Advocates on the front lines work on behalf of individual clients every day, but their work goes far beyond the individual cases. The trends they see and the incremental gains for which they fight help inform and support broader national advocacy agendas. This plenary panel will feature advocates at national organizations and legal aid who partner together and bridge the gap between local and national efforts. It will focus on how, together, our efforts become greater than the sum of its parts.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are essential to the core mission of legal aid providers: ensuring equal access to justice. However, intensifying anti-DEI opposition has created widespread confusion over what practices remain legally permissible and how to talk about this work safely. In this session, participants will examine: -How DEI and civil rights are currently being eroded. -What effective resistance to these rollbacks looks like. -Strategic ways to protect and continue their mission-driven work in a hostile climate.

This session focuses on strategies for pursuing bad actors and negligent landlords, from the perspective both an LSC attorney and member of the private bar. The speakers will discuss why everyone should sue bad landlords, how to identify claims in high pressure housing court environments, legal theories, building a case, managing client expectations, working within LSC restrictions, special considerations for public housing and public benefits, and media strategy.

Generative AI is already changing litigation work--from drafting and organizing to triage and case strategy--but public interest litigators need approaches that are practical, ethical, and built for our constraints. This session meets you where you are on the AI curve: beginners will get low-risk "toe-in-the-water" workflows to test safely and immediately in real litigation tasks, intermediate users will learn how to choose tools designed for legal services and how to evaluate use cases for real impact, and advanced users will explore how to integrate AI as a reliable "teammate".

Artificial intelligence (AI) and related technologies are increasingly touted as a solution to increase efficiency, objectivity, or cost-savings in government programs. But the reality is far from the hype as AI can have devastating consequences for low-income and marginalized people. This session will help attendees understand the scope of AI use and gain skills in spotting AI-related issues to identify potential advocacy solutions, including litigation. It will also dig deeper into a few hot topic examples, including H.R. 1 and public education, so attendees will have practical next steps.

Learn how to advise client communities about public benefits eligibility in a changing landscape including common client concerns regarding the "public charge" ground of inadmissibility, data sharing practices, sponsor deeming and sponsor liability.

This fast-paced Luke-and-Lauren session provides legal aids of all sizes with the checklist and tools we can all use to self-audit our organizational preparedness to safeguard client confidentiality, optimize data privacy, and work-product protections, and with timely resources to strengthen our resilience and capacity to continue to champion our clients' rights and equal access to justice

When your staff appear in court, is a verbatim record created? There is a national court reporter shortage and millions of hearings are going unreported. States like California are particularly impacted, but soon it will impact every state. Verbatim records are essential for preserving the ability to appeal incorrect trial court orders, aiding in renewing or modifying court orders, and helping ensure the accuracy and integrity of trial court proceedings. This training will cover how the ethical duties of diligence, competence, and communication are implicated when a verbatim record is at risk.

Guaranteed Income is gaining steam across the country. All over, GI pilots have shown that this is a tool for lifting people out of poverty and providing stability in the lives of low income people. However, in order for these pilots to be successful, it is important to protect, or at least minimize the impact on, people's existing safety net benefits. This presentation will include an explanation of Guaranteed Income and the results of some of the pilots, then a discussion of how legal aid can work with the creators of these pilots to protect existing safety net benefits.

When abusers have access to firearms, survivors of domestic violence are far more likely to be injured or killed by their former partner. As a result, most states have laws requiring firearm surrender or prohibition when a court issues a protection order. Court systems, judges, and the organized gun lobby have resisted these protections and fought to allow abusers to retain or have access to their firearms. This session will discuss how to use systemic advocacy and alliances to successfully overcome challenges under the Second, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments.