Pro Bono Net staff are participating in Technola's National Pro Bono Celebration Blogging Pledge.  Here we  present a post from Jessica Stuart, LawHelp Program Associate.

This week, the pro bono community in America is gathering together to celebrate the invaluable work done by all those involved in their great wide world, as well as to reinforce the even greater need for pro bono and legal services in our country. I; however, am going to take Kate Bladow’s National Pro Bono Celebration Blog Challenge as an opportunity to celebrate an aspect of pro bono that I'm a little obsessed with.

Connections.

They. Are. EVERYWHERE. Right this second, your brain is making tons of them in order to keep you functioning. It's amazing. And so to are the connections within, and without, the pro bono world. Here’s a broad example to get us started: clients connect with legal services providers, providers connect lawyers to cases, lawyers connect with the clients, all in the hopes that the clients will then be able to connect with their individual rights. Those are pretty simple connections that are obvious and run-of-the-mill in the regular processes of pro bono. The really interesting stuff comes when one digs down a little further, into the different areas that pro bono exists.

Technology

For the past 2+ years, I’ve been sitting here behind my computer screen at Pro Bono Net (and every so often venturing out into the field) learning about technological connections that currently exist and connections that could, and hopefully will, exist in the future. Pro bono/legal services communities are currently utilizing technologies that help make connections in a slew of ways:

* Lawyers have access to available cases and training materials
* Pro bono coordinators can capture information on their attorneys’ interests and manage their practice more efficiently
* The public can find reliable information about their rights and available options for legal help
* Pro se litigants with basic needs can interact with courts by using document assembly forms (knowledge of legal jargon not required)

It’s no secret that the legal community is, in general, a bit behind on the technological curve (See Courttoon, Feb. 26, 2010). But, in a way, that’s actually a-ok; I believe that our society is a little over-saturated when it comes to technology anyway. The fact that members and clients of the pro bono and legal services community have such varying technological knowledge and experience, coupled with the always-looming funding obstacles we all face, means that we have to work that much harder to come up with the best solutions. Thankfully, there is an awesome culture of sharing ideas and tools that allows for less technical and/or funded organizations to provide the information and online services that clients need. I still get a little giddy every time I hear one of our site administrators talk about a new tool they’ve created and then offer to share their resources and expertise with the rest of the community. It’s our own little version of open-source!

Humans

Beyond our computers, the people within the pro bono/legal services communities are also creating the most important connections of all: human-to-human connections. Some scientists and movies dream of a world where robots and computers will create peace on earth. While that would certainly make our lives easier, the likelihood of it actually happening seems pretty slim. So, in the meantime, creating fairly peaceful communities in the world is up to us.

Throughout history, it’s been proven that we diverse humans really can live in relative harmony by opening up our minds, putting our differences off to the side every once in a while, and interacting with one another in a more understanding way. Of course, in order for that to have a chance at happening, the opportunities for these kinds of interactions need to exist. And in the pro bono world, they’re everywhere. In many situations, pro bono cases bring together people who otherwise might never come in one-on-one contact with one another. While the circumstance of the attorney/client relationship limits the extent of the relationship, there are still great opportunities for new internal connections on each side.

For example, lawyers who spend most of their time working with corporate clients can step outside of their comfort zones and work with clients who have totally different issues and needs. These kinds of opportunities have the ability to open minds to new perspectives, which can have trickle down effects in any number of useful ways. Alternatively, a client who is seeking help with a domestic violence issue could glean some hope for an independent life with freedom that may be gained from legal action.

How often these types of connections are made, I don’t know. But, it’s encouraging to know that mind-opening and life-changing situations are possible, and that they do happen at least sometimes.

Systemic

Beyond the more minute technological and human connections are the crucial roles that pro bono and legal services play in the ongoing expansion of human rights in America and around the world.

This past June, the maternal health advocacy organization, Women Deliver, held an international conference that enforced the connection maternal health has to the success of societies and economies around the globe. Many of the panels focused on such topics as the importance of readily available and effective health services, and the empowerment that comes from education and economic development opportunities. One thing I found largely missing from the panels I watched were discussions about the important role legal support and advocacy would play in their achieving goals.

Thankfully, a powerful example of fighting for women’s rights through legal action is readily available in the story of an incredibly strong Ethiopian woman named Woineshet Zebene Negash. When Woineshet was a teenager, she was twice kidnapped and raped by a man who would later try to force her to marry him (at the time, there was an old, traditional law in place which said that men could not be prosecuted for violations against a woman he eventually married). She refused to marry him and, in response, she and her father teamed up with the legal services group Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association and the human rights organization Equality Now to help change the law. Last I'd heard (from a screening last spring of CARE International's event "Half the Sky Live"), Winoshet was studying law in Ethiopia so that she can continue to seek positive change in her country. Additionally, there were outreach programs that went to villages and educated the people about the changes in the law, and how the changes could and hopefully would affect the culture of everyday life in the villages.

This is just a small sampling of the connections I’ve noticed thus far. I will undoubtedly make more as I continue to learn about pro bono and legal services, as well as the human rights and social services industries as a whole. I can only hope that all these thoughts and ideas don’t connect in ways that make my head explode.   What are some of your favorites?