NLADA brings together advocates and allies devoted to the delivery of legal services to those who cannot afford counsel. Sessions at the Annual Conference encompass a wide range of topics, some focused on priority issues for each of NLADA’s core communities – civil legal aid, client advocates and public defenders - and others that are intentionally designed for a broader, interdisciplinary audience – social workers, justice workers, organizers, pro bono and community partners, court staff, law schools, etc.
See below a preliminary list of conference sessions relevant to some of the different groups attending NLADA’s Annual Conference. Note that some sessions appear on all lists, and many sessions appear on multiple lists.
NLADA welcomes many other stakeholders to the Annual Conference who will also find relevant, engaging content in a myriad of sessions. See a complete list of conference sessions.
Civil Legal Aid
- Criminal Courts as Partners in Homelessness Solutions
- Crossover: Criminal Defense and Civil Legal Aid Providing Support to Each other and their Communities
- Improving Legal Outcomes through Interagency Collaboration: Perspectives from the Client, Legal Team, and Community Providers
- Integrating Human Rights into Litigation in State and Federal Court
- Keeping the Humans in Human Services: Advocacy strategies in the Age of AI, Algorithms, and Chatbots
- Locked Out After Release: Parole, Voting Rights, and the Fight for Full Freedom
- Naming the Gap: Talking with Clients About Justice and the Law"
- Protecting Our Neighbors: The Role of Minnesota Legal Services in Response to Operation Metro Surge
- State of Language Rights: What's New? What's Next?
- Threats to Federal Grantees and How to Overcome Them
- Advancing Equity, Diversity and Civil Rights in a Shifting Policy Environment
- Challenging the Criminalization of Homelessness to Prevent Evictions and Displacement of Unhoused Tenants
- Defending the Rights of Vehicle-Sheltered People
- Bridging Worlds; Making Connections in Crimmigration
- Effectively Leveraging Collaborative Models in Disaster Legal Services - Before, During and After Natural Disasters and Other Emergencies
- Beyond Individual Representation: Group Representation and Neighborhood-Based Legal Advocacy
- Enforcing and Expanding Due Process for Public and Subsidized Housing Tenants Facing Eviction for Alleged Criminal Activity
- Safeguarding Generational Stability through Estate Planning and Title Clearing Clinics
- The Power of Collaborative Communication: From a Shared Narrative to Collective Impact
- Using Evidence to Triage Legal Services
- Artificial Intelligence Best Policy Benchmarks for Increasing Access to Justice in the States
- Educating Legislators About Legal Aid 2.0
- From Problem to Partner: Building Effective Collaborations with Local Courts
- Legal Aid Funding Landscape and Roundtable
- LSC Compliance Oversight - Common Compliance Concerns and Recent Trends
- Developments and Trends in Lawyer Ethics and Regulation Impacting Legal Aid, Public Defense and Other Equal Justice Practitioners
- Machine Translation & AI-Generated Language Services: Not 'Good Enough' for Justice
- Defending Against the Criminalization of Abortion Care
- How to Make More Effective State Constitutional Arguments: Tips and Tools for Legal Aid Lawyers and Public Defenders
- Predicting the Financial Benefits of Fines and Fees Reform: Leveraging new research, tools and evaluation to persuade policymakers
- From Crisis to Stability: Integrating Public Benefits Advocacy into Holistic Legal Services
- Healing after Harm: The Impact of Integrating Trauma Recovery Centers and Civil Legal Aid
- Legal Aid & Libraries: Serving the Community Together
- Lessons from Illinois: Reframing Ablelist and Aging Language for Lawyers
- Partnering to Prevent Family Separation: How Public Defenders, Civil Legal Aid, and Community Organizations Can Work Together
- The True Cost of Being Poor in Texas
- Building Partnerships to Expand Client Access: Strategies That Work
- Federal Indian Law 101 for Legal Services Professionals
- From Chaos to Coordination: Designing and Launching Effective Disaster Relief Projects
- Meeting the Moment: the Right to Counsel for Adults and Children in Immigration
- Virtually Unlawful: Novel Legal Issues in Post-Pandemic Virtual Education for K-12 Students
- Bridge Over Troubled Waters: A Legal Aid Strategy for Addressing Errors in Application of Medicaid Work Requirements
- Civil Rights Litigation for Public Benefits Participants post- Medina, Casa Inc., and Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine
- Christopher Simmons Journey - how public defenders, public interest lawyers and community advocates worked together to strike down the juvenile death penalty and consider age in gaining his release.
- Legal Tools to Fight Fines and Fees
- Legal Check-Ups: Moving Civil Legal Help Upstream Through a Preventative, Community-Based Model
- Training Community Justice Workers: A Replicable Model for Benefits Advocacy
- Unauthorized to Practice? How NH Is Rewriting the Rules on Who Can Help
- Beyond the Traditional Model: Building an Interdisciplinary Legal Aid Practice with Social Workers as Equal Partners
- Healing-Centered Justice: Trauma-Informed Legal Representation in Practice
- Beyond the Courtroom: Integrating Forensic Social Work to Strengthen Legal Advocacy and Client Outcomes
Client & Community Advocates
- Criminal Courts as Partners in Homelessness Solutions
- Crossover: Criminal Defense and Civil Legal Aid Providing Support to Each other and their Communities
- Improving Legal Outcomes through Interagency Collaboration: Perspectives from the Client, Legal Team, and Community Providers
- Integrating Human Rights into Litigation in State and Federal Court
- Keeping the Humans in Human Services: Advocacy strategies in the Age of AI, Algorithms, and Chatbots
- Locked Out After Release: Parole, Voting Rights, and the Fight for Full Freedom
- Naming the Gap: Talking with Clients About Justice and the Law"
- Protecting Our Neighbors: The Role of Minnesota Legal Services in Response to Operation Metro Surge
- State of Language Rights: What's New? What's Next?
- Threats to Federal Grantees and How to Overcome Them
- Advancing Equity, Diversity and Civil Rights in a Shifting Policy Environment
- Challenging the Criminalization of Homelessness to Prevent Evictions and Displacement of Unhoused Tenants
- Defending the Rights of Vehicle-Sheltered People
- Bridging Worlds; Making Connections in Crimmigration
- Effectively Leveraging Collaborative Models in Disaster Legal Services - Before, During and After Natural Disasters and Other Emergencies
- Beyond Individual Representation: Group Representation and Neighborhood-Based Legal Advocacy
- Enforcing and Expanding Due Process for Public and Subsidized Housing Tenants Facing Eviction for Alleged Criminal Activity
- Safeguarding Generational Stability through Estate Planning and Title Clearing Clinics
- The Power of Collaborative Communication: From a Shared Narrative to Collective Impact
- From Crisis to Stability: Integrating Public Benefits Advocacy into Holistic Legal Services
- Healing after Harm: The Impact of Integrating Trauma Recovery Centers and Civil Legal Aid
- Legal Aid & Libraries: Serving the Community Together
- Lessons from Illinois: Reframing Ablelist and Aging Language for Lawyers
- Partnering to Prevent Family Separation: How Public Defenders, Civil Legal Aid, and Community Organizations Can Work Together
- The True Cost of Being Poor in Texas
- Nothing About Us Without Us: A Real Talk Reckoning on Bias, Stigma, and Power in Client-Centered Advocacy
- Strengthening Client Leadership: Building Trust, Partnerships, and Pathways for Impact
- Community Pathways: Building a network of community partnerships for awareness and more effective legal services
- What Does Real Justice Look Like? / A Freedom in Love / Systems Change experience
- Christopher Simmons Journey - how public defenders, public interest lawyers and community advocates worked together to strike down the juvenile death penalty and consider age in gaining his release.
- From Limited Justice to Defending Futures: the legacy of In Re Gault and Youth Defense Specialization
- Power to the People: A Holistic Revolution to End Mass Incarceration Through Participatory Defense
- Legal Check-Ups: Moving Civil Legal Help Upstream Through a Preventative, Community-Based Model
- Training Community Justice Workers: A Replicable Model for Benefits Advocacy
- Unauthorized to Practice? How NH Is Rewriting the Rules on Who Can Help
- Healing-Centered Justice: Trauma-Informed Legal Representation in Practice
- We Were All Kids Once: Social Work and Mitigation with Children and Youth
Leadership & Management
- Criminal Courts as Partners in Homelessness Solutions
- Crossover: Criminal Defense and Civil Legal Aid Providing Support to Each other and their Communities
- Improving Legal Outcomes through Interagency Collaboration: Perspectives from the Client, Legal Team, and Community Providers
- Integrating Human Rights into Litigation in State and Federal Court
- Keeping the Humans in Human Services: Advocacy strategies in the Age of AI, Algorithms, and Chatbots
- Locked Out After Release: Parole, Voting Rights, and the Fight for Full Freedom
- Naming the Gap: Talking with Clients About Justice and the Law"
- Protecting Our Neighbors: The Role of Minnesota Legal Services in Response to Operation Metro Surge
- State of Language Rights: What's New? What's Next?
- Threats to Federal Grantees and How to Overcome Them
- Advancing Equity, Diversity and Civil Rights in a Shifting Policy Environment
- Challenging the Criminalization of Homelessness to Prevent Evictions and Displacement of Unhoused Tenants
- Defending the Rights of Vehicle-Sheltered People
- The Power of Collaborative Communication: From a Shared Narrative to Collective Impact
- Using Evidence to Triage Legal Services
- Artificial Intelligence Best Policy Benchmarks for Increasing Access to Justice in the States
- Educating Legislators About Legal Aid 2.0
- From Problem to Partner: Building Effective Collaborations with Local Courts
- Legal Aid Funding Landscape and Roundtable
- LSC Compliance Oversight - Common Compliance Concerns and Recent Trends
- Developments and Trends in Lawyer Ethics and Regulation Impacting Legal Aid, Public Defense and Other Equal Justice Practitioners
- Nothing About Us Without Us: A Real Talk Reckoning on Bias, Stigma, and Power in Client-Centered Advocacy
- Strengthening Client Leadership: Building Trust, Partnerships, and Pathways for Impact
- Finding the Ask: Identifying Opportunities for Expert Support
- Civil Legal Aid Coverage Coefficient (CLACC): Using Court and Legal Aid Data In Tandem to Target Services and Investment
- From Scarcity to Abundance: JustOC - A New Model for Cross Sector Collaboration and Innovation
- MIE Roundtable for Legal Services Executive Directors and Managers
- Bending the Unbendable: The Unsustainable Health Insurance Cost-Curve and Alternative Solutions to Fully Insured Healthcare
- Crisis Communications: Strategically Align Your Messaging in Turbulent Times
- Cyber Security Protection for Lawyers in 2026
- Maintaining Engagement and Performance in Times of Social Change
- Making Executive Leadership a Team Effort
- Prioritizing Recruitment and Retention in a Challenging Funding Environment
- Protecting Your Mission: Malpractice Claim Data and Risk Protection Strategies for Non-Profit Legal Organizations
- Christopher Simmons Journey - how public defenders, public interest lawyers and community advocates worked together to strike down the juvenile death penalty and consider age in gaining his release.
- Replicate This: How Your Office Can Create Holistic Defense Workload and Capacity Metrics for Data Driven Management and Evidence
Public Defenders
- Criminal Courts as Partners in Homelessness Solutions
- Crossover: Criminal Defense and Civil Legal Aid Providing Support to Each other and their Communities
- Improving Legal Outcomes through Interagency Collaboration: Perspectives from the Client, Legal Team, and Community Providers
- Integrating Human Rights into Litigation in State and Federal Court
- Keeping the Humans in Human Services: Advocacy strategies in the Age of AI, Algorithms, and Chatbots
- Locked Out After Release: Parole, Voting Rights, and the Fight for Full Freedom
- Naming the Gap: Talking with Clients About Justice and the Law"
- Protecting Our Neighbors: The Role of Minnesota Legal Services in Response to Operation Metro Surge
- State of Language Rights: What's New? What's Next?
- Threats to Federal Grantees and How to Overcome Them
- Advancing Equity, Diversity and Civil Rights in a Shifting Policy Environment
- Challenging the Criminalization of Homelessness to Prevent Evictions and Displacement of Unhoused Tenants
- Defending the Rights of Vehicle-Sheltered People
- Bridging Worlds; Making Connections in Crimmigration
- Using Evidence to Triage Legal Services
- Developments and Trends in Lawyer Ethics and Regulation Impacting Legal Aid, Public Defense and Other Equal Justice Practitioners
- Machine Translation & AI-Generated Language Services: Not 'Good Enough' for Justice
- Defending Against the Criminalization of Abortion Care
- How to Make More Effective State Constitutional Arguments: Tips and Tools for Legal Aid Lawyers and Public Defenders
- Predicting the Financial Benefits of Fines and Fees Reform: Leveraging new research, tools and evaluation to persuade policymakers
- Nothing About Us Without Us: A Real Talk Reckoning on Bias, Stigma, and Power in Client-Centered Advocacy
- What Does Real Justice Look Like? / A Freedom in Love / Systems Change experience
- Finding the Ask: Identifying Opportunities for Expert Support
- Christopher Simmons Journey - how public defenders, public interest lawyers and community advocates worked together to strike down the juvenile death penalty and consider age in gaining his release.
- Legal Tools to Fight Fines and Fees
- From Limited Justice to Defending Futures: the legacy of In Re Gault and Youth Defense Specialization
- Power to the People: A Holistic Revolution to End Mass Incarceration Through Participatory Defense
- Replicate This: How Your Office Can Create Holistic Defense Workload and Capacity Metrics for Data Driven Management and Evidence
- Just Juries: Balancing the Scales of the Jury Box
- Tracking Police & Prosecutor Misconduct: How to Build an Infrastructure of Accountability and Why It's Important
- AI-Powered Evidence Review: Strategies From 90+ Public Defender Offices
- Healing-Centered Justice: Trauma-Informed Legal Representation in Practice
- Beyond the Courtroom: Integrating Forensic Social Work to Strengthen Legal Advocacy and Client Outcomes
- We Were All Kids Once: Social Work and Mitigation with Children and Youth
- MAP-IT: Advancing Mitigation in Non-Capital Murder Cases in Texas
- Reimagining Competence in the Criminal Legal Landscape
Social Workers & Community Justice Workers
- Criminal Courts as Partners in Homelessness Solutions
- Crossover: Criminal Defense and Civil Legal Aid Providing Support to Each other and their Communities
- Improving Legal Outcomes through Interagency Collaboration: Perspectives from the Client, Legal Team, and Community Providers
- Integrating Human Rights into Litigation in State and Federal Court
- Keeping the Humans in Human Services: Advocacy strategies in the Age of AI, Algorithms, and Chatbots
- Locked Out After Release: Parole, Voting Rights, and the Fight for Full Freedom
- Naming the Gap: Talking with Clients About Justice and the Law"
- Protecting Our Neighbors: The Role of Minnesota Legal Services in Response to Operation Metro Surge
- State of Language Rights: What's New? What's Next?
- Threats to Federal Grantees and How to Overcome Them
- Advancing Equity, Diversity and Civil Rights in a Shifting Policy Environment
- Challenging the Criminalization of Homelessness to Prevent Evictions and Displacement of Unhoused Tenants
- Defending the Rights of Vehicle-Sheltered People
- Effectively Leveraging Collaborative Models in Disaster Legal Services - Before, During and After Natural Disasters and Other Emergencies
- Machine Translation & AI-Generated Language Services: Not 'Good Enough' for Justice
- From Crisis to Stability: Integrating Public Benefits Advocacy into Holistic Legal Services
- Healing after Harm: The Impact of Integrating Trauma Recovery Centers and Civil Legal Aid
- Legal Aid & Libraries: Serving the Community Together
- Lessons from Illinois: Reframing Ablelist and Aging Language for Lawyers
- Partnering to Prevent Family Separation: How Public Defenders, Civil Legal Aid, and Community Organizations Can Work Together
- The True Cost of Being Poor in Texas
- Building Partnerships to Expand Client Access: Strategies That Work
- Federal Indian Law 101 for Legal Services Professionals
- From Chaos to Coordination: Designing and Launching Effective Disaster Relief Projects
- Meeting the Moment: the Right to Counsel for Adults and Children in Immigration
- Virtually Unlawful: Novel Legal Issues in Post-Pandemic Virtual Education for K-12 Students
- Nothing About Us Without Us: A Real Talk Reckoning on Bias, Stigma, and Power in Client-Centered Advocacy
- Community Pathways: Building a network of community partnerships for awareness and more effective legal services
- What Does Real Justice Look Like? / A Freedom in Love / Systems Change experience
- Christopher Simmons Journey - how public defenders, public interest lawyers and community advocates worked together to strike down the juvenile death penalty and consider age in gaining his release.
- From Limited Justice to Defending Futures: the legacy of In Re Gault and Youth Defense Specialization
- Power to the People: A Holistic Revolution to End Mass Incarceration Through Participatory Defense
- Replicate This: How Your Office Can Create Holistic Defense Workload and Capacity Metrics for Data Driven Management and Evidence
- Just Juries: Balancing the Scales of the Jury Box
- Tracking Police & Prosecutor Misconduct: How to Build an Infrastructure of Accountability and Why It's Important
- Legal Check-Ups: Moving Civil Legal Help Upstream Through a Preventative, Community-Based Model
- Training Community Justice Workers: A Replicable Model for Benefits Advocacy
- Unauthorized to Practice? How NH Is Rewriting the Rules on Who Can Help
- Beyond the Traditional Model: Building an Interdisciplinary Legal Aid Practice with Social Workers as Equal Partners
- Healing-Centered Justice: Trauma-Informed Legal Representation in Practice
- Beyond the Courtroom: Integrating Forensic Social Work to Strengthen Legal Advocacy and Client Outcomes
- We Were All Kids Once: Social Work and Mitigation with Children and Youth
- MAP-IT: Advancing Mitigation in Non-Capital Murder Cases in Texas
- Reimagining Competence in the Criminal Legal Landscape
Determine if you are eligible for a discounted registration rate to attend the Annual Conference.
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