Access to Justice Network Conference 2026

Name: Beyond Pro Bono: New Partnership Models Between BigLaw and Communities
Start: 2026-10-22T10:45:00-0400
End: 2026-10-22T12:15:00-0400

Beyond Pro Bono: New Partnership Models Between BigLaw and Communities

Thursday October 22, 2026 10:45am - 12:15pm EDT

Cincinnati Convention Center

Pro bono is necessary and insufficient. Every year, large law firms donate millions of hours of attorney time to access-to-justice work — and every year, the justice gap barely moves. The model assumes that what communities need most is more lawyer hours. But what if they need technology infrastructure? AI implementation expertise? Developer time? Platform access? Funding for systems, not just staffing for cases? As AI reshapes legal practice and corporate legal departments build increasingly sophisticated technology capabilities, the question is whether BigLaw's community commitment will evolve to match — or whether the profession will simply automate the old model and call it innovation.
This session centers the people who actually need the resources (legal aid organizations, self-help centers, law librarians, court administrators) as designers, not recipients. Rather than another conversation about what BigLaw should do for the access-to-justice community, this is the access-to-justice community developing a collective vision for what next-generation institutional partnerships could look like. The session draws on research from the Duke Center on Law & Tech, examples from the tech sector's corporate responsibility models, and real-world cases where firms have contributed developer time, AI expertise, and platform access alongside traditional attorney hours. It also examines how custom-built workflows for legal services pleadings and AI-enabled pro bono clinics are expanding what's possible — events where volunteers using AI tools helped more than 115 families in a single day, demonstrating that technology doesn't just make pro bono more efficient but fundamentally changes its scale and reach.
The session's core is a design sprint. Mixed tables (legal aid leaders, court administrators, community advocates, and firm attorneys if present) design a new BigLaw-community partnership in 20 minutes with one constraint: it cannot be traditional pro bono hours. What's the community need? What's the firm's unique resource beyond attorney time? What's the structure, and what does a 6-month pilot look like? Tables pitch their designs to the room, which captures what the access-to-justice community wishes BigLaw would offer but currently doesn't. Afterwards, ideas are collected, themes are synthesized, and the results become a collective advocacy document. You'll leave with examples of partnerships, messaging ideas for engaging firm leadership, and, if the design sprint works, at least one new idea.

Speakers

Kelli Raker

Associate Program Director, Duke University

Graham Bennie, Esq.

Supervising Attorney for Training & Pro Bono, Maryland Center for Legal Assistance

Graham is the Supervising Attorney for Training & Pro Bono for the Maryland Center for Legal Assistance, LLC (MCLA). Graham is responsible for developing and administering the internal training curriculum for MCLA staff (including onboarding and continuing legal education), as well... Read More →

Jacqueline Schafer

ClearBrief

Jacqueline Schafer is the founder and CEO of the leading litigation drafting platform in Word, Clearbrief.ai (2026 Legalweek Litigation Product of the Year, 2026 Legalweek Technology for Good, 2025 Clio Best Practice of Law App, 2025 Compliance Solution of the Year), and a Lecturer... Read More →

Thursday October 22, 2026 10:45am - 12:15pm EDT
Cincinnati Convention Center 537 Elm St, Cincinnati, OH 45202

Partnership

Tickets

Success you have shared X tickets.

Access to Justice Network Conference 2026

Kelli Raker

Graham Bennie, Esq.

Jacqueline Schafer

Get help with the event

Success you have shared X tickets.

Access to Justice Network Conference 2026

Kelli Raker

Graham Bennie, Esq.

Jacqueline Schafer

Sign up or log in to save this to your schedule, view media, leave feedback and see who's attending!

Get help with the event