The Law School Consortium Project

The purpose of the Law School Consortium Project is to enable learning about ways that law schools, in new relationships with solo and small-firm practitioners, can help address the unmet legal needs of low and moderate income individuals and communities.

There are many efforts under way to address the unmet legal needs in our communities, most of which involve expanding pro bono and government funded legal services. This Project is aimed at another potential resource: solo and small-firm practitioners. The four member law schools served by the Project's Central Staff (and funded by the Open Society Institute) - City University of New York School of Law; Northeastern University School of Law; University of Maryland School of Law; and St. Mary's University School of Law - have each developed a "Community Legal Resource Network" (CLRN), the vehicle by which they are providing resources and services to solo and small firm lawyers engaged in community-based law practices.

Included among the services and resources provided by these CLRNs are: faculty and practitioner mentors; access to library and web-based resources; affordable, relevant continuing legal education courses; training in law office management; joint purchasing discounts; referral opportunities; education about and support for the use of technology to help make their practices more efficient; and opportunities to network with other community-based solo and small firm practitioners.

Each of the member law schools has taken a different approach in structuring their CLRNs, to enable the exploration of a range of models, but they all strive to:

Increase access of low/low-middle income communities to law as a resource for advancing community interests; *
Help make community-based law practices more sustainable economically, professionally, and spiritually; *
Change the mission of law schools to include extending legal education and providing resources to communities and practitioners serving communities - extending law schools "longitudinally" into the community; *
Establish relationships between the CLRN established by each member school and their respective law schools and thereby integrate the CLRNs into their law schools; and *
Re-envision and redefine the role of lawyers.

To accomplish these goals, the member schools share certain strategies. Each school's CLRN is designed to: (1) organize new resources and develop new structures to support solo and small community-based law practices; (2) facilitate community education and empowerment; (3) experiment with non-litigation models for resolving disputes; (4) create opportunities for discussion of ethical issues involved in community-based law practices; (5) provide information and curriculum for continuing legal education programs, as well as law schools' substantive, professional responsibility and clinical courses; and (6) nurture practice settings for law graduates that are financially, professionally, and personally satisfying.

It is the vision of the member law schools that, if successful, their efforts will have a significant impact on the way legal education is provided and legal services are delivered, so as to increase access to justice, re-envision the lawyer's role, and revitalize the fundamental values of the legal profession.

The Central Staff of the Law School Consortium Project, a project of The Tides Center, which is independently funded by the Open Society Institute, engages in the following activities:

coordinating communication between the member schools; *
serving as a clearinghouse of information about the activities of the member school and related projects; *
developing and maintaining relationships with other law schools, bar associations, and related projects; and *
conducting research with the member law schools on evaluation and replication.

For more information about the Law School Consortium Project, please contact:

Deborah Howard
Project Director
30 Third Avenue, Suite 212
Brooklyn, NY 11217
Phone: 718-237-5777
Email: deborahhoward@earthlink.net
Website: www.lawschoolconsortium.net

For information about the member school projects, please contact:

Fred Rooney, Project Director
CUNY School of Law
65-21 Main Street
Flushing, NY 11367
(718) 340-4451
rooney@mail.law.cuny.edu

Pualani Enos, Project Director
Domestic Violence CLRN
Northeastern University School of Law
Urban Law and Public Policy Institute
716 Columbus Avenue #212
Roxbury, MA 02120
(617) 373-4972
p.enos@nunet.neu.edu

Denis Murphy, Project Director
Civil Justice Institute
3901 Park Heights Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21215
(410) 542-2790
dmurphy@law.umaryland.edu

Ken Forde, Project Director
Economic Development CLRN
Northeastern University School of Law
Urban Law and Public Policy Institute
716 Columbus Avenue #212
Roxbury, MA 02120
(617) 373-8253
k.forde@nunet.neu.edu

Ray Lopez, Associate Project Director PLAN
St. Mary's University School of Law
One Camino Santa Maria
San Antonio, TX 78227
(210) 431-5764
lopezr@law.stmarytx.edu 1 3