Disaster Legal Aid 2018 Roundtable Series | Ready, Willing, & Able: Organizing the Legal Community's Response to Disasters

  • 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
  • Eastern Time (US & Canada)
  • By: Pro Bono Net, Lone Star Legal Aid
  • Source: National Disaster Legal Aid - OLD2 > National Disaster Legal Aid Advocacy Center
Topics:
  • Disaster Relief and Recovery

After a disaster, law students and attorneys who want to help disaster survivors with legal issues often find themselves wondering how to get involved given the complicated logistics of the post-disaster landscape. Likewise, law firms, bar associations, and legal service providers are met with the challenge of recruiting and dispatching large numbers of legal volunteers in rapid fashion.  This  roundtable will explore various approaches to rapid post-disaster mobilization of legal volunteers from the 2017 major disasters. We will hear from:

  • Two major bar associations about their post-disaster volunteer mobilization strategies;
  • How law school students organized to travel to Puerto Rico immediately following Hurricane María; and
  • How big law firm attorneys have provided pro bono disaster legal aid services to the community immediately after a disaster in partnership with legal service organizations. 

Disaster legal aid practitioners and pro bono professionals from legal service organizations, bar associations, corporations, and legal service providers, as well as attorneys interested in participating in rapid response efforts now or in the future, are encouraged to attend.

Panelists:

  • Patricio G. Martínez-Llompart, Legal Corps for Puerto Rico - Columbia Law School
  • Lynn M. Kelly, Executive Director - City Bar Justice Center
  • Katherine C. Hughes, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP
  • Tiela Chalmers, Chief Executive Officer and General Counsel Alameda County Bar Association and Volunteer Legal Services Corporation

Moderated by:

  • Jessica Penkoff, Pro Bono & Strategic Initiatives Coordinator, Pro Bono Net
  • Saundra Brown, Directing Attorney - Disaster Legal Services, Lone Star Legal Aid
  • Jeanne Ortiz-Ortiz, Disaster Response Legal Fellow, Pro Bono Net

For details, please visit https://www.disasterlegalaid.org/advocates/roundtables/.