Learning Lab

Access to Courts for People with Disabilities

Eric Zell – Supervising Attorney, Legal Aid Society of Cleveland
Jennifer Smith – Supervising Attorney, Legal Aid Society of Cleveland

Access to Justice for Veterans: Insights and Updates from the Veterans Affairs (VA) Legal Services for Veterans (LSV) Program - 

Bethany E. Hamilton – Director, National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership
Madolyn Gingell, LCSW – National Coordinator, VA Legal Services for Veterans, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Kristin Nelson Verrill – Managing Attorney, Veterans Law Project, Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc.

Advanced Topics in Systemic Litigation: A Roundtable Discussion

Sarah Reisman – Directing Attorney of Advocacy and Litigation, Community Legal Aid SoCal
Erica Ettinger – Senior Attorney, Community Legal Aid SoCal
Brenda Adams – Director of Litigation, Bay Area Legal Aid

AI Policy Primer: How New AI Laws Can Protect Our Clients

Kevin De Liban – Founder and President, TechTonic Justice
Elizabeth Edwards – Senior Attorney, National Health Law Program

Bridging the Gap in Veterans Legal Services with Pro Bono Support: LAFLA’s Veterans of Color Advocacy Project

Tyler Nicole Smith – Managing Attorney, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
 Alisa Burie – Paralegal, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
Phong Wong

Building & Supporting the Next Generation of Attorneys Expanding Access to Justice in Tribal Court Systems

Andrew S. Dugan – Executive Director, Skagit Legal Aid
Auston Jimmicum – Tribal Law Clerk, Skagit Legal Aid
Jessica Pouley

Building and Sustaining Partnerships with Tribal Communities and Organizations

Mary Rodriguez – Program Attorney, National American Indian Court Judges Association
Johanna Farmer – Program Attorney, National American Indian Court Judges Association
Stephanie Hudson – Executive Director, Oklahoma Indian Legal Services
Rudy Sanchez

Civil Legal Needs of Gun Violence Survivors

Albert Stancil – Staff Attorney, Rebuild, Overcome, and Rise (ROAR) Center at UMB
Tianna Mays – Acting Director, Criminal Justice Project, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Carly Pick – Manager, Center for Injury Prevention and Policy, UMMC, Shock Trauma Center
Lydia C. Watts – Executive Director, Rebuild, Overcome, and Rise (ROAR) Center at UMB

Community Resilience Model: Practical Tools for Advocates

Liza Merrill

Conspiring Better Together

Vichal Kumar – Managing Director, Partners for Justice
Katharine Boasberg

Cyber risks and AI for Attorneys: Create Your Own GPT with ChatGPT-4

Todd Scott, VP Risk Management, Minnesota Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company 

Developments and Trends in Lawyer Ethics and Regulation Impacting Legal Aid and Public Defense Practitioners

David Anderson, Attorney, Collins Einhorn Farrell PC, Michigan
James Hunter, Attorney, Collins Einhorn Farrell PC, Michigan

Disaster Ready: Preparing Your Legal Services Program for When Disaster Strikes

David Bonebrake – Deputy Director, Office of Program Performance, Legal Services Corporation
Jessica Radbord – Program Counsel, Legal Services Corporation

Educating Legislators About Legal Aid 2.0

Carol A. Bergman – Vice President for Government Relations & Public Affairs, Legal Services Corporation
Colleen Cotter – Executive Director, The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland
Laura Tuggle – Executive Director, Southeast Louisiana Legal Services
Betty Bali Torres – Executive Director, Texas Access to Justice Foundation
Ron S. Flagg – President, Legal Services Corporation

Has the Time Come? Litigating the Constitutional Right to Counsel for Tenants Facing Eviction

John Pollock – Coordinator, National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel
Eric Dunn – Litigation Director, National Housing Law Project

Holistic Defense Model: Innovation in Action = Big Impact

Adrienne N. Journey, LCSW – Social Worker, City of Atlanta Office of the Public Defender
Justin Murray, LCSW – Social Worker, City of Atlanta Office of the Public Defender
Lawrence Elder – Client Advocate, City of Atlanta Office of The Public Defender
Colleen Higgins – Client Advocate, City of Atlanta Office of the Public Defender

Holistic Defense Project: Leveraging Community Justice Workers to Provide Wrap-Around Services

Liegh Dickey – Advocacy Director, Alaska Legal Services Corp
Joy Anderson – Co-Director, CJWRC, Alaska Legal Services Corp
Yonna Pereyra – Community Justice Worker, Alaska Legal Services Corp

Hot topics from the FTC, including briefings on some of the top cases

Margaret Burgess – Attorney, Federal Trade Commission

Increasing Family and Community Capacity for Self-Advocacy in Rural School Districts through Skills-Based Education Advocacy Workshops

Chelsea Helena – Supervising Attorney, Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County
Presenter:  Hannah Meza – Equal Justice Works Fellow, Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County
Elizabeth Valldejuli – Staff Attorney, Registered Legal Aid Attorney, Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County

Investment and Opportunity: How Data & Technology Can Advance Your Mission, Enhance Staff Growth, and Support Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Mallory Curran – Attorney & Consultant, Mallory Curran Consulting LLC
Silvia Argueta – Executive Director, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
Melissa Huerta – Database Specialist, Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County
Marabi Madrigal – Director, Case Management Systems, Kids in Need of Defense (KIND)

Just Juries: Balancing the Scales of the Jury Box

Will Snowden – Director, The Juror Project
Porsha-Shaf'on Venable – Deputy Director, The Juror Project

Language Rights 101 and Hot Topics in Language Access

Kristi A. Cruz – Attorney, Northwest Justice Project

Leaving The Window Open: Calming the Tension between Case Numbers, Impact Work, Equitably Sensitive Representation, Effective Supervision and Other Impossible "Asks" of our Public Interest Law Firms

Robert W. Bush – Statewide Director of Elder Law Unit, Georgia Legal Services Program, Inc.
Shannon L. Mills – Director of Attorney Recruitment, Diversity and Retention, Georgia Legal Services Program, Inc.

Legal Empowerment: Scaling Alaska's Model of Community Justice Workers

Sarah Carver – Co-Director, Community Justice Resource Center, Alaska Legal Services
Nikole Nelson – CEO, Frontline Justice
Izzy Williamson – CJW Program Manager, Project 60/ALSC
Cody Nelson – Executive Director, Anishinabe Legal Services
Stephanie Hudson – Executive Director, Oklahoma Indian Legal Services
Hayden Ramsey – CJW, Montana Legal Services Association

Litigating Racism: Incorporating Race into Legal Arguments

Bethany Bonsu – Trial Attorney, Office of the Public Defender in Maryland
Jonel Edwards – Co-Executive Director, Dream Defenders

LSC Compliance Oversight – Common Compliance Concerns, Oversight Tools, and Recent Trends

Lora M. Rath – Director, Office of Compliance and Enforcement, Legal Services Corporation
Megan Lacchini – Deputy Director for General Compliance, The Legal Services Corporation

LSC’s New 1610 Program Integrity Compliance Guidance (Issued August 26, 2022) - Everything You Always Wanted to Know and More!

Carolina Caicedo – Program Counsel III, Office of Compliance and Enforcement, Legal Services Corporation
Shila Mashhadishafie – Program Counsel III, Office of Compliance and Enforcement, Legal Services Corporation
Stefanie Davis – Deputy General Counsel and Ethics Officer, Office of Legal Affairs, Legal Services Corporation
Lora M. Rath – Director, Office of Compliance and Enforcement, Legal Services Corporation
Joe Hinkley – Fiscal Compliance Analyst III, Office of Compliance and Enforcement, Legal Services Corporation

MIE Roundtable for Legal Services Executive Directors and Managers

Maria Thomas-Jones – Chief Executive Officer, Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas
Colleen Cotter – Executive Director, The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland

My Today is Not My Past - Reclaiming Our Humanity

Panel of System-Impacted Individuals

Next Gen Right to Counsel - Integrating Economic Justice with Housing Defense

Denise Acron – Deputy Director, Manhattan Legal Services
Jenna Coudin – Supervising Attorney, Government Benefits Unit, Manhattan Legal Services
Luis A. Henriquez Carrero – Director of Litigation, Manhattan Legal Services
Sagar Sharma – Deputy Director, Housing Unit, Manhattan Legal Services

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Sean Pierce, Attorney at Wallace Jordan

Pay-to-Stay Fees and the Excessive Fines Clause

Charles Moore – Staff Attorney, Public Justice
Elana Bildner – Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU of Connecticut
William Maurer

Power to the People: Holistic Revolution to End Mass Incarceration through Participatory Defense

Mitchelle Woodson – Executive Director, Managing Attorney, Think Dignity
Askari Abdul-Muntaqim – Post Conviction Organizer, Pillars of the Community

Practicing public interest law under Rule 1.8(e) with and without a humanitarian exception

Reducing Intergenerational Family Violence and Trauma - "It Takes A Village"

Vicky O. Kimbrell – Project Director, Georgia Legal Services Program (Main Branch)
Lyddy O'Brien

SSA Anti-Alienation and Court Debt: Reform Across State Lines and Funding Restrictions

Emily Hardy – Deputy Director Healthy Communities, Virginia Poverty Law Center
Ed Wunch – Criminal Justice Debt Attorney, Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma
Pat Levy-Lavelle – Senior Intake Attorney, Legal Aid Justice Center
Alex Kornya – Litigation Director & General Counsel, Iowa Legal Aid

State/Territorial Legislative Funding Roundtable

Shubi Deoras – Counsel/Director, ABA Resource Center for Access to Justice Initiatives
Jared S. Smith – Director of Programs, MIE
Luise Stone – Senior Program Associate, Civil Legal Services, NLADA

Sustainability Practices for Public Interest Legal Staff: Beyond Self-Care

Rachel Goldsmith, LCSW-R – Director of Social Work, The Legal Aid Society

The Not-So-Collateral Consequences of the Criminal Court System: The Importance of Collaboration Between Public Defenders and Civil Legal Aid Lawyers

Alyssa Golden – Senior Supervising Attorney, Community Legal Aid
Lipou Laliemthavisay – Trial Attorney, Committee for Public Counsel Services

The Power of the Client's Voice

Eddie B. Ellis Jr.– Advocate, NLADA
Regina Kelly
Ronald Simpson-Bey
Soummer Crawford
Marquita Wise Jones - Board Secretary, Maryland legal Aid

The Ripple Effect of SB63

They Took My Client’s Phone, Now What?: Protecting Client Data Using Civil and Criminal Law

Anca Grigore – Supervising Attorney, Civil Justice Practice, Brooklyn Defender Services
Elizabeth Daniel Vasquez – Director, Science & Surveillance Project, Brooklyn Defender Services
Talia Kamran – Law Fellow, Brooklyn Defender Services

Uniting Health and Justice: Enhancing Outcomes for Immigrant Communities through Medical-Legal Partnerships

Julie Babayeva – Supervising Attorney, New York Legal Assistance Group
Kelly Chen – Senior Staff Attorney, New York Legal Assistance Group
Nigar Shaikh

Using Data to Promote Racial Justice In and Out of the Courtroom

Estee Rubien-Thomas, PhD – Research Lead, New York County Defender Services
Celia Joyce – Senior Data Analyst, New York County Defender Services
Stan Hickman – Supervising Attorney, New York County Defender Services
Vickie Mwitanti – Trial Attorney, New York County Defender Services

Using Evidence-based Approaches to Develop Community Justice Worker Training Programs

Nikole Nelson – CEO, Frontline Justice
Rebecca Sandefur, Dr. – Co-Founder, Frontline Justice

Why it's Called the Practice of Law: Empowering Advocates to Turn Mistakes into Lessons

Laura Luu – Supervising Attorney, Community Legal Aid SoCal
Roxanne Hernandez
Jonhathan Gibson

Working Ourselves Out of a Job: How to Support Guaranteed Basic Income Projects

Jessica Mark – Supervising Attorney, Bay Area Legal Aid
Raegan Joern – Managing Attorney, Bay Area Legal Aid