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CLE: Making a Difference for Clients in Poverty-Highly Recommended for All Volunteers

Topics:
  • Continuing Legal Education Program (CLE)
  • Pro Bono

Highly recommended for all attorneys who are interested in helping clients experiencing poverty, this afternoon’s interactive CLE has two separate sessions. You may register for either or both sessions.

Those who complete both sessions, as well as the 1.0 hour of pre-work for Session One, will fulfill all required ethics (3.0) and elimination of bias (2.0) credits for a three-year reporting cycle. More information is provided in the registration confirmation email.

Session One (12 noon to 3:00 PM) (3.0 ethics credits applied for):

We will focus on how to fulfill our ethical obligations under the Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct when representing clients living in poverty. Specifically, participants will leave with a greater understanding of, practical tips about, and resources related to:
?The systemic need for pro bono legal services and fulfilling that under Rule 6.1
?How to provide diligent help (Rule 1.3)
?How to provide the most impactful help (Rule 2.1)
?How to identify the client’s objectives (Rule 1.2)
?How to identify the best means for carrying out the client’s objectives (Rule 1.2)
?How to communicate effectively: recognize and overcome common challenges to effective communication, such as low literacy, oral vs. print communication styles, and unresolved trauma) (Rule 1.4)
?And how to determine what is “reasonable” under Rule 6.5

We will end this session with 15 minutes of one-on-one or small group meetings with VLN staff members around specific volunteer opportunities. Given the breadth of volunteer opportunities at VLN, these mini-meetings are an excellent chance to ask questions related to area-specific resources, CLEs and other supports for volunteering.

Pre-work for Session One (optional, but highly recommended) (1.0 on-demand elimination of bias credit): To make our time together as productive as possible, participants are asked to watch 1.0 hour of excerpts of an on-demand elimination of bias video of Dr. Beegle describing her personal experience of poverty barriers to accessing the legal system (CLE event code: 249918). More information will be provided in the registration confirmation email.

Session Two (3:15 – 4:15 PM) (1.0 elimination of bias credit applied for)

We will view several video clips of Dr. Beegle describing her personal experience of poverty barriers to accessing the legal system, with a focus on human unconscious biases as they may pertain to people living in poverty. We will then discuss strategies for interrupting these biases.  Participants will leave with additional context about the lives of people living in poverty and concrete strategies for interrupting unconscious bias, so we may provide our clients with the highest quality service possible.

 

VLN and HCBA members free, all others nominal fee of $25.

If you are planning on attending, please register so that we may contact you if the CLE is postponed.

Click here to register!

  • CLE Credit Comments: Those who complete both sessions, as well as the 1.0 hour of pre-work for Session One, will fulfill all required ethics (3.0) and elimination of bias (2.0) credits for a three-year reporting cycle.
  • Contact:
    Volunteer Lawyers Network