In 2008, CLAE entered into an exciting partnership with the Florida legal aid community. Through a new Florida Bar Foundation (FBF)-funded training initiative, CLAE now offers a rich combination of training programs that are helping to shore up essential advocacy skills, reignite a powerful equal justice vision and nurture a new community of legal services leaders.

A rejuvenation of Florida legal services started with a 2006 report, Quest for the Best, commissioned in response to, as Paul Doyle, FBF’s Director of Legal Assistance for the Poor, puts it, “a growing awareness of certain trends that were troubling,” including low staff retention rates and “some bureaucratization of the delivery system.” Among its many findings, the report documented that new lawyers stay an average of only twenty-three months, and that one in five legal aid attorneys in Florida leave their programs each year.

Amidst this disheartening data, however, the report also suggested several concrete approaches to addressing these problems, with training, leadership development and community building at the fore – all areas within CLAE’s expertise. “We felt the need to have a long-term relationship with CLAE,” Doyle explains, “that was cooperative and collaborative… and more than just providing specified units of training on an a la carte basis.”

In spring 2008, CLAE consequently launched a new Florida training program with a schedule of courses intended to complement and build upon one another. Starting with the foundational Basic Lawyering Skills, the offerings progressed to include Community Lawyering and Affirmative Litigation, which together enable advocates to identify and address the systemic issues that harm low-income communities. Drawing on partnerships with other national training providers, CLAE also sponsored Designing and Delivering Great Training with the Practicing Law Institute (PLI) and Deposition Skills with support from the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA). Finally, in late 2008, CLAE launched its inaugural, year-long Florida Leadership Development Institute, bringing together thirty mentors and fellows from across the state.

As 2008 drew to a close, these interrelated initiatives were already demonstrating impressive results. “The first year of training has had a significant impact on our advocates… the feedback is very positive, and the satisfaction level is palpable,” says Doyle. “We would highly recommend that other states and regions consider how they can enter into a relationship with CLAE. Restoring the vibrancy of legal services advocacy, and retaining the best and the brightest once you recruit them is critical to our future.”