Page 259 - 2019 Orientation Manual

Access to Justice Initiatives

Working in conjunction with our Justice partners, the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Access to
Justice Department has been able to produce constructive results on numerous projects. These
justice community initiatives all have the underlying objective of integrating the network of
programs to further provide the best legal services possible to Louisiana’s indigent. A list and
description of some of the projects undertaken by the Committee follows.

Training

The Access to Justice Department offers a wide variety of Continuing Legal Education (CLE)
opportunities focused on various areas of public interest law to civil legal aid attorneys. The LSBA
Access to Justice Training and Projects Counsel coordinates and organizes low- or no-cost CLE
for the members of the justice community. As a means of providing consistent, affordable, and
pertinent continuing legal education credits, the ATJ Training and Projects Counsel works with
public interest law task forces and training subcommittee, and various non-profit organizations to
create CLE programming for Louisiana’s Justice Community. While this position was originally
created as a training coordinator through funding subsidized by the Legal Services Programs, the
position has expanded to include building and fostering relationships among five substantive task
forces, pro bono organizations and other members of the justice community to ensure educational
needs are met.

In order to make statewide cost-effective training opportunities accessible to all areas of the state,
various approaches to training are used. ATJ provides attorneys the option to attend trainings
remotely via videoconferencing and webinars. This makes the training available across various
regions of Louisiana and allows attorneys to avoid the cost associated with travel and time away
from the office. In addition, CLE sessions are recorded and presented online free- of-charge
through probono.net to increase the accessibility of substantive law trainings statewide. The ATJ
Department also provides customized trainings for new attorneys in the LIFT Legal Incubator and
Accelerator Program (see p. 14 for more information).

Louisiana Justice Community Conference

Each October, the LSBA’s Access to Justice Department, hosts the Louisiana Justice Community
Conference. This annual two-day training event provides civil legal aid attorneys and staff the
opportunity to obtain at least 9.0 hours of relevant CLE training, network with fellow civil legal
aid attorneys from around the state and attend in-person meetings to discuss critical issues and
initiatives. The Conference is an important opportunity for civil legal aid providers to learn, meet,
and understand the structure of services provided by organizations that perform different or similar
work. Along with professionalism, ethics and technology updates, the conference includes
presentations on substantive law topics relevant to the work of public interest advocates (and often
not offered by commercial CLE providers). During the event, meetings for related groups, such as

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