2008 Year End Report

Design & Delivery of Core Courses: CLAE’s laddered curriculum of core advocacy skills training provides a continuum of professional learning with courses geared for distinct groups of legal aid staff – program and litigation directors, new and more experienced attorneys, non‐attorney advocates, intake staff and others. In 2008, CLAE sponsored five training programs for the Florida legal aid community with a total of 137 staff attending as participants and 17 serving as faculty. Through the support of CLAE’s national partners, Practising Law Institute and National Institute for Trial Advocacy, two of the five programs we offered in 2008 – Designing and Delivering Great Training and Deposition Skills -- went beyond CLAE’s 2008 contract.

• Thirty-two (32) new lawyers from 16 legal aid programs attended the June 08 Basic Lawyering Skills Training. BLST provides an introduction to the culture, values, and approaches that distinguish legal aid practice, as well the kinds of strategies and tools that we use to serve our client communities. The training includes sessions on legal aid history and mission, client interviewing, case analysis and strategy development, client counseling, negotiations, alternative advocacy approaches, motion practice and introductory trial skills.
• Thirty (30) advocates from 14 legal aid programs attended the September Community Lawyering training. CL provides a framework through which advocates can move beyond litigation (but with litigation one of the tools at their disposal) to build multi-tactic advocacy campaigns using a range of advocacy and community-building tools including media and communication, policy advocacy, campaign feasibility and power analysis, campaign planning, facilitative leadership, action research and campaign management. 
• Thirty-one (31) lawyers from 14 legal aid programs participated in the hybrid Affirmative Litigation Training which includes three-weeks of web-based activities and four days in-person. ALT provides a comprehensive introduction to the process of prosecuting a complex affirmative case in federal or state court. ALT includes a mix of interactive sessions, webinars and multi-media lectures on the substantive law of claim justiciability, as well as practical exercises on discovery, complaint drafting, motion practice and emergency relief. Together, these elements and the course as a whole, provide a solid foundation for strengthening legal aid practice and moving our community toward a renewed focus on high impact, change oriented advocacy.
• Twenty-six (26) attorneys from 12 legal aid programs attended Deposition Skills, offered in partnership with the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA). Deposition Skills provides a strong framework for basic deposition techniques, and explores a variety of questioning methods. Participants receive supportive, helpful suggestions on how to improve performance, utilizing frequent repetitions in the learning-by-doing method to help master new techniques. A portion of the program is also devoted to ethical considerations in deposition settings and witness preparation. 

Leadership Development: CLAE approaches leadership development on two levels – through the careful recruitment and support of legal aid staff who serve as course faculty and members of training design teams and through its year-long Leadership Institute.  

• Faculty support and development: In 2008, CLAE worked with the Florida community to develop a diverse cadre of legal aid faculty by:
  • Sponsoring the March 08 Training of Trainers with the support of Practising Law Institute. Fourteen (14) advocates from eight programs attended this event.  
  • Recruiting and supporting development of nineteen (19) advocates who served as faculty for one of three core courses offered in Florida in 2008 as well as courses offered in Seattle and South Carolina. Faculty support includes a full-day course-specific “training of trainers” in advance of each course as well as comprehensive faculty manuals with detailed instructions and content for each session and timed outlines to ensure that new faculty can provide a quality learning experience and that each delivery is consistent in content and quality. 
  • In 2009, CLAE will again sponsor the two-day Training of Trainer program and then recruit and support faculty for the five additional courses to be offered in 2009 
• Leadership Institute: In 2008, CLAE worked with the Florida Bar Foundation to outline the scope of the year-long Leadership Institute scheduled to begin in January 2009.
  • Beginning in January 2009, CLAE will sponsor four three-day Leadership Institute retreats. The mentor orientation is scheduled for late January 09 and the first three fellow/mentor retreats will take place in February, June and September 2009. The final retreat is scheduled for January 2010. 

Reinforcing and building upon what staff learn in training courses: The Florida community recognizes that advocacy and leadership training alone will not achieve goals of strengthening advocacy effectiveness, fostering diverse leadership and increasing advocate satisfaction with their work and commitment to legal aid practice. Rather, there needs to be commitment within programs – from program directors, managers and supervisors – to reinforce the knowledge, skills and values that staff are exposed to through the advocacy and leadership trainings.  

• In 2008, CLAE made a presentation at the May 08 PDA meeting to introduce project directors to CLAE programming. CLAE staff also presented three sessions at the recent Florida statewide conference – one on CLAE programming generally and two on specific CLAE courses:  Affirmative Litigation Training and Community Lawyering.  
• In 2009, CLAE hopes to be able to work more closely with sponsoring programs to reinforce what staff members learn through CLAE trainings and help them support the professional development of their staff.