Page 121 - BOGManual_2022November

the two-hour event. In total and across all the events, 94 questions were answered by 45 total
attendees.

National Celebrate Pro Bono Week Events Map, 2022:

3) Heir Property and Rural Justice Projects

For many years the Access to Justice Program has supported efforts of the local legal aid providers
and the public interest desires of private attorneys through the LSBA’s Legal Innovators for
Tomorrow (LIFT) incubator program. Matching attorneys with a proclivity for helping less
fortunate individuals with organizations that have identified a community’s legal needs has been
a successful model. LIFT Director Amy Duncan has created two such projects – the Rural Justice
Project and the Disaster Title Clearing Project. The Rural Justice Project, working with Acadiana
Legal Services, supports new solo practitioners to provide affordable and pro bono legal services
to low- and moderate- income Louisianans living in parishes described as civil legal resource
deserts. The Disaster Title Clearing Project, working with Southeast Louisiana Legal Services
(SLLS), was launched to support new solo practitioners to provide legal assistance to people
affected by Hurricane Ida with property and title clearing matters in four designated parishes. In
addition, the ATJ Committee is supporting similar work of SLLS and Louisiana Appleseed, on a
statewide heirship property project by helping to develop pro bono support from the private bar.

4) Louisiana Criminal Justice System and Mental Health

In September 2022, the LSBA Criminal Justice Committee formed a working group to focus on
the intersection of mental health and the criminal justice system. Discussions among a diverse
group of mental health and legal professionals at the Committee’s 2022 Summit in March led to
the development of a muli-disciplinary group to address challenges that the courts, the profession,
criminal justice stakeholders, and the public face when individuals with mental and behavioral
healthcare needs end up in the criminal justice system. The subcommittee plans to broaden the
working group membership to include a diverse group of stakeholders with varying perspectives
based on their work, such as mental health professionals, social workers, law enforcement agencies
and sheriffs, in addition to judges and attorneys. Given the prevalence of this issue and the rise of

2