2026 Equal Justice Conference

This session will focus on developments at the Legal Services Corporation, the ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defense, and the National Legal Aid & Defender Association. Presenters will address these issues from their respective institutional perspectives, with discussion of developments in Congress and the federal executive branch and updates on issues and initiatives facing the legal profession and the equal justice community, including policies and practices, funding, and critical programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

Public interest legal services organizations should be able to attract professionals to work for them despite lower salaries. And public interest professionals — legal aid attorneys, public defenders, nonprofit advocates, and government workers—should not be limited in making career choices between serving the public and managing unmanageable student debt. Yet, persistent barriers in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program deny relief to many who may qualify and the situation might be getting worse. This session will explore recent policy changes, including the Executive Order (EO) directing the U.S. Department of Education to reconsider which organizations are eligible for PSLF – potentially affecting some nonprofits and advocacy groups and their staff. The Department of Education has promulgated rules to exclude from PSLF eligibility organizations that engage in activities deemed to have a “substantial illegal purpose.” Panelists will discuss ongoing advocacy efforts, legal strategies and tools aimed at ensuring access to PSLF. Participants will gain up-to-date guidance to navigate PSLF and learn how to advocate for fairer, more accessible implementation nationwide.

This session examines how legal aid can responsibly adopt AI. Presenters will explore opportunities for expanding access and reducing costs, while addressing challenges of ethics, bias, privacy, and regulation. Attendees will gain best practices, awareness of emerging standards, and guidance for implementing AI that strengthens justice rather than undermines it.

This session is designed to build on the workshops we have done for the past few years on how to explain legal aid as constituent services to legislators and their staff. Now that many LSC grantees and other legal aid programs have begun to develop relationships with their federal and state legislators and staff, we want to identify ways to build on and expand those connections, e.g., provide trainings for district caseworkers; involve legislative staff in community outreach efforts. The panel will include LSC grantee Executive Directors and civil legal aid practitioners with experience meeting with and educating federal and state legislators and their staff. The panel will also address compliance with LSC lobbying restrictions applicable to LSC grantees in communicating with legislators.

Innovation requires experimentation, and experimentation means some failures are inevitable. Yet fear of failure often paralyzes organizations and stifles breakthrough thinking. This panel explores how to distinguish between intelligent failures—productive experiments that generate valuable learning—and preventable mistakes. Our panel shares frameworks for building cultures where calculated risk-taking is encouraged, failures are analyzed without blame, and teams develop the courage to push boundaries and drive meaningful innovation.

The MIE Roundtable allows legal services Executive Directors and Managers to discuss difficult challenges and pressing concerns confidentially, and to benefit from their colleagues who are willing to share their experiences. This session moves the community as a whole forward toward better management, resulting in better services to clients.

How do we lead when crisis hits from every direction? In this panel, three executive directors of North Carolina civil legal aid programs share how they led through overlapping shocks: Hurricane Helene without federal disaster legal funding, a statewide freeze on IOLTA funds, and the hard realities of layoffs and restructuring. They will offer candid lessons on decision making under pressure. Attendees will leave inspired and equipped with practical tools to sustain morale, communicate stability, and turn disruption into forward momentum.

This session will help participants gain a deeper understanding of the needs of community-based nonprofits in the wake of mass funding cuts, executive orders, new immigration policies, and increased federal scrutiny. The session will educate the legal community on how best to support, defend, and protect nonprofits that advance equity and serve immigrant communities, including in under-resourced, rural communities. The goal is to activate and equip legal aid lawyers and the pro bono community with the tools to support nonprofits and sustain civil society through crisis and uncertainty.

Across the country, most people face civil legal problems alone. Legal Hand, developed in New York and expanded to North Carolina, reimagines access to justice by training community volunteers—not lawyers—to provide free legal information and referrals. New York operates a virtual network of regional centers and North Carolina runs a statewide Call-In Center serving all 100 counties. Together, they demonstrate how community-driven innovation can expand reach, build trust, and deliver justice without walls.