Basic Lawyering Skills
Grounded in the rich history, culture and values of legal aid, our Basic Lawyering Skills training (BLaST) is the perfect first skill training for a legal aid lawyer. You'll learn and practice interviewing skills, client counseling, negotiation, legal analysis, case planning and development, motion practice and trial skills, all in a friendly, supportive, low pressure environment with expert feedback and critique. While centered around core advocacy skills, the course also recognizes the importance of ongoing professional development - giving you the opportunity to plan your own professional development goals and approach in the context of the particular challenges that legal aid practice presents. Our learning presentations will be taught by seasoned practitioners from both inside and outside the New England legal aid community. Each will be highly able and eager to impart what they have to share. Presentations, problem solving exercises, case study illustrations, paired negotiations, simulated motion hearings and the like all play their role too in making BLaST a memorable and transformative training event.
"BLaST was an invaluable experience... I was able to apply the principles I've learned in a very practical setting. I appreciated the dedication of our group of trainers and the honest feedback I was given during our exercises. I would recommend that any new (or experienced) advocate take this training sooner rather than later."
- Autumn L. Johnson, Northwestern Legal Services, PA
Faculty Information
Dick Bauer - CLAE senior equal justice training fellow (bio here).
Rachel Shannon Brown - staff attorney at Legal Assistance Corporation of Central Massachusetts, where her work focuses on the Medicare Advocacy Project and disability access. Chair of the Worcester County Bar Association Committee on Services to the Poor and Homeless, and vice-chair of the City of Worcester Commission on Disability.
Carol Coyne - associate director at Merrimack Valley-North Shore Legal Services, where she has been since 1992. Has presented trainings on trial practice, and on consumer, education and family law in Maryland and Massachusetts.
Janet Gilligan - from Rhode Island Legal Services, with a background primarily in family law, child abuse and neglect cases. Adjunct faculty member at the University of Rhode Island and Roger Williams University School of Law; veteran of many previous CLAE trainings.
Marion Hohn - from Western Massachusetts Legal Services, where she works mostly on TAFDC, food stamps, Medicare, and shelters. Frequent trainer on self advocacy and benefits related issues for WMLS, as well as Arise for Social Justice, a local grassroots advocacy organization.
Zenobia Lai - CLAE senior training director (bio here).
Jean Murray - staff attorney at Vermont Legal Aid since 1998. Has practiced in education, disability discrimination, benefits, and consumer cases, with a current focus on representing individuals in landlord/tenant, family, and involuntary treatment cases.
Anna Phillips - staff attorney at the Legal Assistance Corporation of Central Massachusetts, specializing in landlord/tenant cases. Has taught legal courses as an adjunct professor at Fitchburg State College, and participated as a judge for the American Collegiate Moot Court Association.
Rosa Previdi - executive director of the Legal Advocacy and Resource Center in Boston, a legal services hotline that provides free legal advice and referrals to mostly low-income people. Previously, a staff attorney for seven years at the New Center for Legal Advocacy, where her practice focused on domestic relations and domestic violence.
Sample Training Agenda
Here's how the four days of Basic Lawyering Skills typically break down (each day we also make sure to include an hour-long lunch, and timely breaks for beverages and snacks):
DAY 1
11am - 1: Welcome, Introductions and History of Legal Aid
2 - 5.45pm: Client Interviewing
DAY 2
8.45am - 10.20: Case Analysis and Planning
10.30 - 12.30: Client Counseling
1.30 - 2.45: Motion Practice
3.00 - 5.45: Motion Hearing simulation
5.45 - 6.15pm: Judges' Reception
DAY 3
8.45am - 9.45: Advocacy Outside the Courtroom
9.45 - 3.45: Negotiation
4.00 - 5.45pm: Developing as Advocates/Professional Development Planning
DAY 4
8.45am - 2.00: Trial Planning and Preparation
2.00 - 3.00pm: Closing Plenary, Evaluations and Graduation
For further BLaST information, please click here.