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Northeast PA Pro Bono Seminar

Scranton, Pa

Objective:
The objective of the Pro Bono Seminar is to motivate attorneys to become actively involved in pro bono activities in their counties. More specifically, the goals are: 1) to encourage attorneys to provide pro bono representation to the indigent; 2) to encourage attorneys to become actively involved in establishing organized pro bono programs in counties that do not have them and to strengthen existing pro bono programs; and 3) to give attorneys the tools to accomplish these objectives.

Description:
The Northeast Pennsylvania Pro Bono Seminar will be a full-day program offered free-of-charge to attorneys in 10 northeastern Pennsylvania counties, including Bradford, Carbon, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming. The seminar is designed to encourage attorneys to participate in pro bono work and to promote and assist with the development of organized pro bono committees or programs in those counties.

The morning session will consist of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) on two topics: the Protection from Abuse Act and representing tenants in residential evictions. Experts in those fields will present the CLE, which are intended to provide attorneys with a practical introduction to and/or review of those subjects. Attorneys will earn three CLE credit hours for attending the morning session. The morning session will be followed by a luncheon, with Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin as the keynote speaker. The afternoon session will consist of panel discussions in which attorneys will be given information on how to establish and operate viable pro bono programs within their counties. CLE credits will not be provided for the afternoon session.

Participants are encouraged to attend the afternoon session because it will provide them with the tools needed to create and/or strengthen organized pro bono programs in their counties - an important part of the seminar.

David K. Trevaskis, Esq., Pennsylvania Bar Association pro bono coordinator, will moderate the seminar, which is being funded by a grant from the Pennsylvania Interest on Lawyers Trust Account Board (IOLTA), with support from Marywood University. The Lackawanna County Pro Bono Initiative Committee, whose membership consists of Committee Chair Robert T. Gownley Jr., Esq., John P. Bogdanovicz, Esq., James Minella, Dr. Kathleen Munley, Lisa Casella, Gertrude Hastings and Sylvia H. Hahn, Esq., has assisted in the grant and seminar planning.

To qualify for free registration, attorneys from Lackawanna County will be required to accept one pro bono referral within one year after the date of the program.

Registration information will be posted shortly.

Click here for the seminar agenda.