Standards
When you choose the Center for Legal Aid Education as your training provider, you can do so confident in the knowledge that all of our trainings reinforce and support the best practices put forward by the American Bar Association in their “Standards for the Provision of Civil Legal Aid.”
Intended as the gold-standard of quality assurance, these standards clearly articulate expectations related to every aspect of legal services work, from governing boards, delivery structures and internal systems and procedures, to client relations and advocacy practice. They are guided by the core values of responding to the needs of low income clients and communities, achieving lasting results that respond to low-income communities’ most compelling legal needs, and treating persons served with dignity and respect.
Through a diligent, careful and thorough process, we assimilated these standards into our existing core curriculum – in the expectation that they will further illuminate what our trainings have to offer, and as a practical way of bridging the gap between an ideal and the realities of day-to-day practice. For each of our courses, therefore, you’ll see how these standards underpin and inform the learning. We hope you will find these a useful and reassuring reference – and invite you to explore the ‘ABA Standards’ sections of our website (alongside each course description). We welcome the close scrutiny that these imply.