This session provides practical strategies for attorneys and advocates working within LSC-funded organizations and pro bono initiatives to navigate restrictions on reproductive health assistance. Panelists will explore ways to support clients’ legal rights, assist clients in accessing health care, and provide helpful referrals while addressing related civil legal matters such as family law, domestic violence, and housing stability.
This session will highlight the importance of client stories in public messaging and explore practical strategies for identifying stories, communicating with clients, developing informed consent policies, and effectively elevating their voices. Done well, amplifying client stories is a mutually beneficial effort -- offering a platform to clients to share their lived experiences, and promoting the critical role legal aid plays in America.
The session will provide an overview of best practices in immigration pro bono. Attendees will hear from practitioners in nonprofits and a large firm about their collaboration to provide pro bono services in immigration. The session will explore how to be ethical, creative, and efficient in building pro bono partnerships.
Effective research partnerships between civil justice researchers, practitioners and policymakers are critical for building evidence-based policies and programs. This session will explore diverse perspectives, including from legal aid, courts, and researchers, on how to build and sustain effective research partnerships to advance access to justice.
Friday May 16, 2025 8:30am - 9:45am EDT Golden Gate 7
The student loan crisis disproportionately impacts women, low-income, and Black borrowers, but few borrowers have access to legal help. This session will explore how legal aid organizations can learn from established models, such as newer programs in California and New York, to develop a student loan practice to assist borrowers.
Friday May 16, 2025 8:30am - 9:45am EDT Golden Gate 8
Most pro bono trainings, in-person and online, are dull and lecture-based with no interactive component. This session will teach participants how to liven up their training sessions and will lead by example, using fun techniques to effectively convey information to participants in both live and virtual trainings.
This session will highlight innovative ideas and practices utilized by legal aid, law firm, and law school partners to build student-to-staff pipelines in order to meet hiring and pro bono demands. These ideas include the creation of internal fellowships, clinics, and innovative summer internships that incorporate mentorship, DEI principles, and public service.
Friday May 16, 2025 8:30am - 9:45am EDT Plaza Room B
Learn how Legal Aid of West Virginia and West Virginia University College of Law collaborate to increase pro bono attorney assistance and mentorship through various legal clinics staffed by students and volunteers. The panel will share lessons learned that could be applied by other legal aid organizations and law schools.
Friday May 16, 2025 8:30am - 9:45am EDT Plaza Room A
How can we skillfully manage change? Explore strategies by focusing on three common change profiles and three frameworks for skillful navigation at individual and organizational levels. Attendees will learn practical strategies to manage change dynamics, ensuring adaptive leadership in pro bono program management and beyond.
Law students are an important part of the pro bono delivery pipeline. In this session, you will learn about how to engage students in pro bono delivery, including how to build partnerships to involve law students in pro bono and respond to urgent needs with law student assistance.
LIFT Wisconsin and Legal Link will discuss how their organizations increase access to legal information for low-income individuals by using accessible web-based tools coupled with training. These simple tools support the development of a cadre of community justice workers who can bridge the justice gap and empower community members to address civil legal challenges that too often create barriers to economic stability and wellbeing.
This fast-paced, engaging session will provide tips about free and low-cost technology relevant to the access to justice community. This will include advances in AI, new apps, remote work and collaboration tools, information security resources, add-ons for Gmail and Outlook, and more. Panelists will also explore how emerging technologies – such as artificial intelligence and machine learning – can be applied to the access to justice field in innovative, yet accessible ways. Technology leaders will emphasize practical, easy-to-use technology that helps legal professionals do their work more eff
Friday May 16, 2025 10:00am - 11:15am EDT Golden Gate 7
Legal aid organizations in Texas, Iowa, and Oklahoma have long supported low-income clients affected by natural disasters. Their expertise is now crucial for addressing legal needs from crises like mass shootings, building collapses, and industrial accidents. This session explores how legal aid adapts strategies, develops scalable models, fosters collaborations, and provides holistic support to affected communities.
Talking about money can be tough! This session delves into the intersection of pro bono work and charitable giving at law firms. Participants will discuss strategies to enhance impact, including meaningful partnerships, innovative post-pandemic fundraising modalities, and collective action to advance access to justice for underserved communities.
This session will explore how efforts to foster civic culture is strengthened by engaged and deliberate civil justice strategies. Panelists will present emerging consensus about practices that shape how we treat each other and care for our communities. Discussion will center around the Academy’s projects centered around democracy & justice.
This session will offer research insights and lessons learned from a 2022-25 National Science Foundation (NSF) CIVIC grant focused on scaling and sustaining community justice workers in Alaska, as well as the expansion of this program in other states.
Friday May 16, 2025 10:00am - 11:15am EDT Continential 3
Serving clients and communities in legal deserts requires more than bringing an attorney to them. To build trust, communicate with clients, conduct outreach, etc., staff and volunteers require a new type of cultural competency. This presentation reviews national pro bono findings before delving into real-world scenarios faced in rural Georgia.
Friday May 16, 2025 10:00am - 11:15am EDT Continential 1
Learn from a nonprofit and legal practice who built remote, distributed teams from the ground up. Discover best practices for remote management in the post-COVID landscape, assess your organization’s remote work systems, and learn how to enhance program and employee management with effective remote strategies.
This session will provide tools to increase cultural competency and ability to serve low-income LGBTQ+ clients in a rapidly changing social and legal climate. The session will cover key developments in the law, as well as important concepts and practice considerations relating to serving LGBTQ+ low-income clients.
Friday May 16, 2025 10:00am - 11:15am EDT Continential 2
The State Bar of California’s 2019 California Justice Gap Study highlighted significant barriers to legal access for low-income Californians. A 2024 follow up study will update research and recommendations to address ongoing gaps to support policies that promote access to legal aid and pro bono service. The presentation will include discussions of the methodology, research, and findings of the 2024 study and how attendees may utilize data and research to drive policy initiatives to address the justice gap.
Friday May 16, 2025 10:00am - 11:15am EDT Plaza Room A
What’s really stopping attorneys from engaging in pro bono work? This session uncovers key barriers identified in national pro bono assessments and attorney surveys, challenging common assumptions. A senior pro bono counsel will share successful models that shift attorney mindsets, foster a culture of philanthropy, and provide law firms with the tools to boost pro bono engagement. Expect candid insights, success stories, and actionable strategies to energize your pro bono efforts and drive lasting change.
This session explores innovative upstream models from Frontline Justice, the Center for Justice Innovation, and HealthBegins, focusing on non-attorney interventions to bridge civil justice gaps. Attendees will gain practical insights into applying these approaches to address unmet legal needs through preventive, community-based strategies and problem-solving projects in various courts.
Friday May 16, 2025 10:00am - 11:15am EDT Golden Gate 6
On the surface, it may not seem that a volunteer and their low-income client have a lot in common, but what simmers below the surface can define a successful attorney-client relationship. This session will identify factors that affect how volunteers assist clients and clients receive that assistance.
Legal deserts—regions with limited access to affordable legal services—impact both rural and urban areas, leaving millions of middle-class Americans without options. This session will examine key data on legal deserts, explore contributing factors, and highlight incubator programs addressing the gap. Case studies from the Cleveland Legal Collaborative, Colorado’s Legal Entrepreneurs for Justice, and Purdue Global Law School will showcase data-driven strategies to expand affordable legal services and support sustainable practices in underserved communities.
Program Description: This session explores how strategic partnerships among legal services organizations, law firms, companies, and expert consultants enhance legal services. Participants will learn from real-world examples, discuss overcoming barriers, and gain practical tools to forge impactful alliances, ultimately improving access to justice for underserved communities.
Common data security assumptions don't always apply in the domestic violence (DV) context. With rampant breaches every year, there is a pressing need to focus on cybersecurity, for individuals, agencies working with survivors, and regulators looking at data protections. How can we ensure that data privacy and security policies, procedures, and rules all reflect the realities experienced by survivors? This session will outline how assumptions fail to account for the realities experienced by survivors; it will also offer suggestions for how to help clients concerned about these issues.
Friday May 16, 2025 1:15pm - 2:30pm EDT Golden Gate 6
Join us for an interactive “art of the ask” training for fundraisers and executive directors. This session will outline the steps and materials needed to prepare for a successful fundraising solicitation and provide the tools for legal aid fundraising and executive staff to make face to face solicitations and also support board members in becoming successful ambassadors and solicitors for their legal aid organizations. We will also facilitate an interactive solicitation practice with a “mock donor” so that session attendees can practice the skills they are learning in real time.
Engaging pro bono lawyers can increase your organization’s impact. It can also sometimes feel like more effort than it’s worth. This session will explore the ways in which pro bono lawyers add value while lifting the veil on pro bono practices at firms and legal services organizations to give you tangible practices for recruiting and mentoring pro bono attorneys for the greatest impact.
Friday May 16, 2025 1:15pm - 2:30pm EDT Plaza Room B
Litigants are perceived as lacking knowledge, but they possess crucial insights into process barriers that service providers might not see. Through user feedback and testing, service providers can redesign processes and empower litigants. This session will share lessons from Maryland Justice Passport to enhance service effectiveness by leveraging litigants' expertise.
This interactive session will include reports on developments related to state/territorial legislative funding initiatives aimed at increasing resources for civil legal aid. Updates will be provided on the ABA's data collection to support funding efforts and on potential federal funding that might be available at the state/territorial or local levels. Participants will share developments in their states/territories in a roundtable format and learn from others about what has worked, and not worked, in raising state/territorial legislative funding and accessing potential federal funding.
Friday May 16, 2025 1:15pm - 2:30pm EDT Golden Gate 8
Enhance your outreach program with strategies that integrate technology, inclusive hiring, and social impact. This session explores project management tools, social media engagement, and data-driven decision-making—all through a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) lens. Learn best practices for recruiting diverse talent, crafting inclusive messaging, and building authentic connections. Gain practical insights to create equitable, impactful, and sustainable outreach initiatives that drive lasting change.
Legal aid providers can protect the rights of older adults by expanding guardianship defense programs and services. This session highlights the guardianship defense provisions in the updated Older Americans Act regulations and showcases the Guardianship Defense Cohort, a group of legal aid organizations that built capacity for this critical work.
Learn about the new AI Co-Pilots that legal aid and court help groups are building to assist lawyers and paralegals with delivering high-quality and efficient services to more people.
What do expungement, debt collection, and name change cases have in common? 1) They are very important to the individuals with the case; 2) legal aid providers have limited resources to provide more help, and 3) the cases are often subject to the unpredictability of low and limited jurisdiction courts. This session will explore how three legal aid organizations have leveraged pro bono volunteers to provide targeted assistance to clients while advancing strategic advocacy efforts that have resulted in far-reaching improvements to court systems and the administration of justice.
This session is designed to build on the workshops we have done for the past few years on how to explain legal aid as constituent services to legislators and their staff. Now that many LSC grantees and other legal aid programs have begun to develop relationships with their federal and state legislators and staff, we want to identify ways to build on and expand those connections, e.g., provide trainings for district caseworkers; involve legislative staff in community outreach efforts. The panel will include LSC grantee Executive Directors and civil legal aid practitioners with experience meetin
Friday May 16, 2025 3:00pm - 4:15pm EDT Golden Gate 6
Life is more expensive when you are poor, impacting health. Consistent access to nutritious food is a powerful tool to improve health. This session explores how leveraging community partnerships and providing technical assistance to health care providers and CBOs, and legal assistance to patients, can improve food security and health.
How can we break down silos and build resources and community between organizations committed to access to justice? Dive into the transformative impact of legal aid-justice tech collaboration. This session will explore the potential of ethical tech advancements to revolutionize the access to justice landscape.
Friday May 16, 2025 3:00pm - 4:15pm EDT Plaza Room B
News about "Tangled Titles", aka "Heirs Property", seems to be everywhere these days. Learn how a coalition of legal services programs, volunteer attorneys, research and policy organizations, and the City of Philadelphia joined forces to preserve and protect inter-generational homes.
The SCOTUS decision abolishing affirmative action in college admissions profoundly affected racial justice litigation. The SFFA case was cited in legal attacks on Title VI disparate impact regulations, and several programs assisting minority businesses. Learn about these developments, current efforts to invalidate immigration laws due to intentional racial discrimination and the ways in which the decision profoundly affected other laws and programs that foster racial justice.
Explore leading practices in strategic planning for pro bono programs, including tools to support dynamic frameworks for ongoing decision-making. Attendees will gain practical tools to assess and enhance their programs, set clear priorities, and navigate complex challenges with greater clarity and confidence.
Justice Sotomayer's oral commentary in Grants Pass ignited core belief systems of folks across the nation. As advocates for the indigent, we have a unique opportunity to act right now by using our widely untapped but existing data and community commitment to leverage partnerships and programs, like Continuum of Care (CoC), to impact the rise of homelessness and prevent continued punitive response.
