Legal
Assistance to the Disadvantaged Committee
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Legal
Assistance to the Disadvantaged Committee
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2006-07
Minutes LAD COMMITTEE MINUTES
By Telephone: Joe Dixon, Mary Seaworth, Alysia Zens Staff: Steve Hirsh, Emily Cooper, Bridget Gernander 1. Introductions 2. Reports " CLE for Pro Bono (Pat Burns): no decision from the Supreme Court yet. The CLE Board has contacted several providers to get information about how their pro bono programs operate, apparently to see how the proposed rule could be re-worked to minimize administrative concerns. " Equal Justice Conference (May 6 - 9, 2008) (Jim
Baillie): " MSBA Civil Gideon Task Force (Steve Hirsh): The task force is being formed. The first meeting will be scheduled once the chairs are named. " Disaster Planning (Pat Burns): " Pat Burns offered background and presented the following resolution for consideration: RESOLVED that the Minnesota State Bar Association adopt the American Bar Association's Model Court Rule on Provision of Legal Services Following Determination of Major Disaster " Pat clarified that the resolution should read: RESOLVED that the Minnesota State Bar Association petition the Minnesota Supreme Court to adopt … " The MSBA Rules of Professional Conduct Committee
reviewed the model rule, and does not oppose it. Some concerns raised
by the committee: " Motion to adopt resolution as amended, second, approved unanimously. " 2008 Becker Awards (Steve Hirsh) 3. Subcommittees " Statewide Client Access (Bev Heydinger): In response
to comments to the previous draft, Bev and Steve Hirsh met with Judy
Rehak and Bridget Gernander. The result of that meeting was a decision
to redraft and refocus the RFP. The subcommittee intends to have a
new draft for LAD's consideration at the March meeting. " Judiciary Subcommittee (Steve Hirsh): " Pro Bono Council (Steve Hirsh): " Pro Bono Reporting: see Pro Bono Counsel " Pro Bono Practitioner Rule: on hold pending ruling on CLE for Pro Bono petition. Mississippi has just enacted an emeritus rule. 4. Justice Hanson's resolution of thanks (Pat Burns): " This resolution was presented for LAD's consideration: RESOLUTION OF APPRECIATION Motion to approve resolution, second, passed unanimously 5. National law firm involvement in local pro bono: 6. Announcements
LAD COMMITTEE MINUTES
By Telephone: Patty Murto, Margie Savage, Mike Connelly, Sarah Shella-Stevens Staff: Caroline Palmer, Steve Hirsh
Judiciary subcommittee - Judge Jay Quam has agreed to take over as chair of the subcommittee. Pat has asked the subcommittee to take up two issues - how IFP rules are applied across the state to address consistency and come up with guidelines or standards and trying to change the judicial branch rules on judicial branch employees doing pro bono work - right now there is a flat-out prohibition but may be willing to change if there are some pro bono guidelines presented - would have to go through Judicial Council for approval. Statewide Client Access subcommittee - Judge Beverly Heydinger reported that the group met in July to revisit the charge of the subcommittee. The group did a lot of brainstorming. Since then Caroline, Steve and Bev met to consolidate the thinking from that meeting and a new meeting has been set for October 8. At that time the group will revisit the list from the first meeting with the goal of getting a RFP drafted and reviewed by subcommittee to bring back to LAD in January for approval - looking for gaps in access in the state as well as models from other states. CLE for Pro Bono Rule - Pat Burns reported that the proposed rule will be presented to the Supreme Court on September 18, 2007 at 2 p.m. - two responses were filed, one from the Minnesota CLE Board and one from a group of professors at the University of Minnesota. The professors spoke in favor and the Minnesota CLE Board took a neutral position in opposition to the petition. The subcommittee met last week with Mary Vasaly who will make the presentation to the court. Pat encouraged members to attend the hearing to provide moral support. 2008 Equal Justice Conference - Jim Baillie reported that the host committee has been working hard and want to use the conference as an opportunity to strengthen programs in Minnesota. The conference will take place May 6-9, 2008. A subcommittee is generating a participants list - trying to get the names of everyone who should know about the conference and LAD should think about who should be on the list. Any suggestions should be given to Sue Pontinen. Also LAD members should think about who would not attend because of the cost ($400 for registration) and the ABA/NLADA are talking about unbundling the cost so it could be less. The local planning committee expects to raise money to develop a scholarship program - they want everyone to come. There is also a subcommittee working on programs - the deadline is October 17 for the RFP and they want to encourage groups here to submit ideas and programs. There is also a fundraising committee and firms will be asked to donate. The party will be on May 8 and there will be a reception for the legal services program representatives from the Gulf Coast as well as the business law program. Vice President Walter Mondale has accepted as keynote speaker. There will be a pre-conference focusing on the self-represented litigant, Hennepin County will be featured and Susan LeDray plus the local law librarians will be involved in this program. MSBA Civil Gideon Task Force - Caroline Palmer provided background on the proposal and reported that it is going to the policy committee on September 17, and if approved, to the assembly on September 28. It is estimated that the task force will start its work in January 2008. The Emeritus/Pro Bono Practice Rule - Brad Thorsen reported that the subcommittee met a couple of weeks ago and have reworked the rule in response to comments from the Minnesota CLE board. It was not favorably responded to by the board and the subcommittee decided to wait and see what the Supreme Court does with the pro bono CLE credit rule before moving forward. The current version of the proposed rule will waive registration fees for inactive lawyers, will reduce CLE credit requirements. The Minnesota CLE board is raising concerns about administrative costs. Pro Bono Council - Karen Canon reported that the Pro Bono Council has been meeting every two months and recently the group decided to revisit its activities. Attendance has been falling off and its work is not organized around any issue like funding or specific programs. It's a loose gathering of programs to serve as voice of pro bono. Canon proposed that the objectives of the Pro Bono Council would be better met if it became affiliated with LAD. The proposal is to keep the core of the Pro Bono Council and open up membership. As a LAD subcommittee it would serve as the first stop when pro bono issues come up. This would be a good way to refocus the efforts of pro bono council and could take up some of the LAD issues regarding pro bono. Canon asked for LAD to adopt Pro Bono Council as a formal subcommittee. Cathy Haukedahl asked about the Pro Bono Council joint venture agreement and Canon thought the same charter would continue under LAD - although other LAD members can participate. Michael Friedman asked why there needs to be a contractual venture and Heydinger asked if is there any risk if LAD says it doesn't like a Pro Bono Council idea. Canon responded that Pro Bono Council wouldn't move forward if LAD didn't agree. Pro Bono Council gains nothing by having independence and regains it by joining up with LAD - the staff support is also one of the considerations. Janine Laird spoke in favor of the proposal - it is appropriate for the LAD committee to embrace pro bono activities as part of normal course of events. Burns responded to Friedman's concerns by stating if the joint venture agreement becomes too unwieldy LAD can revisit the arrangement Joe Dixon stated that the Pro Bono Council should rework the charter as a subcommittee of LAD therefore the first charge to the new Pro Bono Council subcommittee is to rework the charter to reflect the new reality and come back to the next LAD meeting with a report. Publications - Haukedahl stated that there is not enough visibility about LAD issues in the bar as we would like; also not everyone understands the issues and problems and therefore LAD needs to have a strategy for getting some articles published in different venues. Burns added that over the past year or so he has spoken with Bench & Bar and received some positive feedback but the problem is gathering the articles and submitting them. A subcommittee was formed to work on increasing visibility in various publications. Heydinger volunteered to identify articles that can be re-published here; Judge Lloyd Zimmerman talked about getting kits to the judges around the state that would help volunteers access a collection of treatises. There's no money in the LAD budget for this but if we anticipated some expenses in the coming year, it could put it in next year's budget; could also make a request to the bar for specific funding, if needed. Pro Bono Reporting - Cathy Haukedahl stated that the time has come to start the work again on "unified" pro bono reporting. There has been more movement across the country and the recent Pro Bono report experience proved that it's really difficult to collect information. As it stands now it is impossible to get any sort of clear sense of the amount of pro bono activity in the state. We should use that experience as a basis to start trying to create some sort of system that standardizes the information so we can collect it and assess it. Baillie spoke in support of moving forward because it's difficult to plan without knowing the need. Jeremy Lane agreed - since the last time the Supreme Court shot down this idea some other states have gotten in the act and so now we can talk about whether it makes this difference. The justices want comprehensive information on pro bono now so there may be more support on the court. A subcommittee was formed to work on this issue. Disaster reporting - Palmer reported that Appleseed is urging state bars to take on American Bar Association model rule and LAD has been asked to review the proposed rule and submit to the MSBA for approval. Baillie talked about the rule -the essence is to permit the court to determine if there is a disaster for which the rule is necessary and determine parameters. The rule would be available for the court to trigger and the services would have to be provided through legal services and pro bono programs that are approved in advance. Iowa has done it - Baillie recommended that the MSBA recommend it to the court - the disaster, pro bono and ethics committees from the ABA found this proposed rule to be adequate. The professionalism and rules committees will also be approached for input. MSBA Support for Legal Aid/Pro Bono - Burns presented the concern about trying to get more formalized support for legal aid and pro bono in the MSBA. Hirsh addressed this as well -staff internally sees a lot of segregation between the legal aid/pro bono programs and other programs of the MSBA. Lane said a possible mechanism is the MSBA's position statement with regard to legal services and pro bono - perhaps LAD should look at updating and expanding it by bringing it to the assembly. Mike Klinkhammer said that MSBA has been very supportive and could be encouraged to do more with mission statement. Judge Lloyd Zimmerman said the bar works through its committees and that work could be done to raise the consciousness if not already part of the working agenda for a committee. The position statement is available on the web. Announcements: The Attractive Nuisance Tour will take place on Friday October 26 at Fine Line - six or seven bands - proceeds divided by Minnesota Justice Foundation and Hennepin County Bar Foundation.
By Telephone: Tom Meilenhausen, Sarah Shella-Stevens Staff: Caroline Palmer, Emily Cooper, Steve Hirsh 1. Introductions 2. Review of 2007 accomplishments: Katie reviewed LAD activities for the past year
3. CLE for Pro Bono Update (Pat Burns): Hearing on the petition set for September 22 at 2 pm. Public comments and requests for oral presentations due by August 22. LAD members are encouraged to submit supporting comments. Support from law school faculty regarding the value of “learning by doing” could be especially useful. 4. Military Pro Bono Project (Caroline Palmer): Caroline summarized recent MSBA-sponsored meeting to discuss services for returning troops. About 2800 troops are expected to return this summer, and a significant number of them will need legal services. The MSBA has had a listserve for military pro bono cases for the last three years. A CLE on service-related issues will be offered later this year. Contact Caroline Palmer to be added to the listserve. 5. 2008 Equal Justice Conference (Jim Baillie): The conference will be from Tuesday May 6 through Friday May 9. The local host committee is assembling a mailing list for conference publicity and information. Please submit names/contact info to Jim or Mary Schneider. Pre-conferences on May 5. One possibility is pro se services, including a tour of the Hennepin County Self-Help Center. The party will be on Thursday night. Anticipated budget for the local host committee will be around $50,000, which would include funds for scholarships. The program design committee will be looking to the local host committee for program ideas and local speakers/presenters. Information on the 2007 conference is here: http://www.abanet.org/legalservices/ejc/home.html. 6. Judiciary Subcommittee (Caroline Palmer): Judge Zimmerman is unable to continue as chair, and asked that LAD suggest new leadership and provide some direction for the subcommittee. Possible project for the subcommittee: research application of IFP statute around MN. Judges identified as possible chairs: Jay Quam, Bruce Peterson. LAD members should contact the co-chairs with suggested names. The co-chairs will make the contacts for the committee. 7. Pro Bono Practitioner (Brad Thorsen): Peg Corneille reviewed last draft of proposed rule and offered a number of administrative concerns. Some subcommittee members want to look at developing something more comprehensive than just a rule change, on the order of Washington’s program. The ABA Second Season of Service website has materials about possible approaches. The subcommittee will review this material. Brad will schedule a meeting of the subcommittee later this summer or in the fall. 8. LAD survey results (Katie Trotzky): the committee members’ responses to the survey are attached. Subcommittees will be formed to address top priorities at the September meeting. 9. Civil Gideon (Caroline Palmer): A resolution asking the MSBA to create a task force to study the feasibility of creating and implementing a civil right to counsel was presented to the committee:
Motion to adopt the resolution by Jerry Lane, 2nd by Joe Dixon, passed unanimously. Staff will forward the resolution to the General Policy Committee, for consideration by the Assembly in September. 10. Statewide Client Access Subcommittee (Beverly Heydinger): Bev offered a proposed workplan for the subcommittee (copy attached). Since the HCBA hotline task force decided to focus on Hennepin and Ramsey counties, it is appropriate for the LAD subcommittee to continue studying the issue for the entire state. LAD members agreed with the workplan Bev offered, and agreed that the subcommittee should move forward. The subcommittee will work to have adequate rural representation in its membership. In addition to the existing subcommittee members, the following agreed to participate: Candee Goodman, Jerry Lane, Katie Trotzky, Gary Hird, David Lund. 11. Legal Services Planning Committee (Peter Knapp): Peter reported on the recent visit to the Planning Committee by Jim Bamburger, director of the Washington Office of Civil Legal Aid. Materials from Washington’s planning process are posted on the LAD website (http://www2.mnbar.org/committees/lad/state-planning.htm). Next Planning Committee meeting is September 17 in Duluth. 12. Hennepin County “hotline” project (Brad Thorsen): Brad reviewed history of the project. The task force is working to complete its recommendations, which tentatively include enhancing 211’s capacity to make better legal referrals, housing staff at 211 to coordinate efforts with legal services providers, and creating an advice/brief service hotline for Hennepin and Ramsey counties. 13. Announcements:
14. 2007-2008 meeting dates:
15. The committee extended its thanks to Katie Trotzky for her service as LAD co-chair. One goal of LAD and the Supreme Court Planning Committee is to improve access to legal services to low-income people across the state. Last year LAD appointed a subcommittee to study whether development of a single point of access for services state-wide would increase the quality or quantity of service access. In an early meeting, the subcommittee began to consider how it could determine if there are low-income people facing legal challenges but lacking an entrance point to the legal services system. Discussions were tabled while the HCBA, HCBF and RCBA "Call to Justice" group considered the possible development of a central access point for individuals served by Hennepin and Ramsey county lawyers. Their report will be issued in June and focus on Hennepin and Ramsey Counties. The statewide questions the LAD subcommittee faced still remain. The subcommittee will reconvene to write an RFP to hire a researcher who can address the following questions: Do low income people across the state know how to access legal services? We would consider conducting a survey by region to determine how widely access to information is available and utilized when needed, and whether there are particular characteristics of the persons who are uninformed. If low income people or sub-groups do not know how to access legal services, which service model would provide the greatest benefit? What characteristics should an improved system have? What is the best staffing model, to assure the broadest use, with the fewest barriers? In evaluating the models, what proportion of the target group will be served adequately by:
Of the models available, what are the benefits, disadvantages and costs of each one? The Subcommittee proposes to draft and solicit proposals, evaluate
them and seek funding for the selected proposal, and review the final
product, with the goal being to document a set of recommendations to
improve access to legal services to low-income people throughout the
state, with due regard for the barriers they may face. Subcommittee Members: LAD COMMITTEE MINUTES
By Telephone: Mike Connolly, Mary Schneider Staff: Caroline Palmer, Emily Cooper CLE Credit for Pro Bono Rule: Pat Burns reported that the draft petition by Mary Vasaly has been submitted to Tim Groshens for review; he will give the petition to Frank Harris for review and to Patrick Kelly for approval and signature. It is not clear whether the petition will be heard by the court before the summer break. Statewide Client Access: Pat Burns reported that the Hennepin County Bar Association committee continues its work and the subcommittees will report on their activities by the end of April. A final report by the committee is due at the end of May. Equal Justice Conference 2008: Caroline Palmer reported that the ABA is changing the dates of the conference; it will likely take place in May 2008 but the dates are not confirmed yet. Jim Baillie, the planning committee co-chair, reported that the planning committee will have its first meeting on April 12 and that they will be looking for volunteers for subcommittees. The committee will report to LAD at each meeting. There will be a push to strengthen participation by law firms, law students, legal aid and pro bono staff. Since now is the time that law firms start to budget for the following year it would be helpful if they include some funding for the conference in their budgets. Becker Awards 2007: Palmer announced that the recipients of this year's Becker Awards for legal services staff and a volunteer law student are Kathleen Davis (Mid-Minnesota Legal Assistance), Robert Youngerman (Southern Minnesota Legal Services) and Sarah Pollex (University of Minnesota). The awards will be given at the April 26, 2007 MSBA Assembly meeting. Burns thanked the members of the LAD committee who assisted with the selection process. Brainstorming Session: The remainder of the meeting was devoted to a brainstorming session for new ideas and priorities. The ideas are listed below in the order they were suggested: 1) Create a DVD to play and have pro bono materials to pass out at the Family Law Institute and other CLE events (example: at recent Family Law Institute a DVD on domestic violence cases was played during the plenary). 2) Focus on solo and small firms, particularly in the Twin Cities metro area where there is not as much of a community structure for the attorneys as there may be in smaller towns. 3) Gather statistical information about the volunteer pool, i.e. what percentage come from small firms or solos? Also need more information about medium-sized firms - where does the pool of attorneys come from who do family law? 4) Follow up on law firm visits started last year - need to figure out how to stay on their radar. Can a pro bono coordinator be outsourced for firms that don't have one? 5) Increase outreach to public lawyers - a revised policy will be presented to the MSBA Assembly later this month 6) Get involved with the local chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, find out how to help them and learn more about the handful of projects that are partnerships between corporate counsel and law firms 7) Develop models for attorneys working on a low-fee basis such as with unbundled services. 8) Standing LAD agenda item to invite members from other bar sections and committees to attend LAD meeting and find out what resources may be available to them to assist in their pro bono work. 9) If a public law policy is adopted the state court administrators need to be aware of it - court clerks are not involved in the public law section and are not aware of what they can do on a pro bono basis. A top-down approach may be needed - go to the Supreme Court justices to help spread the message. 10) Pro bono policy at Attorney General's office - look at Washington state as a model 11) Address systemic issues by having public law attorneys conduct administrative research. 12) Develop a more organized way to distribute information that people pick up from conferences in order to share resources 13) Bellow-Sacks study - have a small group review the study and determine whether it would be applicable to Minnesota; the group could prepare and lead a discussion on the study with LAD and make a recommendation to LAD regarding the study 14) Follow-through on the Legal Services Planning Commission report. The report included five recommendations: 1) make pro bono a full partner in the delivery of legal services; 2) better cooperation in pro bono efforts; 3) establishment of the Pro Bono Council; 4) hiring of pro bono staff; 5) focus on statewide delivery of pro bono services. Can LAD have an impact on the LSAC/LTAB distribution? Distribution of funds to staffed legal services, pro bono and judicare should be updated (last review in September 2004). 15) Pro Bono Council needs to be revitalized. Needs staff help and funding in place to support it. Perhaps the Pro Bono Council position can be incorporated into the new position that will organize LSAC/LTAB and the Legal Services Planning Committee. 16) Mandatory Pro Bono Reporting - more states are doing it now, we should try again in Minnesota. The attorney registration system is better than it was the last time this was attempted, which was one of the concerns raised before. 17) Pro bono assistance for the Minnesota national guard and reserve 18) Identify other discrete projects around specific pockets of need 19) Pro se assistance for rural counties where there are not many lawyers 20) How to help attorneys feel comfortable with taking cases outside their practice areas - need more training opportunities and mentorship programs. Students also want mentors. 21) Additional needs in the administrative law system for pro bono attorneys. 22) Pro bono teams that can regularly work together on a bigger project - would help with mentoring within the firms. 23) Pro bono teams could help address geographic disparity - lawyers can be paired up from different parts of the state. 24) There needs to be a regular pro bono column that talks about success stories - in either Bench and Bar or Minnesota Lawyer or some other media. Keep encouraging the bar president to include pro bono on the president's page in Bench and Bar. 25) Encourage more collaboration between staffed legal services programs and pro bono programs 26) Contribute more content to ProJusticeMn.org 27) Keep working on Civil Gideon 28) Study the IFP process to see if there is some way to achieve systemization and avoid inconsistencies in application 29) Look at how cases are assigned to volunteers - in order to avoid the double recruiting bind of first getting the volunteer and then getting the volunteer to take a case, just assign cases to next volunteer on the list (pending conflicts checks and time constraints). Legal Assistance to the Disadvantaged
Committee MINUTES Members Present: Pat Burns, Katie Trotzky, Liz Dillon, Jim Baillie,
Ed Cassidy, Gary Hird, Tom Johnson, Roger Stageberg, Mary Durand, Pam
Wandzel, Michael Friedman, Sara Sommerstram, Tom Conlin, Janine Laird,
Beverly Heydinger, Bricker Lavik, Sue Pontinen, Candee Goodman, Peter
Knapp, Brad Thorsen, Jerry Lane, Sten Hoidal 1. Subcommittee Updates 2. Reports 4. 2008 Equal Justice conference 5. New business 6. Announcements Remaining meetings for the 2006-2007 year:
Legal Assistance to the Disadvantaged
Committee MINUTES Members Present: Gary Hird, David Lund, Michele McKenzie, Tom Johnson,
Karen Canon, Roger Stageberg, Lloyd Zimmerman, Mary Durand, Pam Wandzel,
Michael Friedman, Sara Sommerstram, Roy Ginsburg, Tom Conlin, Jim Patterson,
Janine Laird, Beverly Heydinger, Bricker Lavik, Alysia Zens, Sue Pontinen,
Candee Goodman, Peter Knapp, Brad Thorsen, Jerry Lane, Sten Hoidal,
Bruce Beneke, Harry Haynsworth. By telephone: Michael Connolly, Sarah
Shella-Stevens 1. Introductions 2. Subcommittees " IOLTA rule (Roger Stageberg): No objections to the petition have been filed. Hearing on the petition will be December 12 at 2 pm. We anticipate that the new rule will generate several hundred thousands of dollars in additional IOLTA revenue. The petition requests that the new rule take effect 6 months after adoption. We will ask the Court to rule by December 31. Thirteen states have adopted a similar rule. "CLE for Pro Bono (Tom Conlin): Tom reviewed the history of the
proposed rule, inclusing the MSBA adoption of the proposal. Mary Vasaly
is drafting the petition to the Supreme Court to adopt . Subcommittee
members met on December 1 with Peg Corneille and the CLE Board Rules
Committee to answerdiscuss the CLE Board's questions about administering
the rule. The Rules Committee also heard separately from Minnesota CLE.
The LAD subcommittee offered its view of how the rule would work regarding
details such as how the CLE Board would deterimine eligibility of a
legal services provider. The Board is concerned about an isolated program
or lawyer using the rule for unintended purposes, thereby diverting
significant Board resources to respond to such attempts. The subcommittee
will attempt to offer minor technical changes to the draft proposal
that might address the Board's concerns over the next couple of weeks.
Hopefully, the Board won't raise significant concerns before the Supreme
Court. " Judiciary (Lloyd Zimmerman): The subcommittee is meeting every other month at 7:30. The committee sent a "pro bono encouragement care package" to each judicial district contact. Justice Esther Tomljanovich has agreed to co-chair the subcommittee. She will make a presentation at the annual judge's conference about the subcommittee and its goals. " Law School Initiatives (Janine Laird): MJF is one of 10 law schools (it actually represents four law schools) in the country to be selected to participate in a two year initiative to address the law school "pipeline issue" (lack of diversity among law students results from lack of interest/support for minority students in college, high school, and elementary grades). MJF will modify its Street Law program to increase messages to youth about considering law as a career. " Law firm pro bono recruitment and pro bono report (Caroline Palmer): The Pro Bono Report advisory group is developing the surveys for the report. Various stakeholders have reviewed and offered comments on the surveys. The surveys will go out in late December or early January, and will request 2006 data. Caroline will also collect responses from a pro bono survey conducted last year. " Pro Bono Practitioner rule (Brad Thorsen): The subcommittee continues to meet. It is still refining the rule, based on input from the Professional Responsibility Board and the Board of Law Examiners. Hopefully, a draft will be ready for LAD's consideration at the February meeting. " Statewide Client Access (Beverly Heydinger): Beverly and Pat Burns met with HCBA president Mike Unger to discuss coordination and goals/objectives of the subcommittee with the HCBA effort. Mike understands that much work is needed to define and develop the type of "hotline" that might be useful. HCBA is hosting a meeting with selected legal services providers today. The LAD subcommittee is available to help collect information, evaluate possibilities, etc. LAD members invited to the meeting are Jerry Lane, Bruce Beneke, Brad Thorson, Candee Goodman, Mary Durand, Bricker Lavik, and Pat Burns. " Pro Bono Council (Karen Canon): The Council met in October to brainstorm for the Legal Services Planning Committee Assembly. The Assembly meeting resulted in a plan to use interactive TV so that metro lawyers can do pro bono in greater Minnesota. The Council is also discussing its mission. At the next meeting the Council will focus on defining its mission. 3. Reports " LSAC/LTAB/Planning Committee staffing (Steve Hirsh): nothing to report. " Legal Services Planning Committee (Peter Knapp): The Assembly met last month. Small groups identified several initiatives and strategic goals for the Planning Committee to address. The Planning Committee will meet in January to set priorities and form task forces to move projects forward. Collecting and analyzing information on legal needs won't begin before a staff position is created. " Projustice (Emily Cooper): The site update is going well. The redesign will be ready for rollout this spring. Staff is currently updating content, creating practice groups for immigration, family, and housing law. Any help developing content for these areas would be helpful. Staff is also working with MSBA practicelaw staff to develop uniform family law forms. A group of providers is meeting weekly to develop new child support forms to be ready by January 1. " MVAP Technology Project (Michael Friedman): The Legal Rights Center has received a much needed technology grant from the United Way. This grant was made possible by the report LRS received from the Tech Project consultants. This is precisely the type of outcome that the Tech grant was intended to produce. Katie Trotzky also reported that the Tech grant assessment Legal Aid Assistance of Dakota County received provided critical information that the program required to update its system, including advice on budgeting for regular upgrading. " 2008 ABA/NLADA Equal Justice Conference (Caroline Palmer): Caroline reviewed the history of contact from the ABA about siting the 2008 EJ conference in Minneapolis. The ABA has selected Minneapolis (although the formal decision will wait until it signs a contract with the Hilton). The conference will be on April 16-19, 2008. Pat Kelly will appoint a local planning committee, which will handle party planning, and suggest local speakers and workshops topics. LAD recommendations for the planning committee: Jim Baillie, Bricker Lavik, Roy Ginsburg, Pam Wandzel, Candee Goodman, Janine Laird, Brad Thorsen, Sue Holden, Ed Cassidy, and representatives from Minnesota CLE, Minneapolis city government, Legal Services Coalition and the Pro Bono Council. "Government lawyer pro bono model policy (Public Law Section -
Nancy McLean, Tom Kalitowski): Nancy and Tom gave history of development
of the model policy. The key provisions include provision for program
approval, so lawyers don't need approval for each case. The model policy
also contains a 50-hour aspirational goal, and encourages volunteer
recognition and awards. Janine offered that MJF can provide students
as volunteer law clerks. As this policy was originally a recommendation
of the LAD committee, MSBA policy requires the revisions to the proposal
be approved by the originating committee. Accordingly, " SMRLS Senior Fair (Kathie Battle Sayles): Kathie described SMRLS' new metro seniors initiative, which focuses on using volunteers to provide community education. Topics developed from needs assessments completed by service programs. Response has been very favorable, and Ccommunity education sessions are already scheduled through next fall;. T the second phase of the project will involve organizing private lawyers/firms to offer legal advice to seniors. As part of this effort, SMRLS is hosting a Senior Legal Fair on May 24, 2007 at the Rivercentre in St. Paul. They are expecting 500 seniors to attend. There will be workshops on a number of topics, and1-on-1 advice clinics. Kathie requested that LAD formally support the Senior Fair, and request the MSBA to become a sponsor. LAD's consensus was that LAD"s role it develops policy, and it would be inappropriate for LAD to sponsor specific events by individual providers. There was consensus that the Senior Fair is consistent with LAD's mission of increasing legal services to the disadvantaged. 4. Announcements " Roy Ginsburg announced that some of his clients were looking for opportunities to donate to legal services providers, and requested information about mechanisms for doing that. " Next meeting: February 6, 2007 Minutes
MSBA Legal Assistance to the Disadvantaged Committee (LAD) October 3, 2006
Minutes
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Last Updated 11/15/05 -
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