Last year, H.R.1, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), became law, unleashing deep cuts and harmful new restrictions on Medicaid, SNAP and other health coverage under the ACA. States now have the challenging task of implementing its many requirements, while grappling with dramatically reduced resources and the potential for even deeper cuts in the future. This session features national and state advocates discussing the impact of these policy changes, how H.R.1 is being implemented at the state level, and advocacy strategies to mitigate harm of these draconian cuts.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson, which held that the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment does not prevent jurisdictions from banning people sleeping outside when they have no place else to go, cities around the country have been emboldened to increase their reliance on criminalization to erase the visible signs of homelessness. Yet despite the ruling in Grants Pass, there remain avenues to push back against these efforts. This panel will discuss challenges and opportunities to ensuring that unhoused people's rights are protected.

• Describe the holding of Grants Pass and the effect on local jurisdictions.
• Identify strategies that remain after Grants Pass to challenge the criminalization of homelessness.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies in their jurisdictions.

This session explores how legal aid organizations use appellate advocacy to pursue justice. Panelists will discuss the appeals they handle, how they choose issues to pursue, and the role appeals play in shaping the law. Presenters will also address how they build appellate teams, create resources and cultures of advocacy, and navigate practical challenges such as limited capacity and resources, and strategies organizations use to overcome them.

• Think through how to identify appeal-worthy issues and make strategic decisions about when an appeal is the right investment of time and resources.
• Consider strategies for building appellate teams, using resources effectively, and evaluating the impact of appellate work to inform future cases.
• Exchange ideas and practical approaches with peers about what has worked, what has not, and how to strengthen appellate advocacy.

This session provides practical strategies for building and sustaining an effective litigation program within a legal services organization, with a focus on improving case outcomes and strengthening advocacy. It emphasizes developing and supporting attorneys--particularly newer staff--to think and act as confident, zealous advocates, while fostering a culture that prioritizes meaningful results over quick resolution. Participants will also explore approaches to retaining talent and creating an environment where high-quality, impact-driven litigation can thrive.

• This session provides practical strategies for building and sustaining an effective litigation program within a legal services organization, with a focus on improving case outcomes and strengthening advocacy. It emphasizes developing and supporting attorneys--particularly newer staff--to think and act as confident, zealous advocates, while fostering a culture that prioritizes meaningful results over quick resolution. Participants will also explore approaches to retaining talent and creating an environment where high-quality, impact-driven litigation can thrive.
• Examine methods for mentoring and supporting attorneys to build confidence, litigation skills, and a culture of zealous representation.
• Explore organizational approaches to retaining talented advocates and fostering an environment where high-quality, impact-driven litigation can thrive.

This session explores ways that state and local legal aid organizations can work together with national legal organizations to achieve systemic reforms. Collaboration can take many forms, including legislative and policy advocacy, impact litigation, and more! Presenters will share inspiring examples, helpful practice tips, and reflect on how our community can best respond to recent legal and political obstacles that make systemic litigation more challenging. This session will empower you to go forth and collaborate!

• Upon completion, legal aid participants will be able to recognize opportunities for collaboration with national legal organizations.
• Upon completion, participants will be able to identify client issues that may benefit from collaboration on litigation or policy advocacy.
• Upon completion, participants will be able to establish successful relationships among state, local, and national partners.

Use communications strategies to leverage litigation, reshape public narratives, elevate client stories, and advance long-term policy change. Strategic litigation can do more than win legal victories. It can reshape how the public, the media, and policymakers understand the lives and needs of low-income communities. This session explores how advocates can use litigation as a communications opportunity, from framing the complaint to engaging media, elevating client stories, and sustaining narrative change beyond the courtroom. Participants will learn practical strategies to align legal and communications goals to advance long-term policy change.

• Identify communications goals, audiences, and messengers that support litigation, advocacy, and organizational objectives.
• Apply ethical and audience-centered storytelling strategies to elevate client experiences and advance public understanding of systemic issues.
• Develop a communications framework for an active or upcoming case that aligns litigation milestones with communications opportunities and advocacy goals.

Using Legal Services of Eastern Missouri's Neighborhood Advocacy initiative as a case study, the presentation will discuss the practical realities of group representation under LSC regulations, including eligibility considerations, representation of nonprofit entities, restrictions and opportunities under the LSC framework, and structuring compliant advocacy strategies. The session will also explore how transactional law, litigation, and pro bono partnerships can be combined to support community-led revitalization efforts.

• Identify the opportunities and limitations for group representation under LSC regulations and legal aid program rules.
• Develop community-based legal advocacy strategies that combine litigation, transactional representation, and neighborhood partnerships to stabilize neighborhoods and to preserve increase affordable housing opportunities.
• Implement pro bono and cross-sector partnership models that support nonprofit community development organizations and expand affordable housing and neighborhood stabilization efforts.

As education civil rights face new pressure nationwide, legal advocates are developing innovative strategies to protect students and challenge systemic inequities. This session highlights litigation and advocacy from the frontlines, including efforts addressing discriminatory discipline, literacy rights for students with disabilities, and protections for students experiencing homelessness, in foster care, and in immigrant families. Speakers will share practical approaches legal aid programs can use to defend students' rights and advance education equity in an increasingly challenging environment.

What do law students know about AI coming out of law school? What challenges and opportunities to these students pose/provide for new employers? A panel of academics and legal aid professionals will discuss what law students are learning about AI while in law school, and how these same students pose challenges to new employers, but also bring opportunities to new employers as they enter the workforce.

• Upon completion, particpants will be able to understand what skills law students will have upon entering their career.
• Upon completion, particpants will be able to plan for how to better integrate new lawyers into their worksite.

Being accused of child abuse or neglect is more than just a social or moral stigma. It causes insurmountable barriers to employment and retraining for thousands of low-wage workers every year. These workers are disproportionately from communities of color, which have historically been targeted for enforcement by state child protective service agencies. This panel will show you how these disqualifications harms communities, how to see how your communities are impacted, and reveal the strategies we've used to systemically attack the disqualifications that keep qualified people from working.

• Participants will understand how CA/N administrative findings disqualify low-wage workers from employment.
• Participants will be able to find out whether their state causes racial disproportionality in child welfare administrative findings and understand legal strategies to address this.
• Participants will obtain one other strategy to deal with systematic problems in their child welfare administrative findings related to due process.