The Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) has launched a new, statewide portal for volunteer opportunities in partnership with Paladin, a leading pro bono management platform. The TBA Pro Bono Portal will play a crucial role in the TBA’s work engaging Tennessee attorneys in pro bono and public interest opportunities by centralizing events, cases and training resources in one place, accessible at www.tba.org/probonoportal.

Over 1.2 million Tennesseans are eligible for legal aid, and only a few hundred attorneys statewide are employed to address their needs. Despite this enormous gap, the experienced and innovative teams at legal service organizations (LSOs) across the state provide life-changing legal services to those in need every day. But more needs to be done.

One way to address the barriers to access to justice for Tennesseans in need is to engage more volunteers from the legal community to provide direct support for LSOs. Using Paladin, the TBA will work with over 15 legal aid providers across the state as well as its own Young Lawyers Division and other bar leadership groups to aggregate pro bono opportunities in a real-time, statewide database that the legal community can access for free.

“The TBA is proud to be part of the collaborative efforts working for quality, accessible legal services for all in our state. Paladin is the perfect tool to remove barriers that keep lawyers from volunteering. It will amplify clinics, individual cases and other opportunities for TBA members and the larger legal community,” said TBA President and Knoxville lawyer Heidi Barcus. She also thanked World Within for funding the first year of the portal.

Paladin Co-Founder and CEO Kristen Sonday also touted the benefits of the platform. “Volunteer attorneys are a crucial part of helping low-income Tennesseans access the justice system. With the launch of this portal, and the TBA’s leadership, we are excited to be a small part of helping even more people in need,” Sonday said.

How It Works

LSOs across Tennessee can use their free Paladin accounts to post pro bono opportunities to the public portal, as well as directly to law firms and law schools in the Paladin network. Their referral dashboard then will allow pro bono coordinators to seamlessly track and manage volunteer activity as attorneys and law students sign up to help.

Volunteer lawyers then will be able to search for matters that align with their interests, skill sets and availability. Once they find an opportunity they want to work on, they will connect directly with the posting organization to get started. Opportunities available to volunteer attorneys will include stand alone and ongoing clinics as well as longer-term individual cases.

The images above show the kinds of opportunities that are available via the portal, the practice area and the estimated duration of the case; the third image shows one need in particular and the pieces of information that are available about that case. Attorneys can click the “Express Interest” button and be connected with the LSO.

A free half hour CLE is available on the TBA’s website at cle.tba.org/catalog/course/6663 to introduce attorneys to this innovative platform. This webcast replay includes a live demonstration of the portal and shows attorneys how to search and sign up for pro bono opportunities in their practice areas. |||