Financial Planning for Legal Aid in the Time of the Pandemic

Financial Planning for Legal Aid in the Time of the Pandemic

MIE Presents a Webinar
with:
 

Jonathan Asher, Executive Director, Colorado Legal Services
Jacquelynne J. Bowman, Executive Director, Greater Boston Legal Services
Steven Pelletier, Director of Finance, Northwest Justice Project
Rhodia Thomas, Executive Director, MidPenn Legal Services
Lonnie Powers, former Executive Director, Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation, moderating

Thursday, July 23, 2020
2:00 – 3:30 PM ET

Practical lessons learned from earlier financial experiences for civil legal aid can make surviving the Covid-19 crisis less painful. Hear from five highly experienced civil legal aid leaders about the financial steps they took did in response to prior crises, what worked, what did not, and how to successfully guide your program through the current crisis. Participants will learn what financial planning tools are available, as well as how to use scenario planning techniques, including the necessity of grounding planning in the mission of the program. Attendees will leave with the message that civil legal aid has faced funding crises before and survived. This one may present more difficulties, but we will make it through.
 

Our Presenters for this Webinar Are:

Jonathan Asher is Executive Director of Colorado Legal Services. He was Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Denver from Dec. 1, 1980 until October 1, 1999 when the three federally funded programs in Colorado became a single statewide program, Colorado Legal Services. He began his legal services career with Colorado Rural Legal Services in Greeley, Colorado in 1971. Jon is a member of the Colorado Access to Justice Commission and a member of the Colorado Bar Asso­ciation’s Board of Governors. Since 2000, he has been a member of the NLADA Civil Policy Group Committee on Regulations. He earned his degrees from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Jon may be reached at jasher@colegalserv.org.

Jacquelynne J. Bowman is the Exec­utive Director of Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS). She began her legal practice at West Tennessee Legal Services in Jack­son, TN. She started work at GBLS as a senior attorney and then Managing Attorney of the Family Law Unit. She left GBLS to work at Massachusetts Law Reform Institute as the state support attorney for family and juvenile law matters. Jacqui returned to GBLS, first as an Associate Director and then later became the Deputy Director. Jacqui is a graduate of the University of Chicago and Antioch University School of Law and is a member of the Tennessee and Massachusetts bars. She is a nationally recognized expert in family and ju­venile law as well as in law practice management. She serves as a Commissioner on the ABA Commission on Homeless­ness and Poverty. She is active in the Boston Bar Association and the Massachusetts Bar Association. Jacqui also serves on Massachusetts’ Access to Justice Commission as well as the boards of several nonprofit organizations including MIE. Jacqui may be reached at jbowman@gbls.org.

Steven Pelletier is the Director of Finance at the Northwest Justice Project in Seattle. Steve has 38 years of accounting and auditing experience and has served as NJP’s Director of Finance for the past 20 years. He is part of NJP’s executive management team and oversees accounting, finance, reporting, budgeting, fiscal policy and compliance. NJP is LSC’s grantee covering the State of Washington, has 30 funding sources, a budget of $34 million and staff of 260 FTE’s. Steve is a MIE Board member, a licensed CPA, a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Washington Society of Certified Public Accountants. Steve may be reached at spelletier@nwjustice.org.

Rhodia D. Thomas is the current Executive Director of MidPenn Legal Services, which that provides civil legal services to low-income individuals and domestic violence survivors in 18 counties in Central-Pennsylvania.  She graduated magna cum laude from Syracuse University and received her J.D. from Widener Commonwealth Law School. She is active in the legal services community nationally and serves on the Board of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association where she currently holds the positions of Vice Chair. She also is also active in the State Bar Association, on the Minority Bar Committee, and in the House of Delegates. In addition, Rhodia serves on the Board of the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation.  Since 2009, she has served as Chair of the Pennsylvania Project Directors Association and currently she serves as Chair of the African-American Project Director Association. Rhodia has received several awards including the 2018 Widener Commonwealth Law School Alumni Association Outstanding Service Award, the PLAN Excellence Award, the Outstanding Minority Scholar Award, the Women of Excellence Award, the 2014 African-American Project Director Association Award and the 2016 Frank Grady Outstanding Professional Award. In 2002, she was named as one of 50 Minorities of Influence by the American Lawyer Media, publishers of the Legal Intelligencer and Pennsylvania Law Weekly. She has 30 years of experience in public interest law.  Rhodia may be reached at rthomas@midpenn.org.

Lonnie Powers served as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation from its founding in 1983 through August 2018. He has 50 years of policy, legal, and organizational development experience at the state and national levels, having devoted the majority of his career to establishing, building, sustaining, and revitalizing legal aid organizations. Lonnie may be reached at lpowers@lonniepowersconsulting.com.

Registration:
MIE subscribers: $75
Non-subscribers: $100

1. REGISTER with GoToWebinar by clicking on this link:
https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/5718997988860305936
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