A Toolkit for Advancing Data-Driven Unauthorized Practice of Law Reform: Domestic Violence Advocate Case Study
The seven-question framework:
Question Four:
Who will do the training and mentoring?
Selecting a provider to train and mentor domestic violence advocates as they skill-build into providing legal advice should be a responsive decision based on identified needs and priorities for training inclusion. In this research, DV advocates and organizations prioritized training in substantive areas of law, ethical topics, procedure, and right-sized training formats. Decisions about who will provide this training should match the subject matter expertise needed for content areas as well as mentorship experience and capacity. Given the goal of UPL reform to build the bench of those in the community who can provide legal help, legal skillbuilding programs for DV advocates should be designed to reduce the need for supervision and center mentorship to encourage professional development. DV advocates and organization leaders were interested in learning from lawyers, judges, and peers who have completed legal skillbuilding training.
Key findings:
Given the necessary skills and qualities, legal training programs should consider experienced advocates already working in the field as well suited for legal skill building.
Training programs should emphasize client-centered empowerment in tandem with trauma-informed care and cultural humility.
Mentorship has been found to increase satisfaction with careers, increase productivity, create higher levels of skill development, and greater psychological health compared to supervision. In the space of DV advocacy, mentorship should be included in onboarding and ongoing training.
Advocate interest in legal training.
Between two thirds and three fifths of the DV advocates indicated that they want training in substantive information about family law, legal procedure, scope of legal services, and assisting with forms. Less than half were interested in training on negotiation, and only 6.03% indicated that they do not want to provide legal advice to survivors and chose no other options. Other suggestions from DV advocates about what would increase confidence through further training include court processes, discovery, anything civil that is common, alternative dispute resolution, preparing for trial, child support and child custody, separation and divorce, and tribal laws and immigration.
|
Legal Training Component
|
Percent of Responses
|
|---|---|
Substantive information about family law |
78.45% |
Legal Procedure |
73.28% |
Assisting with forms |
67.24% |
Negotiation |
45.69% |
I do not want to give legal advice to survivors |
6.03% |
Most DV advocates indicated that they have between 3 and 6 hours (47.83%), followed by 0-2 hours (26.09%), 7-9 hours (17.39%), and just a small fraction indicated they have over 10 hours per month to dedicate to professional development (8.70%).
Perspectives from the DV Service Community:
“Some people at my organization [] have worked with survivors and had a great level of competency and have been doing it for 20 years, and I could trust them [to give legal advice].”
“There’s not a whole lot of immigration attorneys in the area to even recommend someone to.”
“[we] want to have mentorship ... [and we need] [s]upportive supervisory
networks to help ground advocates."
“Oftentimes, when people call and they’re trying to figure out a safety plan, we don’t have advice to say about what to do with children.”
“I feel least equipped to do anything regarding family court or like civil like personal lawsuits because it’s a thing I’ve never done and any of the training I’ve received doesn’t typically cover that”