Although the Atlanta legal community's response to the civil legal needs of low-income citizens has been very strong, there are simply too few attorneys to offer direct representation to each individual client. At the same time, the information offered to a client might be helpful to several, dozens or even hundreds of clients with very similar concerns.

In response, the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation has developed pro bono program that address broad-based concerns through community education presentations. Two examples of this approach are as follows:

1. AVLF's Advocacy in Education for Special Needs Children Program provides counsel to eligible families concerned that their children may not be receiving the free appropriate public education mandated by law. While pro bono attorneys are available to address the specific concerns of individual clients, many families, and even many providers, requested more general information about aspects of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and other federal and state special education laws and regulations. Teaming with the Marcus Institutes of Atlanta, AVLF first coordinated a presentation to over 100 interested parents, teachers, court officials and others on the No Child Left Behind law. In the last year, as well, the Marcus Institutes/AVLF seminar program included the following presentations:

   1. Panel on Functional Behavior Assessment and Behavior Intervention Plans
      • Wayne Fisher, Marcus Institute
      • Kris Keeney Gwinnett Public Schools
      • John Zimmring, Zimmring and Smith
      
      
   2. Using Comprehensive Assessment to Identify Treatment Needs of Children and Youth
      • Jennifer Stapel formerly with the State Evaluation Project
      • Representatives from the Department of Mental Health
      
      
   3. Providing Services within the Medicaid Framework Through EPSDT, Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Testing
      • Jane Perkins, J.D. National Health Law Program
      
      
   4. Planning Transition Goals and Services for Postsecondary Settings
      • Dr. Bob Babcock, Director of Practicum Training for the Masters Program in Behavior Analysis, Auburn University
      • Dr. Laura Riffel, Director Behavioral Intervention Program
      
      
   5. Early Intervention Assessing Needs and Programming Services
      • Wayne Fisher, Marcus Institute
      • Catherine Trapani, Marcus Institute
      
      

2. Volunteer attorneys have presented a series of legal audits to dozens of community development corporations and other non-profit corporations. Teaming with the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, Inc., A Business Commitment of the State Bar of Georgia and the Federal Reserve Bank, pro bono attorneys conducted community education sessions open to the public the breadth of legal concerns faced by not for profit groups, including issues such as the following:

   1. Establishing a Legal Entity Within Your Non-Profit to run For-Profit Programs- Russell Love, McKenna Long & Aldridge
   2. Real Estate Development Issues Facing Non-Profit Developers- Ted Smith, Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker
   3. Partnership Equity: How to Structure Partnership Agreements to get the Best Out of Them- Daniel Kennedy, Hunton & Williams

Please let AVLF know if there are topics about which we may help deliver information in this fashion.