Each year the American Bar Association (ABA) and the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) holds its Equal Justice Conference to bring together practitioners from legal aid, public defender associations, public interest organisations, pro bono programs, law firms, volunteer lawyers and the judiciary to network and exchange information about their work, innovative delivery models, creative approaches to bridging the gap in access to systems of justice and resources to take back home.

This year’s conference held in Minneapolis from 6 – 9 May focused on the theme of ‘Pursuing Justice: Balancing Challenges and Opportunities.’

With over 90 seminars to choose from over a four day period, each time slot posed a difficult decision such as, ‘should I find out more about the self-help centres for unrepresented litigants which have sprung up across the US or discuss strategies with other public interest organisations on identifying matters to address through strategic litigation. Can I get the materials from the seminar on using web-based programs to reach clients in remote regions and still join in the discussion about how poverty, attitudes and culture influence both lawyers and our clients?’

The discussions between sessions was animated as over a 1000 people attending the conference exchanged news, scanned the conference guide and raced to make the beginning of their next session.  I have attempted below to capture some of the ideas exchanged at the seminars I attended and their relevance to PILCH’s work – needless to say it is not an exhaustive account.

Pro Bono: It’s Not Just for Lawyers

This was a thought provoking session which looked at ways to involve non-legal staff from law firms and corporations in pro bono programs and partnerships. One presenter, a media consultant, gave examples of the assistance she had provided to draft press releases and organise a media conference to celebrate a successful partnership between a public interest organisation and her law firm. When asked by one of the audience members how pro bono providers could thank non-legal staff for their involvement, she replied "they’d already made my job easier. Think of it this way - my job is to promote the law firm and the firm is proud of its pro bono program - so this was a great partnership to highlight."

Another presenter who manages a firm’s technology department was equally enthusiastic about pro bono providers tapping into the firm’s IT departments and expertise. His advice was to make sure that any request had the ‘sign off’ of a firm partner but, once that is in place, he said there are a number of ways an IT department can help - from revamping a pro bono providers web site, to updating their software programs and assisting with document management.

Lawyering Outside the Box: Creating Real Change with Holistic and Community Lawyering

‘Community Lawyering’ is a term I have heard used a number of times by the public interest lawyers in America, usually in response to my questions about whether their organisations (as well as referring non-profits for pro bono transactional advice) will assist non-profits to advocate? The presenters at this session gave practical examples of their advocacy work and in doing so demonstrated that ‘Community Lawyering’ is a catch all term to describe lawyers working with community groups to achieve systemic change through creative litigation, grassroots organising, targeted public relations and alliances with funders and policy makers.

The second speaker, a social clinical worker with the San Francisco Bar Association Volunteer Legal Services Program, referred to her work as ‘Holistic Advocacy’ and described it as “lawyers working side by side with social workers to address the root causes of legal problems for individual clients.” She gave examples of her intake work meeting with new clients at the Service and explained that they often present with legal problems which are inextricably linked or caused by a myriad of other problems. With the client’s consent and assistance she will try and identify further problems and refer the client to appropriate, complimentary services such as crisis accommodation, social security and job skill training, substance and alcohol abuse treatment programs, medical and mental health treatment and welfare services. 

Winning Combination: Corporate Law Departments, Law Firms and Legal Service Providers

This was a dynamic session and of particular interest for PILCH as we have been fortunate in the last few years to recruit a number of new corporate in-house legal teams as members. The presenters, a mix of corporate lawyers and pro bono program managers, discussed the obstacles facing in-house lawyers interested in undertaking pro bono work, such as restricted practicing certificates, smaller legal teams and less training opportunities around the legal issues that may affect pro bono clients. The panelists discussed the steps they have taken to overcome these obstacles. These included developing partnership projects between corporate in-house teams and law firms to ensure the corporate lawyers have access to the same administrative systems, libraries and resources, and arranging for the pro bono providers to hold training for the corporate lawyers and where necessary set up co-counsel retainers.

The key message was that corporate legal teams already have experience in working with law firms when they retain them to assist with contract, risk assessment and litigation matters. This experience in delegating responsibility for tasks, scoping the assistance required and establishing reporting systems and authority for ‘sign off’ is directly applicable to collaborating on a pro bono project. The panel’s moderator, Esther Lardent from the Pro Bono Institute (PBI) in Washington DC, praised the increased involvement of corporate teams in the delivery of pro bono services. In the past two years she said the PBI’s Corporate Project has assisted with the establishment of over 200 pro bono projects involving corporate legal departments and those lawyers, acting as an intersect between business and the law, provide a fresh perspective to the cases and access to new networks.

Outcome-Focused Self Assessment for Pro Bono, Pro Se Assistance and Legal Service Programs.

At this presentation three panelists from a company called The Resource for Great Programs discussed their ‘five steps to success’ methodology: (1) identify your beneficiaries (2) identify what results are important to your beneficiaries (3) gather useful information; (4) use the information to achieve better results and (5) identify ways to tell your story.

As the panelists elaborated on ways to implement the five step process, the audience were asked to identify ways in which they could involve their staff in the evaluation process, conduct client satisfaction surveys, hold focus groups and report their achievements. The most popular method identified (which PILCH also employs) was to distribute publications which report on the number of individuals who have benefited from referrals, the financial value of the assistance provided and the outcomes achieved.

The fourth and final speaker at this session, who manages a legal services program in Harrisburg, discussed her experience assessing their program and her initial resistance to undertaking evaluation. She confessed "in the past my response to questions about the effectiveness of our program was always to say firmly, 'we are doing good work!' Finally my mentor said 'times have changed, it’s not enough to say ‘I’m doing good work’ you have to assess your outcomes', and now having done it I have to say I’m a complete convert.’

If you would like to find out more about the ‘five step’ review methodology and view sample surveys, the Great Programs website is www.greatprograms.org. An evaluation tool kit can also be found at www.calegaladvocates.org .

Transactional Pro Bono for Community Organisations and Micro-entrepreneurs

The final session I attended was a roundtable with 14 managers of various pro bono programs across the US which assist non-profit organisations to obtain transactional legal advice. We compared notes on client outreach, designing educational programs and publications for non-profits and who charges their clients a fee for placing their matters with pro bono lawyers.

One of things I’ve found most surprising in the US is that there are not enough non-profits requesting advice to satisfy the demand from law firms and in-house corporate teams for pro bono matters. As a result the discussion mainly focused on ways to attract new clients and also to educate previous non-profit clients to identify when they have further legal issues.

The legal profession’s capacity and willingness to take on more pro bono transactional, business law referrals has also enabled a number of the community economic development projects across the US to develop pro bono programs to assist low-income micro-entrepreneurs and small business owners who would otherwise be unable to afford legal advice or guidance.

The Midtown Global Market

A function which was held on the first night of the conference at the Midtown Global Market gave the visiting practitioners an opportunity to talk to the small business owners who have been assisted by a law firm in Minneapolis through its partnership project with a micro-entrepreneur training program called the Neighborhood Development Center (NDC). The Market is located in a renovated Sears Building which previously stood abandoned for 15 years and was purchased and developed by the NDC and three Neighborhood Partners (the African Development Center, the Latino Economic Development Center and the Powderhorn Phillips Cultural Wellness Center) to house a variety of small businesses, approximately 90% of which are owned by past students of the NDC.

The stall and restaurant owners’ passion and commitment is inspiring and it was exciting to hear the business owners (many of whom are female and newly arrived immigrants) talk about how the NDC and pro bono lawyers had assisted them to start up their businesses and achieve independence and self sufficiency. 

Where to from here?

The conference highlighted some inspiring developments in pro bono programs and projects which have been established to maximise the ability of in-house counsel, law firms and pro bono organisations to provide services to those in need. My predictions for new directions for pro bono programs in Australia would be: the increased use of technology and creative self-help programs to assist self-represented litigants (an initiative QPILCH has recently established in Australia) the inclusion of low-income micro-entrepreneurs (seeking basic business law advice) in pro bono eligibility guidelines and an increase in the level of assistance available for non-profits.  I hope that the affordable housing crisis in Australia will not reach the level it has in the US with its sub prime crisis which has seen new legal clinics spring up in a matter of months to advise homeowners in distress.  

Next year’s conference is being held in Orlando, it would be of interest for legal aid, community and pro bono lawyers. For further information about the conference see NLADA’s website: www.nlada.org