The AALS Pro Bono Honor Roll acknowledges and highlights the exceptional work of individuals engaging in, expanding, and/or supporting their law school community in providing pro bono legal services.
In its inaugural year, 58 law schools submitted nearly 140 individuals for inclusion on the AALS Pro Bono Honor Roll. Congratulations and thank you for your service. The complete list of honorees is available, here: https://www.aals.org/awards/pro-bono/.
Please mark your calendar for our section’s AALS conference session, Thursday, January 5th at 3 pm, entitled: Incorporating Access to Justice & Pro Bono Across the Law School Curriculum.
Critical to the professional development of future lawyers are instilling an ethic of service and understanding how the growing justice gap impacts legal services. Access to justice and pro bono service can be effective lenses through which to explore any law school subject, and yet most law professors do not include them in their syllabi. This session features faculty whose courses provide students with insight into how lower-income people navigate the legal system and the ways in which that may differ from what we learn in casebooks. Attendees will leave with practical and replicable tools to integrate access to justice and pro bono service into courses across the law school curriculum.
Many thanks to the sections on Debtor and Credit’s Rights, Clinical Law, and Leadership for co-sponsoring this panel, which will be moderated by Darcy Meals, Director of Public Interest Programs and Deputy Director of the Center for Access to Justice at Georgia State University College of Law. Panelists include:
We hope you’ll join us!
The Sections on Clinical Law, Poverty, and Pro Bono & Access to Justice are partnering to offer a service opportunity for conference attendees. We’ll be gathering to do some cleanup in the marina (right by the conference hotels) through I Love A Clean San Diego from 11 am-1 pm on Thursday, January 5th. They’ll provide gloves and trash bags and a brief overview of the importance of protecting the bay, and then we’ll help with clean up. Dress in closed-toed shoes and comfortable attire and meet at the concierge desk in the Marriott lobby at 10:50 am to walk over as a group. Please add this event to your conference registration, so we have a record of who plans to participate.
Many of us are often advising students to grow their resumes, engage in opportunities to network, and gain leadership experience. Let’s take a piece of our own advice! Get to know your colleagues working in the Pro Bono & Access to Justice law school spaces across the country while taking on the leadership role. The AALS Section on Pro Bono & Access to Justice is seeking members of the Section join the Executive Committee with opportunities to work on a variety of initiatives. If you are interested in, please reach out to [email protected].
The Association of American Law Schools has distributed its fifth Law Student Pro Bono and Legal Services Hours Survey. The survey captures information about law student hours that contribute to the delivery of legal services to individuals or communities in need. In this survey, AALS is seeking information beyond law student pro bono service, including student engagement in for-credit legal aid, clinical, internship/externship programs.
Please submit your school’s information using this form no later than December 6, 2022. The total number of hours will be calculated and presented in a report to be released in advance of the AALS Annual Meeting in January.
The Law Professor and the Therapist: Beyond Belonging There’s a Place (and Need) for Group Solidarity among First Generation and Low-Income Students in the Law School Setting
Monday, December 5, 2022, 12:00-1:00 EST
On Zoom: https://rwu.zoom.us/j/94443107446
Meeting ID: 944 4310 7446
Presented by:
Monica Teixeira de Sousa
Professor of Law
Roger Williams University School of Law
“Lawyers belong to the people by birth and interest, and to the aristocracy by habit and taste; they may be looked upon as the connecting link of the two great classes of society.”
– Alexis de Tocqueville
America relies on the legal profession for resolution of society’s most pressing challenges. As such, basic principles of equity demand that the bench and bar include representation from all corners of American life, particularly from communities disconnected from traditional loci of power due to economic insecurity and poverty. A logical starting point, therefore, is legal education; the training ground and required prerequisite to the practice of law. The extent to which low-income and first-generation law students not only secure access to a legal education, but then experience a feeling of inclusion and belonging on campus and in the classroom, sets the stage for their development as a political class committed to advancing a set of common interests. The innovative law professor and therapist intervention advocated in Monica’s program provides a low-cost way to support and build solidarity among first-generation and low-income students in the law school setting.
Maximizing Law Student and Organization Benefits During Experiential Learning Placements
Tuesday, February 28, 2023, 12:00-1:00 p.m. EST
On Zoom: https://rwu.zoom.us/j/95248699437
Meeting ID: 952 4869 9437
Presented by:
Leah M. Nicholls
Co-Director of the Access to Justice Project at Public Justice
Leah litigates high-impact civil public interest cases at the trial and appellate levels, including cases involving access to courts, court secrecy, consumer protection, and Public Justice’s Food Project. She has briefed, argued, and won cases in state and federal appellate courts across the country and spoken at numerous national and state conferences on topics such as arbitration, class certification, standing, court secrecy, consumer protection, and ag-gag laws.
The Holloran Center Milestones are rubrics that describe the stages of development associated with numerous learning outcomes for law students. One of these is pro bono. Visit the Holloran Center’s website at https://www.stthomas.edu/hollorancenter/hollorancompetencymilestones/ to read the rubric and the treasure trove of associated pro bono resources.
Where we have come from and where we are going…
In 1997, when Deborah Rhode was beginning her presidency with AALS, she created an AALS Commission on Pro Bono & Public Service Opportunities. The Commission made a variety of findings and recommendations and established the AALS Section on Pro Bono & Public Service Opportunities. This summer, we have changed our name to the AALS Section on Pro Bono & Access to Justice. Why the change? In large part, the change is simply because our Section’s charge is more specific than “public service opportunities.” Our focus is on the integration of pro bono legal service and other tools intended to raise awareness about the justice gap. We intend to highlight and develop solutions to fill this incredible gap and the challenges and barriers so many in our society face when navigating legal matters. Maybe in 1997, the phrase “access to justice” wasn’t used as frequently to describe the umbrella under which pro bono legal service fits. Now, in 2022, Access to Justice is more broadly understood as a movement to ensure access to justice for all through numerous avenues, one of which is pro bono service.
Sue Schechter, 2021 chair of this Section and director of the field placement program at Berkeley Law, shares her thoughts about the new name:
As someone who has known and worked with this Section for a long time, I have always wondered how and why our founders chose ‘Public Service Opportunities.’ Perhaps, when they started the Section, the hope was to support law school staff & faculty to create and highlight opportunities, but as this field has grown and some (but still not enough!) law schools have dedicated professionals focused on highlighting and promoting public interest, public service, and social justice opportunities on law school campuses through their Career Development Offices and beyond, the focus of this Section has evolved to highlight and support Pro Bono as part of the larger movement for Access to Justice. With the growing field of Access to Justice scholarship and advocacy, this Section seems like a great home to embrace and promote that work.
Greg Zlotnick, the director of pro bono programs at St. Mary’s University School of Law, thinks of the updated name this way:
Law schools serve as catalysts: not only for the development of attorneys committed to the public interest but also for systemic change to make justice accessible to all. The Section’s new title reflects this critical, dual role that our law schools already serve in advancing the common good.
Tara Casey, the director for pro bono and public service at University of Richmond School of Law has a similar perspective:
The new name reflects more accurately our dual mission: to increase student opportunities in the pro bono space while also advancing access to justice everywhere. It is not enough to engage in direct service; we must also look to systemic change.
Allison Standard Constance, the director of pro bono initiatives at UNC School of Law sums it up nicely:
Making the change to include Access to Justice in our section name is an important way to capture the true focus of the work that we do and the goals we set for our law schools.
While we move forward with a new name, we still look back with gratitude for and honor our founding leader, Deborah Rhode, whose career revolved around questions of injustice. The Section on Pro Bono & Access to Justice is pleased to partner with three other Sections—Leadership; Professional Responsibility; and Women in Legal Education—to gather nominations for the annual Deborah Rhode Award. Click here for more details about the Deborah Rhode Award. We hope you share the nomination information and submit a nominee yourself.
We are also seeking nominations for outstanding colleagues worthy of recognition for the three awards sponsored solely by our Section:
1) a Lifetime Achievement Award,
2) an Access to Justice Award, and
3) an Emerging Leader Award.
Please read more about our Section awards nomination process here. The deadline to submit nominees for these awards is September 30, 2022. Again, please spread the word and nominate a worthy colleague.
Last year, we rolled out an Education Enrichment Speaker Series. The committee behind that series has been hard at work this year and is hosting an online session on September 20, 2022, entitled Using Experiential Education to Fight Imposter Syndrome. The session will explore law student struggles with belonging and confidence and how experiential education can serve as a remedy. See details about the session, including the Zoom link to join, here.
Additionally, our Section is excited to announce the creation of the AALS Pro Bono Honor Roll. This new Honor Roll has been created to acknowledge and highlight the exceptional work of individuals engaging in, expanding, and/or supporting their law school community in providing pro bono legal services. Law school Deans should have received information about how to submit the name of a staff, faculty, and a student to include on the 2022 Honor Roll for supporting, encouraging, and engaging in pro bono service. The deadline for nominations will be Friday, October 7, 2022. The names of the awardees will be publicized through AALS, and electronic certificates will be sent for distribution to honorees.
Looking ahead to the AALS Annual Meeting in San Diego, January 3-7, we hope to see many of you in attendance at our conference session taking place on Thursday, January 5 at 3 PM entitled, “Incorporating Access to Justice & Pro Bono Across the Law School Curriculum.” The session will feature our colleagues whose courses provide students with insight into how lower-income people navigate the legal system and the ways in which that may differ from what we learn in casebooks. We hope you plan to attend the conference and our Section’s session. Conference registration is now open. We look forward to gathering in person once again.
This newsletter is coming to you all at a very busy time of year. I hope this serves as a reminder that you (we) are not alone in your (our) work. We are a strong community here to support each other as we work toward fulfilling the promise of access to justice for all. If you would like to get involved with the Section on a deeper level, please let me know.
Best wishes for a terrific fall ahead,
Angela F. Schultz
Chair, Section on Pro Bono & Access to Justice
Assistant Dean for Public Service
Marquette Law School
Assistant Dean for Public Service
It is our pleasure to share with you a new opportunity to highlight the pro bono work happening at your law school. The AALS Pro Bono and Access to Justice Section has launched the Inaugural Pro Bono Honor Roll to which you may name one faculty member, one staff member, and one student per school.
The Pro Bono Honor Roll acknowledges and highlights the exceptional work of individuals engaging in, expanding, and/or supporting their law school community in providing pro bono legal services. For the purposes of this award, pro bono is defined as work that is primarily legal in nature, supervised by a licensed attorney (for law students), not for pay or academic credit, and of service to underserved individuals, groups, or those with barriers to access to justice. We understand that there are so many deserving people who serve year-in and year-out without acknowledgment. The Pro Bono Honor Roll is an easy annual way for you to recognize them for their contributions and lift them up for making a difference in our law schools and communities.
Using this form, you may submit the Pro Bono Honor Roll recipients from your law school. Recipients will receive an electronic certificate, and their names will be publicized through the AALS electronic newsletter, website, at the annual conference, and in other appropriate ways.
Please note that the AALS Pro Bono and Access to Justice Section also has yearly awards with a separate nomination process. We encourage you to also nominate members of your community for these awards as well. Learn more about our other Section awards here.
