This Public Service Project for 2005-2006 featured both an educational component and a hands-on component. Through its educational component, this project will delivered programming at several national conferences. Through a series of publications, it raises awareness of the many legal issues affecting those with HIV/AIDS, including employment discrimination, public benefits, bankruptcy, immigration, criminal law, and others. One highlight of the educational component was the Spring Conference in May 2006, which was a joint conference with the ABA AIDS Coordination Project’s Third HIV/AIDS Law and Practice Conference.

Through its hands-on component, this Public Service Project promoted efforts by affiliates and individual young lawyers alike to reach out to the HIV/AIDS community, both in connection with legal representation and in broader ways. All such efforts are encouraged, whether they involve establishing an HIV/AIDS pro bono program or participating in a local AIDS fundraiser. Affiliates, in particular, are being strongly encouraged to contact their local AIDS legal services organizations to learn about the organizations’ needs and to provide assistance. The Project’s featured hands-on program is HIV Legal Check-Up, a diagnostic legal needs assessment program in which an attorney provides a brief consultation to identify the legal needs of someone living with HIV/AIDS. Once those needs are identified, the attorney refers the person to appropriate resources. HIV Legal Check-Up is a tremendously flexible program that can be tailored to the needs of any community, be it a large urban setting with an existing AIDS legal services provider or a rural community with no resources whatsoever for people living with HIV/AIDS.

In short, the mission of the Public Service Project is to elevate lawyers’ understanding of HIV/AIDS, and, based on that understanding, improve the scope and quality of legal services available to people living with the disease. The need for this message has been sent out loud and clear from the public health sector. The time has come to answer the call.