2019 NLADA Annual Conference-Innovative Justice

Many organizations throughout the United States are developing legal assistance portals. These portals allow users to ASK about a legal issue, REFINE their legal issue, LEARN about their legal issue, and CONNECT to resources to help them navigate their legal issue. This panel will bring together portal experts from around the country to discuss portal projects with a focus on the benefits and challenges of managing portals as well as a discussion about funding and replication strategies for these tools. This session would be a must-attend for anyone with a portal project or thinking about starting a portal project as well as legal tech enthusiasts.

This session emphasizes the need for legal aid organizations to be leaders in fostering racial equity, focusing in particular on utilizing a systems thinking approach in understanding and beginning to untangle systemic racism. Presenters will introduce a basic systems thinking theory and selected systems thinking tools for analyzing the many interconnected parts of systems, emphasizing how these parts work together to create and perpetuate inequities and disparities based on race. The session includes examples of systems change projects that address racial inequities in housing and school discipline.

For centuries, the bar has insisted that only a lawyer can engage in the practice of law: people shouldn’t perform tasks for which they lack the needed expertise. But, does the bar's claim of preventing harm go too far? Do the UPL rules prevent people from getting the help they need from the advocates they want? Do UPL rules chill advocates or computers from offering help even when the tasks performed are not "practice of law"? Do UPL rules prevent people or computers from performing tasks they can do well, even if these might be "the practice of law"? Are there best policies and practices that would protect librarians, social workers, organizers, caseworkers, navigators, "trained advocates," legal aid paralegals, and possibly also certain computer software automated forms and other applications – especially in nonprofit settings (or, only in such settings) – from the UPL prohibitions? Is California going to change its UPL rules this year? Join the discussion about the pros and cons of the many models being proposed for UPL rules reform. Reform efforts are currently moving forward across the country, often led by for-profit tech companies under the banner of access to justice. But which reforms are good for people in need and what would truly expand access to justice?

Algorithmic decision-making has enormous potential to help vulnerable people in our society. By reducing the role of human decision-makers, AI promises to increase efficiencies, reduce biases, and simplify processes. States want AI to decide eligibility for Medicaid, public housing, SNAP benefits, and more. But, with all this promise and potential, why is there so much litigation? AI applications are going awry with erroneous decisions, embedded biases, wrongful findings of fraud, and requirements to re-do decisions. Will AI systems, including portals and online dispute resolution, work as hoped? Due process, equal protection, FOIA, and statutory challenges are proceeding against AI models and are on the rise. What are the consequences of saying to ourselves and to others, “the computer did it”? Our community needs advocacy tools, including national standards, to hold government, tech firms, and other powerful interests accountable to the rule of law. We must preserve the rights of people against the new tyranny of presumptions of accuracy. Join this group conversation about the promise, the perils, and the national standards that are defining the entry of AI into the justice sphere.

Effective succession planning has three purposes: avoiding (or managing) crises; preserving the knowledge of key staff members; and facing forward to promote healthy change. Legal aid colleagues who have planned and managed transitions and developed staff leadership for the future will share their successful strategies. Come to this session to share your own thoughts and best practices toward building organizational capacity as key staff members depart and new leadership develops.

This workshop/discussion is being put on by the African American Project Directors Association and will address the issues of ways to cultivate, develop, mentor, and maintain diverse leadership through generational transitions.