North Star Lawyers Deliver $17 Million in Pro Bono Services in One Year

685 North Star Lawyers provided more than 70,000 hours of pro bono service, for a total value of $17 million in free legal help during 2022. Each Minnesota State Bar Association (MSBA) member designated as a North Star Lawyer provided at least 50 hours of pro bono service to Minnesotans with low incomes.

The MSBA is also proud to announce that in a random drawing of all eligible organizations submitted, Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (SMRLS) was selected as the recipient of the first $5,000 North Star Lawyer Award from the Minnesota State Bar Foundation. Thank you to all the North Star Lawyers who nominated their partner organizations, and to the organizations who make pro bono happen every day. 

See the full list of North Star Lawyers here and reach out to kdrahos@mnbars.org with any training, recruiting, or other pro bono needs. The MSBA is proud to support the legal aid and pro bono community in their efforts to increase justice access in our state.

Registration Now Open for Mental Health and Legal Practice: A Holistic View - The Legal Services Statewide Conference

Legal Services State Support is excited to announce that registration opens today for the 2022 Legal Services Statewide Conference — Mental Health and Legal Practice: A Holistic View. The conference will be held from Wednesday, November 2nd to Friday, November 4th, 2022, at Arrowwood Resort and Conference Center in Alexandria, MN. Conference plenaries will bring the community together to learn about mental health disparities in underserved communities, as well as the mental health challenges and opportunities we face as legal providers. Participants will also choose from breakout sessions that address skills-building and renewal to aid our personal and professional capacities as we work in a new legal landscape - informed and transformed by the pandemic. Attendees can earn up to 11 hours of Minnesota CLE credit, including up to 5 hours of elimination of bias and 1 hour of ethics credit.

The conference officially kicks-off on Wednesday evening, November 2, with special guest Dr. Remi Douah, founder and executive director of 846s.org, a non-profit supporting BIPOC youth-led initiatives for violence prevention, safety, mental health, and wellness. Dr. Douah will talk about his extensive work helping marginalized communities in South Minneapolis and how we can implement mental health care principles into our interactions with our clients.

Sharon Browning, Esq., attorney, educator, mediator and motivator, will deliver Thursday morning's keynote address, in which she will discuss the transformational power of non-egoic communication and the role of integrative listening in the work setting. She will describe non-egoic listening techniques and how they can be applied in legal settings to improve staff cohesion, morale, productivity, and wellness, as well as enhanced relationships and increased efficacy for clients. Browning will also present two one-hour break-out sessions designed to develop advanced communication skills for conference attendees who wish to delve deeper.

Other highlights of this year's conference include sessions from special guests Kimberly Merchant and Maha Syed of the Shriver Center Racial Justice Institute and Kay King of the National Alliance on Mental Illness - Minnesota.

Important Covid-19 Policy Information
State Support takes the health and safety of our legal services community seriously. As part of the registration process, every attendee is required to comply with in-person conference guidelines. These guidelines are detailed on our conference page (click the “Register” tab at the top of the page) and include proof of vaccination prior to the conference, as well as a negative Covid-19 test 72 hours or less before the start of the conference.

To register for the conference and find out more about breakout sessions, speakers, and social activities, visit our conference page and click on the Register tab. Then, just select your participant type. Our last in-person conference was in 2019, so we expect it to be well-attended. Register early as space is limited! See you at Arrowwood!

MMLA St. Cloud Named Impact Organization of the Year

The United Way of Central Minnesota recently honored Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid (MMLA) - Saint Cloud with its Impact Organization of the Year award.

The United Way recognizes many outstanding individuals and organizations throughout the year for their contributions to local and regional communities. With the 2022 Impact Organization of the Year Award, MMLA - St. Cloud was recognized for staff responsiveness to pandemic challenges through its work to meet the housing eviction crisis, and the development of creative partnership responses with the court system to handle the wave of evictions after the moratorium was lifted.

The development of consolidated multi-county housing court calendars, direct community outreach via the Justice Bus and Legal Kiosks, and the work of staff to help people get access to much needed health insurance were also praised with the award. Additionally, a significant impact was made through medical/legal partnerships with clinics in five communities, and a community partnership with Promise Neighborhood, a grassroots organization which serves low-income families and children.

Ann Cofell, deputy director of MMLA - St. Cloud, noted that the pandemic years have been particularly difficult for both clients and staff, but that everyone has pulled together—tech staff, finance people, intake staff, secretaries, paralegals, attorneys, supervisors—to innovate and meet the need.

“This award is particularly gratifying because it recognizes our work serving individuals, and the impact of that work on the community as a whole. The understanding that the work of Legal Aid keeping people housed, and fed, and healthy, and safe really makes the whole community stronger, and this award recognizes that,” Cofell said.

Providing Access to Justice Through Technology in Rural Communities

By Brooke Trottier, 2021 Student Fellow - Rural Summer Legal Corps; University of St. Thomas School of Law

Last summer, I served in the Rural Summer Legal Corps with Legal Aid Service of Northeastern Minnesota (LASNEM), a legal services organization that serves eleven counties in the Northeastern corner of the state, including the small town in which my family resides. I was drawn to this program due to its focus on providing access to justice through technology in rural communities.

Reach Justice Minnesota is a project of the Minnesota Legal Services Coalition. This project entails a series of initiatives, two of which I contributed to: the Legal Kiosk Project and Justice Buses.

The Legal Kiosk Project is a network consisting of more than 200 computers located in community partner host sites. These kiosks provide access to a self-help legal database and the application for regional legal aid, with select kiosks outfitted for video conferencing. In alignment with the growing challenges the COVID-19 pandemic brought upon the community, the end of Minnesota’s eviction moratorium saw district courts requiring parties attend Zoom court by video.

While at LASNEM, I focused on maximizing host site experiences with the legal kiosks. As community partners opened their offices to the public again, it was important to ensure that the kiosks were functioning, each site had the tools it needed, and we were available for any questions or concerns that arose. This led to a fun field trip where I drove across LASNEM’s service area and visited five host sites!

Another part of my work involved the Justice Bus, a mobile legal aid office affiliated with a regional legal aid office. I was responsible for ensuring LASNEM’s bus was well-equipped for providing legal aid services out of the bus: drafting internal policies, defining expectations and procedures, and connecting with community partners. This project culminated at the end of July, when the four regional Justice Buses met at the Minnesota State Capitol. It was quite the experience to see the project come to life, and to witness the Minnesota Attorney General’s and Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice’s support for the initiative.

“I not only have a renewed energy towards providing equitable access to justice and legal aid, but see a future for myself as a civil legal attorney.”

— Brooke Trottier, University of St. Thomas School of Law

The Justice Bus project required vast collaboration across the state: legal aid staff, attorneys and executive directors, community partners, technology support companies, and the Minnesota Judiciary. Although it could be difficult to coordinate involvement from each group, the value of collaboration was clear.

My Equal Justice Works Student Fellowship introduced me to the expansive reach of civil legal aid. I am immensely grateful for this experience and would recommend the Rural Summer Legal Corps to anyone who is considering a future in civil legal aid. This student fellowship was hands-on and allowed me to own my projects, while being supervised by experienced attorneys and legal staff.

Shared with permission of Equal Justice Works - Law School Engagement & Advocacy

Public Service Loan Forgiveness Waiver Means You May Qualify Now

Student loans can be a big expense, especially for legal services employees, but there are some programs available that may help reduce that expense. Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) is one of the biggest options. The program initially went into effect on October 1, 2007, and there have been some challenges in qualifying since that time. Fortunately, there is currently a waiver of some of the program requirements, which makes many more people eligible. That means now is a great time to see if you are eligible and take steps to qualify for PSLF.

To qualify for PSLF:

1) You must be employed by a U.S. federal, state, local or tribal government or not-for-profit organization — if you work at a Minnesota based legal services program funded by LSAC, it’s almost certain that you meet this requirement.

2) Work full-time for that agency or organization (this usually means at least 30 hours per week, but check the studentaid.gov site for more information).

3) Have Direct Loans or consolidate other federal student loans into a Direct Loan (during the limited waiver, you may be able to consolidate previously ineligible federal loans including FFEL or Perkins loans into a Direct Loan to qualify).

4) Be in the right repayment plan — which means an income driven repayment plan. This requirement is waived through October 31, 2022 as part of the limited waiver.

5) Make 120 qualifying payments (essentially 10 years).

To learn more about the temporary waiver, and what specifically is changed, see the Student Aid website: PSLF Waiver Offers Way to Get Closer to Loan Forgiveness | Federal Student Aid.

As part of making sure our community is aware of this program, State Support has created a page of resources to put the key information about PSLF in one place. You can find that page at www.mnlegalservices.org/pslf. This includes a recording of the January 11, 2022, training with Dee Baskin, executive director of Loan Repayment Assistance Program of Minnesota (LRAP-MN), and Heather Vlieger of Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid (MMLA), talking about the PSLF and LRAP programs.