Spotlight on pro bono

Since 2002 thousands of Illinois lawyers who do pro bono legal work have turned to the Web site, www.IllinoisProBono.org, to help them find and do volunteer work more easily.

This Web site allows attorneys and other legal professionals across the state to learn about appropriate volunteer opportunities and to obtain the training and support needed to handle pro bono cases.

The site received a complete overhaul this month. Illinois Legal Aid Online launched a new and improved version April 1 that is more user-friendly and includes numerous new features that are described in this article.

A key improvement is the new Volunteer Opportunity Search. Those seeking pro bono work can now quickly find volunteer opportunities that better meet their needs.

Users can make searches based on a variety of factors, including who and where they are, types of opportunity, areas of law, skills they would like to acquire, specific types of clients, and how much time is available.

The Volunteer Opportunity Search makes recommendations to meet preferences that volunteers identify when they register. Registered users also automatically receive e-mail alerts for pro bono opportunities that may interest them.

The new www.IllinoisProBono.org contains thousands of legal resources in 24 areas of law. The largest volume of practice support information is concentrated in the areas of greatest need for lower-income clients, including housing, family law and consumer law.

Web site users can now sort the legal resources library by practice area or by type of resource, so finding forms or video training presentations is easier.

And each time a user logs onto the site, it gets smarter and will push relevant legal content, news and events to the user based on his or her usage history and identified preferences.

Registered Web site users may personalize it in several ways. For instance, My Favorites allows users to save links to favorite web pages on www.IllinoisProBono.org and any other site for quick one-stop access.

My Contacts allows users to add contact information for colleagues and friends, and it is then available from any web browser. Users can designate one or more pro bono or legal aid programs as a favorite in My Program Space and then receive information directly from those organizations.

An enhanced news section allows visitors to obtain news from Illinois pro bono programs, and from national legal services organizations via RSS feeds. Registered users can add their own RSS feeds, thereby integrating news from various sources into one Web page.

Other new features include a discussion group and e-mail list for pro bono attorneys, a more robust search engine, automated HotDocs forms, and an improved calendar of events.

The home page features a Pro Bono Attorney of the Month in a short video that highlights the exemplary pro bono work of an Illinois attorney. For April, Camille Gaffney of Champaign was selected for her work with the Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation.

You can nominate a colleague for this honor by emailing a brief explanation of why he or she is deserving to info@illinoislegalaid.org.

Illinois Legal Aid Online works with every pro bono program in the state to provide to volunteer attorneys the highest quality and most up-to-date information and training resources. The new Web site supports both pro bono attorneys and pro bono programs that seek volunteers.

What are you waiting for? Log on to www.IllinoisProBono.org, register, and make your pro bono contributions more easily.

• • •