Whether you are contemplating a career in the public or private sector, please consider joining us in Room 111 on February 27 at 12 p.m. for a virtual panel discussion that will examine the widespread access to justice crisis and showcase how the newly launched Above the Line Network (ATLN) can bridge the gap for affordable legal services.

The crisis in access to justice extends far beyond low-income individuals, impacting people well into the middle class as well as small businesses that are the anchors of communities throughout the country. While most organized access to justice efforts rightly focus on low-income people who are especially vulnerable, we can never achieve our nation’s ideal of equal justice for all when middle-class people—who make up more than 50% of the nation’s population—and small businesses struggle to find quality, affordable legal services. Greater education and advocacy for the underserved middle class has the potential to heighten the issue of access to justice as a broad societal crisis and drive an increase in innovation and funding in support of closing the access to justice gap for all.

There are some promising programs and models tackling this problem around the United States, Canada, and beyond: incubators, socially conscious and sliding scale law firms, legal aid organizations, and others who have built promising models that focus on value-based pricing in lieu of billable hours to serve the middle class and small businesses, which are often priced out of the traditional legal market. ATLN will bring them together to help them grow, thrive, and replicate, and foster advocacy for the middle class in the larger access to justice circles.

This webinar is the first in a two-part project launch series and will focus on understanding the breadth of the access to justice crises, introducing ATLN, and hearing from experts in the field on how the legal profession can come together to increase access to affordable legal help for the middle class.

This webinar will feature Jessica Bednarz (Director of Legal Services and the Profession, IAALS), Roya Samarghandi (Associate Director of Advocacy, Innovation, & Training, The Chicago Bar Foundation), Kari Burns (Chief Strategy Officer, Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association), Erin Monahan (Project Manager, Access Pro Bono Society of BC), and Hon. Adam Espinosa (Judge, Denver District Court).

Register in 12Twenty to watch on your own or join us in Room 111. We’ll order pizza for those who RSVP in 12Twenty by February 25.