Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma (LASO) provides free legal services to eligible low-income individuals, seniors, and veterans. We represent the entire state of Oklahoma, and have 18 offices across the state. LASO provides services ranging from advice to full representation on most civil law matters. We have some grant limitations for certain areas.

Leveraging Paladin

Paladin has been a great tool to keep track of volunteers. We have so many attorneys and law students who volunteer with our clinics, and it makes keeping track difficult. 

With Paladin, [tracking volunteers] is almost self-sufficient. I just need to pull the list and send out reminders."
Ana Reynolds Pro Bono Coordinator, Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma

Recent Pro Bono Project with a Profound Impact

This past January, LASO, in conjunction with ReMerge, hosted a Fines and Fees clinic over a four-week period, with an additional clinic in March. 

This clinic was set up to assist ReMerge participants fill out affidavits to get their court costs waived or reduced. ReMerge is a court diversion program focused on mothers in the justice system. If an individual completes the entire program, their charges are dismissed. We assisted 62 mothers. 

One of the challenges we faced was that the law permitting us to proceed was so new that training attorneys and volunteers proved difficult, as we were still learning the process ourselves.

Overall, we were able to get $30,708.69 waived without the client ever stepping into a courtroom. For counties that still required in-person testimony, our staff attorneys were able to use the affidavits to represent the mothers and we got an additional $111,493.05 waived, which brought our total to $142,201.74 of court fines and fees waived. 

Designing Clinic Opportunities to Maximize Effectiveness

One tool that we’ve tried to incorporate in the development of new clinics is breaking up the work for the pro bono attorneys. Instead of having the pro bono attorneys draft estate planning documents from scratch, we incorporated “find and replace” in our templates. We’ve also tried to find simpler tasks, such as filling out affidavits, that can be done quickly but still have a huge impact. 

Advice to Attorneys Hesitant to take on Pro Bono Work

The organization can be flexible with the amount of volunteer hours you can provide. There are clinics that are only three hours a month, or there are remote opportunities to review documents and draft advice letters. If you are a new attorney, we are always happy to pair you up with a more experienced attorney, whether another pro bono attorney, or staff attorney. 

Difficult Types of Matters to Place

We always have a difficult time placing family law matters. Post shutdown, we’ve heard from several volunteers that they are overloaded with their own cases. We understand how difficult family law matters can be. They can be time consuming, but as a volunteer or Pro Bono Attorney, you can change someone’s life.