CBA Record April-May 2019

Chicago Bar Foundation Report

The CBF Legal Aid Academy Celebrating Ten Years of A+ Training

By Patrick Wu CBF Intern F or the past ten years, the CBF Legal Aid Academy has provided free, high-quality training and profes- sional development opportunities for hundreds of legal aid attorneys to develop valuable skills so that they can better serve our community. With the help of gener- ous pro bono contributions of time and expertise from attorneys, law firms, and CLE providers, the Academy has been able to continuously provide these professional development opportunities for Chicago’s legal aid community. Why the Legal Aid Academy? Chicago’s pro bono and legal aid organiza- tions are top notch, teeming with some of the best lawyers in their respective fields. Even the most dedicated legal aid lawyers in these organizations, however, can face daunting challenges to making long-term commitments to these vital careers. Financial challenges can be very real for The CBF Legal Aid Academy relies on pro bono contributions to provide both coordinated and customized training. To learn more about how you can help, please contact the CBF’s Senior Manager of Advocacy & Engagement, Angela Inzano at ainzano@chicagobar.org, 312/554- 4952

lawyers making relatively modest public service salaries while carrying mortgage- sized student debt. This issue tends to get most of the attention in this area, and justifiably so. But as a groundbreaking study in 2006 detailed, there are other key supports—such as access to high-quality training and professional development— that also play an integral part in making legal aid a viable long-term career path. The study found those types of opportunities were too often out of reach for lawyers in legal aid, contributing to lawyers leaving this work prematurely. While legal aid organizations provide outstanding training to their lawyers in their fields of substantive expertise, they often struggle to find the time and

resources to train their attorneys on the other skills required to succeed in these careers. Based on these findings and discus- sions with law firm professional develop- ment directors and consultants, the CBF developed an innovative new pro bono program to help fill this gap. Types of Training Provided The Legal Aid Academy provides training through two types of programs: • Customized Training: Firms, legal con- sultants, and members of the legal com- munity create free training programs that are customized for the needs of the legal aid community • Coordinated Training: Legal aid attor- neys join already existing training

18 APRIL/MAY 2019

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