and the development of a Law Research tool allowing law schools to support pro bono practitioners. A highlight of the workshop will be a presentation on the new resource, "An Atlas of Poverty in America" and the new software tool, Censusmapper, utilized to develop it. Learn what's happening at the national level in the technology field that could help your program and your work.
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Now That You've Got Them, How Do You Keep Them? Retaining Volunteer Attorneys Although it s always challenging to attract good volunteer attorneys for pro bono programs, it s even more of a challenge to keep them. Volunteers need significant support in order to keep them motivated and actively participating. How do staff attorneys and coordinators balance the needs of volunteers against their own daily workload of clients and cases? Panelists will discuss their techniques and tips from an urban, rural and law firm perspective, and invite you to share your own.
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Onsite Legal Clinics: Creating Partnerships Among Corporate Law Departments, Law Firms and Legal Services Providers The focus of the presentation will be the onsite legal clinic as a successful and innovative model for producing partnerships among corporate law departments, law firms, and legal service providers. The purpose of these partnerships is to devise a system whereby the three groups can work together to provide free legal services to those in need.
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Pro Se Innovations: How the Courts are Meeting the Needs of Pro Se Litigants This presentation will provide an overview of various innovations that are taking place around the country for pro se litigants. These include self-help centers, hotlines, court and legal service partnerships, library programs, technology innovations, etc. This presentation will will also introduce the audience to the award-winning project, selfhelpsupport.org--a national clearinghouse and network for pro se practitioners in the courts and legal services.
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Protecting your Clients from Fake Legal Aid: Cybersquatting, Domain Piracy and the Selling of the Legal Aid Name to the Highest Bidder Dueling with the Cyber Pirates. This workshop will discuss some of the intellectual property issues facing our community - issues we may have ignored in the past but must now pay attention to. Fake legal aid clinics are ripping off our clients. Cybersquatters are stealing our websites. Learn what the problems are and what your organization can do to protect itself.
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Providing Services to Language Minority Clients
Document Available: Handout 1 Service providers are more frequently encountering challenges in providing effective services to limited English proficient clients as a result of demographic changes. Using an interactive format, this session will define the various language barriers typically encountered as well as common blunders by service providers, then discuss approaches to overcome these barriers. The session will then address two systems in need of language reform - the courts and legal services/pro bono programs in order to illustrate effective methods to spur changes and the kinds of changes that are needed.
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Roundtable on Expanding Sources of Federal Funding This workshop will provide participants with an opportunity to exchange ideas and ask questions related to federal funding sources other than the Legal Services Corporation. Topics for discussion will include how to expand federal funding opportunities and how to collaborate with new partners in order to obtain grants and sub-grants. The session will provide attendees with an opportunity to share their experiences and concerns regarding grant programs from various agencies, including the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Justice and Health and Human Services.
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Saying No to Hotline Callers Saying no is against our nature we want to serve our callers. Our reality is limited resources. How can we best define, publicize, and apply our mandates? What are the most efficient ways to triage? Can we give something to every caller? Moreover, how can we meet the particular needs of callers with limited literacy and language barriers? Panelists will address these questions and focus on practical techniques for efficient client management. Participants will be encouraged to share experiences, and panelists will facilitate the discussion through actual scenarios.
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Selling Business Law Pro Bono within the Law Firm Document Available: Handout The panelists are all partners in private law firms and will discuss how law firms both develop pro bono business law clients and work, comparing this marketing to traditional pay client marketing, and then encourage and support their business lawyers in serving the clients and doing the work.
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Serve It Up I: What Large Law Firms Look for When Working with Pro Bono Providers This workshop will feature coordinators at large law firms discussing their experiences in working with pro bono agencies on a diverse spectrum of issues. Discussion will include the value of understanding how law firms operate and how coordinators operate within their firms.
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Serve It Up II: Large Law Firm Coordinators Discuss Strategies for Pitching New Programming Get the inside scoop on how pro bono agencies can hone their pitches to large law firms for new programming. Topics covered will include an the difference between how coordinators consider matters and how rank and file attorneys view them; how to consider the firm's practice areas; programming for attorneys at different levels of experience; and the importance of maintaining a long-standing relationship.
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Setting up a Court-Based Self-Help Center, Funding Collaboration, and Tools The program will explore how court-based self-help centers (SHC) can satisfy the mission of Legal Services Programs and expand funding opportunities. You will learn how self-represented litigants benefit when SHCs are operated by legal services programs. Finally, you will learn how to create a Center, obtain funding and benefit from the available resources and technology.
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So You Don't Do Media? Why You Should and How You Can Strategic use of the media can be an important part of a legal aid lawyer's array of advocacy tools - it can humanize clients, prod officials, and educate policy makers. Every public interest legal aid program should have a media strategy and develop relationships with local reporters. Following some basic rules in building these relationships can raise the organization's profile, give advocates an opportunity to help frame the way issues are presented in the press, and, most importantly, benefit clients.
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Starting a Business Law Pro Bono Project: The Pitfalls and the Successes Document Available: Handout A basic organizing principle for those who are beginning a Business Law Pro Bono Program is outreach. The organizers have to reach out to lawyers who will be unfamiliar with even the possibility of doing non-litigation pro bono work, and to potential clients who will not expect that non-litigation legal services could be available at no cost. This Program will focus on some of the less obvious targets for a Program s initial outreach including not-for-profit service providers and medium to large corporations.
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State Funding Roundtable: Update on the 2006 Legislative Session The 2005 legislative session was one of the most successful ever in terms of increasing state funding for civil legal services. How is 2006 shaping up, and what can we learn from those actively involved in campaigns this year? If you are working on state legislative funding in your state, please join us to talk about your successes, discuss challenges, and share materials and other information with legal services advocates from other states throughout the country.
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Stemming the Tide: Using Partnerships to Eliminate Barriers Based on Criminal Records
Document Available: Handout 1 This workshop will outline practical steps for meeting the broad-based needs of individuals and families burdened by criminal records. We will survey the various barriers to reentry and discuss model programs and tactics for coping with these problems, including lawyers filing EEOC discrimination charges, community-based organizations assisting with pardon applications, and public defenders providing housing services. This session will also introduce a number of new, easily accessible tools to help advocates obtain better outcomes for their clients.
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Strategies to Address Marginalized Client Communities Through Leadership, Inclusion, Diversity & Cross-Cultural Competence Marginalization of client communities profoundly shapes the equal justice community's ability to deliver on its stated mission and realize the justice imperative of inclusion, diversity and cross-cultural competence. This interactive practical workshop helps participants formulate strategies to address unmet needs, understand social rank factors that lead to bias, and identify leadership and management behaviors that promote inclusion, diversity and cultural competence.
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Success with Major Gifts This session will provide comprehensive information on the process of raising individual major gifts, including identification, cultivation and solicitation. Panelists will also address the role of staff and Board in the process and discuss the "art" and science of raising major gifts.
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Supporting Affirmative Advocacy Through Ongoing Training and Support Training and professional development are critical to not only increase staff knowledge and skills but to also transmit equal justice values and vision and a strong equal justice community. This session will profile the range of training resources - in-person, online and combining both formats -- that LAU offers to support strong and creative affirmative advocacy.
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Tech Tips and Tools: Fifty (More) Ways to Work Better, Faster, and Cheaper This fast-paced presentation has been a favorite at past conferences. Technology is always changing. Come and learn some new ways it can help you rather than be a burden to you.
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Technology Ethics Do your interactive forms create a lawyer-client relationship? Is providing your "clients" with self-help material the "practice of law?" Does your on-line help service require a conflict check? As technology becomes a bigger part of our practice many of the old ethical rules no longer fit. This panel of experts will discuss many of these issues and pitfalls. The workshop will advance the discussion of changes that might be needed in our rules of ethics to balance the protections clients need with the efficiencies offered through the use of technology.
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The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act and Hurricane Katrina: Harsh Winds for Debtors This panel will address many of the changes in bankruptcy law which became effective October 17, 2005. These include the "attorney liability provisions" that potentially increased liability for bankruptcy attorneys and the designation of a "debt relief agency." The panel will also address some of the principal substantive law issues created by BAPCPA such as required creditor counseling, means testing and other changes. All of these changes of the bankruptcy law have exacerbated the problems of victims of Katrina, and attorneys will need to become familiar with the impact of the new law.
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The Bench, Bar and Legal Services: Working Together to Increase Funding State legislative funding, IOLTA, attorney registration fees, private bar campaigns efforts to increase virtually all major funding sources are more likely to succeed when judges, private bar leaders and legal services staff and volunteers work together. In this session, judges and bar leaders will discuss how these key players have come together to achieve funding increases that would not have been possible otherwise.
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The Continuing Road to a Civil Right to Counsel This year's workshop on the quest for a civil right to counsel will, in keeping with the theme of the Conference, focus on how pro bono partners and law schools can join this movement. The workshop will also use the annual Sparer Symposium, which chose Civil Gideon as its subject for this year and which occurs right before the conference, in Philadelphia, as a springboard. After a brief overview of the symposium, participants will be invited to help answer the most provocative questions raised by the papers presented at that event.
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The Fundamentals of Managing a Pro Bono Project (In 90 Minutes or Less!)
Document Available: Handout 1 This session is designed to provide a basic map for successful pro bono management, including basic recruitment and retention techniques, effective quality control methods, and resources to turn to when you have a question. Attending this session will insure you get the maximum knowledge from other EJC sessions. The panel will include experienced pro bono professionals and ABA staff.
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The Legal Community's Efforts to Help Victims of National Disasters: What Have We Learned from September 11 and the Gulf Coast Hurricanes The panel, composed of members who have dealt with disasters, will discuss the issues faced when confronting a disaster. They will describe some of the planning efforts that should occur prior to a disaster and some of the resources available to the access to justice community during those difficult times.
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The Legal Hotline as an Entry Point for A Brief Services Unit
Document Available: Gaffner_Outline This presentation will explore using a legal hotline as the entry point to a brief services unit for callers who need unbundled legal services or discreet task representation. The presenters will lead a discussion on how to identify callers who, because of language barriers, physical or mental disabilities or other limitations, are unable to follow through on their own; and will also explore the expansion of brief services into new legal areas that reflect the shifting needs of hotline callers and the use of pro bono volunteers to serve more callers.
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The Legal Services Movement: Keeping the Flame Burning Beyond the Boomer Generation Over seventy five percent of federally funded legal aid programs have executive directors with over twenty years of director experience. They belong to a generation of leaders with an unwavering commitment to anti-poverty advocacy and equal justice. Keeping the flame burning requires the community to look at the question of how we transfer the knowledge and experience of our seasoned leaders to the next generation. This workshop is an interactive discussion about leadership, legacies, succession planning, and building a pipeline of advocates and leaders.
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The New Revised LSC Performance Criteria
A broad-based advisory group of LSC program representatives, IOLTA representatives, consultants, and others, have recently completed the most comprehensive revision of the Performance Criteria since their creation in 1993-94. This moderated session will highlight some of the more important revisions to the Performance Criteria, will share LSC s plans for their use, and will solicit participants ideas on other ways to use the Performance Criteria.
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The Responsibility to Do Justice Beyond ethics responsibilities, those involved in the delivery of legal services have responsibilities to see to it that justice is done. This workshop uses hypothetical examples to look at the obligations of judges to assure due process when hearing pro se matters, the obligations of court personnel and pro bono lawyers when providing pro se information, and the obligation of legal service providers to implement triage when screening for brief services and similar responsibilities.
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The Roadmap to Implementation: A Working Group for Telephone Based Systems Providing Intake, Advice/Brief Services and Referrals
Document Available: Brockel_Outline The Roadmap to Implementation is a two-part workshop that will provide the nuts and bolts of setting up a telephone-based system, hotline or centralized intake unit. This workshop will help programs address the issues surrounding start-up, implementation and advanced growth for small and large organizations. Session 1 will focus on vision and goal setting, fundraising and budgets, developmental approaches and managing change. Session 2 will focus on project management, implementation, staffing, training, management and expansion.
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The Role of Pro Bono in Access to Justice
Document Available: Browning_Outline This workshop will explore the sensitive issue of expectations and realities of pro bono legal services from the perspectives of both legal services and private bar attorneys. Participants will wrestle with questions about the efficacy of pro bono and staff attorney models, and explore how to coordinate the work and relationships of the two groups. How can we best meet existing as well as emerging needs of clients?
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The Technology Community's Response to Katrina; Lessons for the Future In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, the legal services and pro bono communities looked to technology to help respond to the disaster. What was learned? How can the equal justice community better respond to future disasters? What does your organization need to do to be prepared if a disaster strikes your office or service area? Panelists will provide a timeline beginning with the immediate response to Katrina up to the present moment, including technology tips and resources every organization should have to implement their own disaster recovery planning.
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Through the Looking Glass: Volunteers on Volunteering
Document Available: Handout 1 What does a volunteer look for in a volunteer experience? What leads one attorney to take multiple cases a year for 20 years, and another to disappear after the first referral? This workshop presents the opportunity to hear from a panel of volunteers, including a private attorney, paralegal, corporate counsel, and law student, on what programs can do to recruit, then hold on to, its volunteers.
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Update on Loan Repayment Assistance Programs
Document Available: Handout 1 As the debt load of law students grows, the need for loan repayment assistance programs for those who seek to pursue public interest law careers has never been greater. This session will provide an overview of developments at the state and federal levels on this critical issue. Topics to be addressed include new statewide LRAP programs, the Legal Services Corporation s pilot project, law school initiatives and proposed federal legislation. Come prepared with your questions and plan to participate in a lively discussion on this important topic.
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Using Demographics to Support Rural Planning and Delivery This session will feature a demographic analysis of rural poverty from 1960 through 2000. Practitioners will discuss how computer mapping tools can be used effectively in substantive case development. At the end of this session participants will understand the benefits of using mapping as an analytical tool. This type of computer mapping is an emerging phenomenon in the field of legal services that will inform strategic planning and service delivery in the future.
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Using Innovative Legal Tools to Address the Changing Latino Demographics The lawyer s tools effective litigation, timely legislative advocacy and ongoing community development are responsive to client-centered, community based needs only to the extent that legal services providers can identify and evaluate systemic reform initiatives, explore ways to undertake their work and collaborate with other professional and community resources. The goal of this moderated panel is to review some of the Latino demographic changes and how some lawyers are working to respond to those needs through their delivery of legal services.
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Whats New with the Websites This workshop exposes the legal services and pro bono communities to what is going on in the web world. Web features we highlight include client education and pro se materials, staff pages and research databases, and pro bono sites for volunteer attorneys. This workshop is designed for any and all interested in how websites and web-based tools can improve the work of their organization. In addition, we ll give participants an opportunity to learn about website collaborations and projects they can be a part of.
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Working with Interpreters
Document Available: Handout 1 To provide effective services to changing client communities, legal services and pro bono staff must learn how to work with interpreters to communicate well with limited English proficient clients. Training on this topic is essential since interpreting techniques are not self evident, and poorly trained interpreters are not unusual. This interactive skill session will demonstrate effective practices in interviewing through an interpreter, including how to handle a poorly trained interpreter.
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