VOLUNTEER TRAINING AT CARPLS!
CARPLS WORKS UPCOMING TRAINING: CARPLS is seeking unemployed and underemployed attorneys to volunteer 4 hours each week providing advice and brief services to low-income clients via our legal aid hotline. Volunteers will be trained in the limited practice areas of family, consumer debt, and landlord-tenant law.
Our next substantive law training for CARPLS Works volunteers is Monday, May 17, from 4:00 – 8:30 at 17 N. State Street, Chicago. Once you complete this substantive law training, you may select one of three 'system training' shifts (Tuesday, May 25, 2010 from 10 a.m. – 12:30 pm; Wednesday, May 26, 2010 from 6 pm – 8:30 pm or Thursday, May 27, 2010 from 2 pm – 4:30 pm) and a Live Call Training Shift of two hours during the weeks of June 1, 7 or 14. You must complete all three parts of the training in this time frame in order to volunteer. If you cannot commit to this schedule, we offer trainings six times per year and would be happy to work with you to find a training that works better for your schedule.
You must be a licensed Illinois attorney to attend, and you must preregister for this event. Spaces are limited. If you are interested, please email Leslie Wallin at lwallin@carpls.org as soon as possible for more information or to reserve a spot at the training. Complimentary dinner will be served.
January 30, 2009 Volume: 155 Issue: 21
Out-of-work lawyers sought to perform volunteer services
By John Flynn Rooney, Law Bulletin staff writer
A local legal aid provider is seeking unemployed lawyers as volunteers to staff its telephone hotline for low-income families in need of legal advice.
''It was really a response to the increasing economic crisis,'' Allen C. Schwartz, executive director of the Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services, said in a telephone interview Friday. ''The demand for services has increased dramatically.''
Calls to the hotline are up more than 25 percent during the agency's second quarter of the current fiscal year, compared to a year ago, according to Schwartz.
Local law firms have laid off an increasing number of lawyers as sluggish economic conditions continue. The new project, dubbed CARPLS Works, is set to kick off the week of Feb. 23.
The volunteers must be licensed Illinois lawyers and are asked to work on the CARPLS hotline for at least four hours each week on a morning or afternoon shift.
Schwartz said CARPLS officials hope that between 40 and 50 out-of-work lawyers will volunteer for the new program. The new volunteers will supplement the work of 32 paid staff lawyers, Schwartz said.
CARPLS officials posted a job description for the new program on craigslist and other online sites Thursday afternoon, Schwartz said. By Friday morning, there were about 35 responses, he added.
The first response was from a lawyer who was offended because she was being asked to work for free, according to Schwartz. The rest of the responses came from lawyers interested in participating in the program, he added.
Volunteers will be trained in limited practice areas of family, landlord-tenant and consumer law before they start answering phone calls.
When a volunteer lawyer determines that a caller needs more extensive legal services, CARPLS refers the client to a legal aid provider in the agency's network, Schwartz said. That network comprises about 40 legal aid providers in Cook County .
''We do a lot of legal triage here,'' Schwartz said.
Lawyers interested in volunteering for the new program should contact CARPLS by Feb. 13. Resumes can be e-mailed to sberube@carpls.org or mailed to CARPLS Works, 17 N. State St., Suite 1850 , Chicago , IL , 60602 . More information can be obtained by calling (312) 421-4011.
The project will give lawyers without jobs the opportunity to use their legal skills and provide service to the community, according to Schwartz.
''There is the aspect of community service and using their unique skills to help others in this time of crisis,'' Schwartz said. ''But this is also an opportunity for them to network with attorneys who are in the same situation.''
The volunteer attorneys also will have the opportunity to give their resumes to members and associate members of the CARPLS Board of Directors. Many of those board members work at Chicago 's major law firms and corporate law departments, Schwartz said.
''This is something they can put on their resumes as something they have been doing,'' Schwartz added. ''I think this is something that could be of interest to prospective employers.''
