Using a Statewide Website in Your Practice

“Efficiency is intelligent laziness." - Anonymous

Participant Profile…

• How many work directly on a statewide website?

• How many are attorneys not working directly on a statewide website?

• How many have no idea what a “statewide website” is?

Participant Profile Cont…

• Who uses your statewide website on a daily basis?– Weekly?

• Monthly?

• What do you most commonly use on the site?– Refer people to public information (pro se/legal

education)– Referral information on public website– Library on advocate site– Pro bono site– Other?

Goals ….brought to you by the letter C

• Clarify what a “statewide website is”• Convey ideas of how advocates and pro

bono attorneys across the country use statewide websites.

• Collaborate on ways to expand use of statewide websites by advocates.

LSC’s TIG program has funded statewide websites in 54 states and territories, from Maine to Guam, from Florida to Alaska.

• 52 live sites for the public• 32 public sites with resources in non-English languages • 40 live sites for advocates often including information for pro bono attorneys

www.lawhelp.org

SWEB Speak

• “Client” or “Public” website

• “Advocate” or “Private” website

• Pro bono website (often ties into the advocate website)

Websites are simply tools to help us achieve the goals of our programs.

What are the goals of your program?

• What tools do you use in your service delivery model to reach those goals? – Hotline – Intake System (Centralized, state-wide, program

specific) – Brief Services – Client and Public Education – Direct Representation by Staff Attorneys – Direct Representation by Pro Bono Attorneys

Where can the website improve your existing tools?

Improve the Efficiency Hotlines and Intake

• Use online content to:– Help some clients prepare for intake,

interviews and answer questions.

- How to Call

- What documents to bring

- Provide better explanations of the services you do and do not provide.

SWEB in practice

Georgia: http://www.legalaid-ga.org

Lucille Wright has been with Georgia Legal Services Program for 25 years. She welcomes the website and the information it provides to clients and callers the GLSP cannot serve. In the Augusta office Lucille uses the www.LegalAid-GA.org website everyday during client intake.

Your ideas:

• How has the website been used by your hotlines or intake?

• What do you recommend others do to increase use of the website by hotline/intake?

Next Steps

• Offer website trainings specifically for hotline or intake workers.

• Partner with hotline/intake to determine whether clients have Internet access, new legal issues for content and feedback about how people found the website.

Brief Service

• Website provides clients (and advocates) forms to download and complete when doing assisted pro se/brief service.

• Use the website at clinics to print forms and packets as needed clinics.

• Refer clients to the website for further research/understanding on issues.

SWEB in practice

Washington -www.washingtonlawhelp.org

We download forms from the site and type onto them when doing brief service for clients.

Access the website while at legal clinics and print packets or forms which are given to the clients and explain to them.

Client and Public Education

• Use the website in “live trainings”

• Use the website to webcast trainings for the public.

• Calendar of available trainings for the public

SWEB in practice

Washington -www.washingtonlawhelp.org

Community legal education programs borrow heavily from WashingtonLawHelp with PowerPoint presentations around the forms, instructions and general information.

Your ideas:

• How to advocates in your program use the “public website”?

• What type of staff training or materials do you provide on the public website?

The “Advocate” Web

Statewide Advocate Websites

– Examples of online tools• Library (training manuals, sample briefs, motions

letters)

• Calendar (trainings, events)

• News - (substantive news feeds, statewide or program news )

• Statewide legal services attorney directory or roster

• Listservs

• Wikis

• Various components to support work of taskforces

The advocate library

Access to the knowledge of other attorneys• Research• Sample pleadings, motions, etc.• Manuals• Trainings materials

– Organized into a updateable, searchable system (saved for all time)

– Removes inefficiency of a paper-based system

From this…to this….

SWEB in PracticeMinnesota: http://www.projusticemn.org

Larry McDonough from Mid-Minnesota Legal Assistance is the statewide expert of eviction defense. He has collected hundreds unreported eviction defenses cases as well as authored the statewide Eviction Defense manual. Before the launch of www.ProJusticeMN.org, attorneys from around the state called Larry to request fax copies of these cases as well as hard copies of his manual. Now legal services from all across the state search and download the cases and manual without needing to contact Larry directly, and Larry can make updates instantly available through the site.

Calendar, Directories

• Provides central locations for key information.

• Content management system provides mechanism for continual updates and increased efficiency.

• Helps to build community and collaboration between separate offices and programs.

SWEB in PracticeWisconsin: http://www.badgerlaw.net/

Attorneys, law students and volunteers were frustrated by the complicated system they were using to set-up appointments with clients at a law school clinic. To solve the issue they developed a calendar and security system on the advocate website to schedule and share appointment information. With web-based access to the calendar, law students, pro bono attorneys and supervising attorneys can all see when are where appointments are scheduled and access certain information to prepare for meeting with clients. The response to this system has been very positive and many advocates became invested in other aspects of the advocate website because of this helpful feature.

Wikis

• Use of wiki for manuals (disaster, substantive, personnel)

• Allows wiki to be continuously updated by authors across the state – resulting in an “up-to-date” version continuously available.

Your ideas:

• What is the most popular part of the advocate website?

• What part of the site helps you the most in your work as an attorney?

• What are the greatest challenges on the advocate site?

The “Pro bono” website

Pro bono Benefits

• Encourages greater pro bono participation by offering meaningful support.

• Allows for rapid communication with pro bono volunteers.

• Connects volunteers and clients based on interests and needs.

• Builds a community of volunteers• Helps to track program activities and

outcomes. • Others?

Tools for Pro Bono Recruitment

• State and National Pro Bono Opportunities Guides– Allows advocates to search for pro bono

organizations (i.e. by location, interest, population served, and keywords).

– Many state and local bar websites have pro bono guides with varying degrees of interactivity.

Pro Bono Case Listings

• List case summaries by substantive area or location

• Provides organization and contact information

SWEB in Practice:

California (San Francisco): http://www.probono.net/sf

San Francisco Bar Association’s Volunteer Legal Services Program (VLSP) recruits 35% of their new volunteers through the Internet, including their probono.net/sf site. The VLSP Business Law pro bono program sends 5-12 case placement emails a month to volunteers through the probono.net Mailings tool, and reports a success rate of 95% - 99%. They now place almost all of their program’s cases through probono.net/sf/nonprofit. Only occasionally does it take more than one email to place a case.

Listservs

• Keep pro bono advocates up-to-date and provide technical support.

• Encourage volunteers to join existing substantive listservs in your state.

Webcasts

• Tool to provide technical support to pro bono advocates, particularly when they are supplemented by other training materials.

• A “window” to new areas of practice to increase volunteer interest

• Don’t require advocates to travel to trainings• Can be watched at any time or multiple times

Email/E-Newsletters

• Build a sense of community among your pro bono advocates

• Include volunteer profiles to encourage participation

• Update advocates about upcoming trainings and new resources

SWEB in Practice

New York:http://www.law.com/jsp/nylj/probono.jsp

For the past 5 years, probono.net/ny has sent a monthly training e-calendar to over 7500 registered members. Now, through syndication of relevant advocate website content, pro bono organizations in New York City are reaching private bar attorneys that might otherwise have reached their doors. This partnership with American Lawyer Media resulted in the creation of a new Pro Bono area on a popular legal website for New York lawyers that incorporates the probono.net/ny training calendar (http://www.probono.net/ny/nylj_calendar.cfm) and Pro Bono Opportunities Guide (http://www.probono.net/ny/nylj_oppsguide.cfm)

Your ideas:

• How are you using the website to advance pro bono?

• What has been your greatest success?

• What do pro bono attorneys have to say about your website?

Questions?