2017 NLADA Annual Conference

Legal services programs across the country will need senior leadership. More than 68 percent of LSC litigation directors have been in legal services for 30 years or more. What does it take to become a senior leader in your legal services program? Explore the path to leadership with experienced legal services executive directors and learn the skills you’ll need for these leadership roles. Not sure you want to take a senior leadership role? Join the conversation to learn more about why legal services needs all kinds of leadership. This pre-conference training program will cover the critical skills you'll need to be a senior leader, how to create your own opportunities to build your leadership skills in your program, and how to maintain balance. This program is designed to stimulate the creation of on-going mentoring and support circles aimed to generate a network of emerging leaders and mentors throughout the country.

The section will conduct its regular business meeting and will have a special presentation about “kincare,” which occurs when non-parent relatives are caring for children whether or not the parents remain in the household. The presentation will focus on benefits and services available to non-parents raising young children. This session will be in English and Spanish.

The language we use in our respective fields affects many aspects of our work: what we talk about or do not talk about both reflects and influences our values, goals, policies, resources, and daily tasks. A brief narrative analysis of the field of civil legal aid reveals significant discussion about income but much less about race. This colorblind approach, while understandably rooted in the language of our current legal and political systems, has significant drawbacks for both the external and internal efficacy of legal aid service providers. Failing to “talk about what we’re talking about” hinders providers’ understanding of the problem and their ability to address it. By not talking about race, legal aid providers risk ignoring the complex challenges facing their clients or, more broadly, the root causes for structural racial inequity. A race-conscious legal aid workplace would encourage a frank discussion of implicit bias and microaggressions, not only in client interactions but in the recruitment, hiring, mentoring, and promoting of employees. Making race part of the everyday language of legal aid service provision has the potential to make sure the most qualified people are leading, administering, or providing services in a way that most benefits the people desiring assistance. This session will draw upon the lessons of critical race theory and our current black liberation movement to present research findings and suggest concrete tools to bring the language of race into legal aid. The session will be highly interactive, involving pair and group exercises that analyze case studies and brainstorm solutions.

In 2014, the United States Department of Justice created a "Language Access Planning and Technical Assistance Tool for Courts." In it, courts are encouraged to devise and implement a language access plan with the assistance and collaboration of advocates and a stakeholders committee. The tool recognizes the importance of including the participation of limited English proficient (LEP) individuals, community groups that work with LEP communities, private attorneys, the criminal defense bar, court staff, legal services organizations, legal programs that work with immigrant communities and other public interest attorneys, experts, bar associations, ethnic bar groups, court interpreters, and others. This panel will discuss the need for diverse language access advisory committees to advise state courts, how to persuade a court system to create such a committee (if one does not already exist), how to diversify such a committee (if one does already exist), and the broad range of tasks that such a committee can tackle. At a time when many LEP community members are afraid to go to court, eliminating language barriers is all the more important.

This session will be an opportunity for Civil Rights Division attorneys and staff to hear directly from legal services providers about their experiences interacting with clients who may have been subjected to sexual harassment in housing. What are the barriers clients face to reporting the conduct? What barriers do providers face when determining whether and how to act upon learning of sexual harassment in housing? What kinds of tools would benefit providers and clients? Sexual harassment in housing affects countless individuals and can result in significant distress as well as eviction and homelessness. It often involves unrelenting, unwanted, sexual advances or requests for sexual acts in exchange for reduced rents or delayed evictions. Persons experiencing such conduct often are especially vulnerable and have few housing options. Working together, we can help address and prevent harassment.

Are you concerned about potential cuts in LSC funding? Is it time to reduce your dependence on one or two very large funding sources? Are you ready to invest in fundraising but don't know how to get started effectively? Together we will map action steps on the elements you need for fundraising success: (1) your organization is known and respected in the community; (2) you have strong and sufficient staff to run a fundraising effort; (3) you have strong, dedicated volunteer leadership; (4) your board and staff share a commitment to invest time and money to raise money; and (5) you have a well-designed strategic resource development plan.

Is your legal aid organization poised to see retirements of key staff members in finance, resource development, operations, and legal advocacy in the not-so-distant future? If your role includes training, knowledge management, and hiring responsibilities, come to this session to share your thoughts and best practices toward protecting organizational capacity when key staff members depart. Learn from legal aid colleagues who have planned and managed transitions and developed staff leadership for the future.

In 2017, the Pro Bono Innovation Fund announced new grant categories designed to ensure that LSC grantees and their partners would be able to strengthen pro bono in their communities and organizations. This session will provide an overview of LSC’s Pro Bono Innovation Fund grantmaking and focus on grantees who have developed thoughtful and impactful pro bono efforts, including: a project in Milwaukee that leverages pro bono attorneys to provide clients with same-day representation in a high-volume housing court; a project that engages large law firms to adopt urban core neighborhoods in Kansas City to address public safety, nonprofit governance, affordable housing, and problem property issues; and a project to strategically integrate pro bono into legal aid advocacy efforts. After the session and throughout the conference, the Pro Bono Innovation Fund team will be hosting one-on-one “office hours” to work with any interested organizations in developing a Pro Bono Innovation Fund application or project idea.

This forum provides legal services executive directors and managers with an opportunity to share management concerns and receive peer support and assistance in an informal and confidential setting. The roundtable will be facilitated by members of the Management Information Exchange Board of Directors.