ACCESS TO JUSTICE THROUGH INCUBATOR PROGRAMS AND NON-PROFIT LAW FIRMS
Third Annual Conference
Aprill 1-2, 2016
Kansas City, MO
The number of incubators in the United States and around the world has increased rapidly over the past several years, and we are now seeing the growth of nonprofit law firms. Law schools, Legal Aid programs and bar associations are assuming an increasing role in the development of post-graduate training and support programs for attorneys wishing to establish solo and small firms or not-for-profit organizations. These programs focus on training lawyers to build economically sustainable practices that will help to resolve the unmet legal needs of individuals and entities from moderate to low-income communities and other people who are unable to access legal services.
This rapid growth reflects the fact that increasingly the people who choose to attend law school do so because they are committed to expanding access to affordable legal services for the mainstream groups that have not been adequately served, and because they recognize that solo and small firm practice has long been the most popular career path for lawyers.
This conference addresses the opportunities and challenges institutions face in the conceptualization, design and implementation of successful incubators, residency programs and nonprofit law firms.
It is co-sponsored by:
The Consortium for Access to Justice; A collaborative community of law practice incubators and nonprofit law firms
UMKC School of Law
California Western School of Law
Touro Law Center
The American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services
The conference will describe and advance the phenomenal growth of post graduate law programs and the new wave of affordable legal services for groups without access to legal resources. In addition to providing the basics of creating and implementing incubator programs, it will address the impact on law school curricular reform; collaboration between bench, bar and academics; technology and delivery of legal services; ev
Program Schedule
For a PDF version of the schedule, click here.
Friday, April 1
8:00-9:00AM
Registration (registration continues all day) and Breakfast
9:00-9:15AM
Welcome
Ellen Suni, UMKC School of Law
9:15-10:30AM
Plenary: Conference Overview and Principal Themes; State of the Movement and Related ABA/Consortium Survey Results
Tony Luppino, UMKC School of Law
Fred Rooney, Fulbright Specialist
Bob Seibel, California Western School of Law
Sara Smith, ABA Division for Legal Services
10:30-10:45AM
Refreshment break
10:45-12:00PM
Plenary: Descriptions of Program Types—Incubator, Residency, Nonprofit Law Firms, Collaborations
Shantelle Argyle, Open Legal Services
Maria Hall, Los Angeles Incubator Consortium
Lilys McCoy, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Andrew Rothman, Rutgers Law School
Bill Tanner, Legal Aid Society of Orange County
12:15-1:15PM
Lunch: Featured Guest Speaker: Will Hornsby, ABA Division for Legal Services
1:30-2:45PM
Five Concurrent Sessions on various Conference subjects
Incubators: Visions, Structure, Hard Choices
Cynthia Chandler, Bay Area Legal Incubator
Mark Heekin, Charlotte School of Law
Lilys McCoy, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Bob Pimm, California Lawyers for the Arts
Incubators: Training, Curriculum and Methods
William Berman, Suffolk University Law School
James Matthews, Suffolk University Law School
Meredith Miller, Touro Law Center
Bill Tanner, Legal Aid Society of Orange County
Incubator Finances: Funding, Budgeting, Startup Costs
Hulett “Bucky” Askew, Georgia State University College of Law
Anne-Marie Rabago, California Western School of Law
Thomas Ross, University of Pittsburgh School of Law
Terry Wright, Willamette University Law School
Nonprofit Law Firms: Visions, Structure, Hard Choices
Lauren Barski, Civil Legal Corps
Mitch, University of Wisconsin Law School
Matt Rosen, Lutheran Services Florida
Dan Spencer, Open Legal Services
Nonprofit Law Firm Finances: Management, Marketing, Budgets, Fees and Grants
Shantelle Argyle, Open Legal Services
Wayne Moore, Esq.
2:45-3:00PM
Refreshment break
3:00-4:30PM
Plenary: Visions of Technology and Law and Access to Justice
Michael Robak, UMKC School of Law, Moderator
Raymond Brescia, Albany Law School
Tony Lai, Legal.io
Dan Lear, AVVO
John Mayer, CALI
Mark O’Brien, Pro Bono Net
4:30-5:00PM
Break/Networking
5:00-7:00PM
Reception and Keynote Speaker Luz Herrera, UCLA School of Law
Saturday, April 2
8:00-8:30AM
Registration (registration continues until Noon) and Breakfast
8:30-9:15AM
Presentations by current and former Incubator Participants
Dan DePasquale, Touro Law Center
Mark Dunmire, Law Offices of Mark R. Dunmire, LLC
Agostino Fillipone, Justice Entrepreneurs Project/Chicago Bar Foundation
Molly Hall, Justice Entrepreneurs Project/Chicago Bar Foundation
Kruti Patel, Justice Entrepreneurs Project/Chicago Bar Foundation
9:30-10:45AM
Six Concurrent Sessions on various Conference subjects and Technology Lab option
Incubators–Visions, Structure, Hard Choices (repeat of Friday session; same panelists)
Incubators-Training Curriculum and Methods (repeat of Friday session; same panelists)
Assessment of Outcomes and Analytics
Mary Lu Bilek, University of Massachusetts School of Law
Clark Cunningham, Lawyers for Equal Justice Inc.
Ashley Jones, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law
Sara Smith, ABA Division for Legal Services
Helping Self-Represented People
Trevor Clarke, Justice Entrepreneurs Project/Chicago Bar Foundation
Kim Diana Connolly, SUNY Buffalo Law School
Brian Gilbert, Justice Entrepreneurs Project/Chicago Bar Foundation
Bonnie Hough, California Center for Families, Children & the Courts
Ric Morgan, Virtual Pro Se Clinic Program
International Developments
Fred Rooney, Fulbright Specialist, Moderator
Juan Corporan, Centro Comunitario de Servicios Legales, Dominican Republic
Sheraz Khan, Insaf Center for Legal Excellence (ICLE), Pakistan
Technology: Delivery of Legal Services
William Berman, Suffolk University Law School
James Matthews, Suffolk University Law School
John Mayer, CALI
Mark O’Brien, Pro Bono Net
Nicole Schippers, ARAG North America, Inc.
Jeff Ward, Duke University School of Law
Technology Lab
10:45-11:00AM
Refreshment break
11:00-12:15PM
Five Concurrent Sessions on various Conference subjects and Technology Lab option
Nonprofit Law Firms–Visions, Structure, Hard Choices (repeat of Friday session; same panelists)
Nonprofit Law Firm Finances: Managment, Marketing, Budgets, Fees and Grants (repeat of Friday session; same panelists)
Developments in Reaching Vulnerable and Under-served Individuals and Groups
Cynthia Chandler, Bay Area Legal Incubator
Susan Fortney, Texas A&M University School of Law
Mimi Marton, University of Tulsa College of Law
Andrew Rothman, Rutgers Law School
Roger Royse, Royselaw Legal Incubator
Community Collaborations and Reaching Rural Populations
Paula Hopkins, University of Pittsburgh School of Law
Ric Morgan, Virtual Pro Se Clinic Program
Chris Rottler, Community Lawyers of Iowa, PLC
Diane Singleton, Seattle University School of Law
JoAnne Stone, Northern California Lawyer Access, Inc.
Technology: Marketing, Social Media, Websites
Tony Lai, Legal.io
Dan Lear, AVVO
Len Zandrow, Justice Bridge Legal Center
Technology Lab
12:30-1:30PM
Lunch—Featured Guest Speaker(s) from The Missouri Bar/Judiciary
1:40-2:30PM
Plenary: Building a Business Plan for Entrepreneurial Lawyering
Bob Pimm, California Lawyers for the Arts, Moderator
Mark Dunmire, Law Offices of Mark R. Dunmire, LLC
Luz Herrera, UCLA School of Law
Tony Luppino, UMKC School of Law
Ellen Suni, UMKC School of Law
2:40-3:20PM
Concurrent Working Groups
Plan for Analysis of Data from ABA/Consortium Survey
Sara Smith, ABA Division for Legal Services
Sustaining Projects via Institutional Buy-In, Successful Programming within the Incubator and in the Community and Proper Assessment
Fred Rooney, Fulbright Specialist
Non-Profit Law Firms
Shantelle Argyle, Open Legal Services
Technology Implementation Plan
Michael Robak, UMKC School of Law
3:30-4:00PM
Report back/Conference Wrap up
Tony Luppino, UMKC School of Law
Fred Rooney, Fulbright Specialist
Bob Seibel, California Western School of Lawolution of lawyering role models; and access to justice.