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Assemble a core group of Christian lawyers known to you and select a Christian lawyer who feels a commitment to legal aid and compassion for the poor to initiate and spearhead efforts by serving as coordinator for the proposed Christian legal aid clinic.
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Contact the Director of Legal Aid Ministries of the Christian Legal Society at the address shown below to obtain advice and ideas, manuals and videos providing additional suggestions for how to go about recruiting and training volunteers and organizing and conducting such a clinic.
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Contact the pastor of a large church or a pastor of a church serving in a low income area or the executive director of a local Christian Gospel or Rescue Mission, Salvation Army, Catholic Charities or another community Christian organization offering social, medical, counseling or other services to the poor to determine the legal needs of those they serve. Explain the kinds of services that Christian legal aid clinics are ordinarily able to offer in other areas and ask the pastor or director to assess the need for and willingness to sponsor Christian legal aid as a part of the services the organization is offering to the homeless or the poor.
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If there is a favorable response from number 3, contact and add a few additional committed Christian lawyer friends and acquaintances of the core group who can guide, help and pray with you for God's direction in motivating and recruiting other Christian lawyers, law students and paralegals to serve as volunteer interviewers. Meet regularly with the core group as your plans develop. Ask each new recruit in turn to invite two or three of his or her acquaintances to join as volunteers. Explain that none of the volunteer interviewers require any special practice experience. They will only be dealing with commonly occurring basic problems of the poor and homeless and receive both easy to use practice and training guides to assist them.
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Begin to develop a list of prospects from the current list of CLS members in the area and other Christian lawyers, paralegals or law students as interview volunteers, some of whom may be willing to serve as law practice mentors , backup lawyers or consultants , etc. who are known to you starting by using the methods suggested in the attached “Recruiting Lawyers, etc.” memo. Supplement this by contacting members of a local CLS lawyer or law student chapter if there is one, making initial contacts with the chairperson of each of these groups and seeking his or her cooperation. Ask the chairperson of the lawyer or law student group to call a special meeting to discuss the possibility of starting and receiving volunteer help for such a clinic and obtaining their ideas as to how it might be done. Recruit both Protestants and Catholics as volunteers who may not be members of CLS but who are otherwise willing to render volunteer service as a Christian ministry.
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Develop an informal organization in the form of an incorporated non profit corporation or whatever organization or committee independent of a CLS chapter, which seems necessary or appropriate to act for the Christian legal community; and name officers or the chairman and a few directors or core group or executive committee members of a core group, which will have the principal role of oversight of the clinic and of the activities of the coordinator who will be responsible for coordinating and carrying out the CLA clinic.
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Selection of a leader or coordinator really committed to serving the Lord in this service is the most important decision of the CORE Committee and for the prospect of a successful clinic.
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Meet with the sponsoring church or Christian organization, Gospel or rescue mission, Salvation Army, Catholic charities or other sponsoring group to report on the volunteer services available through the local Christian legal community and negotiate an information understanding as to a service plan as contemplated by the CLS General Guidelines and Objectives of Service attached.
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Contact area legal aid societies, public defenders, bar associations and public welfare and other agencies serving the poor to ascertain the availability of other volunteer backup lawyer consultants in various fields of law or about an already available desk manual containing a list of various government and private agencies (with their addresses, telephone numbers and names of key people) which offer legal, social, welfare or other services to the poor to which legal aid “clients” may be referred and materials and publications for commonly encountered problems, questions and answers for the poor including landlord and tenant, consumer, welfare or other booklets or pamphlets dealing with substantive and procedural laws and compilations and indexes of these, which are frequently available. These can be used, adapted or supplemented if necessary by voluntary research help from law students or others for eventual incorporation into the Desk Reference Manual. This Desk Reference Manual will provide easy to use answers to such frequently occurring matters and also will provide ready referrals to other lawyers and agencies regarding more complex or ongoing problems. These can be used by volunteers in both training and on the desktop during interviewing sessions. Information on how to prepare a desk reference manual is available from the CLS Director of Legal Aid Ministries.
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Volunteers should be required or encouraged to take a six to eight-hour CLS approved training course in basic Christian legal aid counseling and assistance for both legal and spiritual advice and help before the clinic begins rendering service to clients. The Director of Legal Aid Ministries can supply materials and help for this.
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Moderate cost malpractice insurance for all volunteers is recommended and usually available through National Legal Aid Defenders Association “NLADA” (1-800-725-4513) or other sources.
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The Director of CLS Legal Aid Ministries can also provide back-up suggestions and publications for all phases of a Christian legal aid cli