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About PLAN Pro Bono Scholars Placements

As as host organization for the New York Court System's Pro Bono Scholars Program, PLAN provides Scholars with exceptional opportunities to develop direct services skills and impart transformative impact on a national scale through Scholars' integral participation in PLAN's provision of cost-free civil legal services to presently and formerly incarcerated people.
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Our Mission & vision

PLAN Pro Bono Scholars are equipped to enter the practice of law through robust client engagement and applied skills development with the guidance and support of a tight-knit legal community. PLAN Scholars maximize the impact of their final semester of law school by advancing the self-expressed legal priorities of the presently and formerly incarcerated communities PLAN serves and by attaining their own professional development goals. They do so with the assistance of an academic administrator and case manager who curates Scholar case assignments that align with their individualized learning plans. A team of PLAN supervising, project, and mentor attorneys help Scholars manifest transformative outcomes for service recipients and achieve their experiential learning objectives.
As PLAN’s Pro Bono Scholars Program is administered under the auspices of PLAN’s Law Clerkship Program, PBSP candidates may also be interested in learning more about PLAN Law Clerkships.
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Approach & Purpose

By administering unaccompanied prison legal calls and legal visits under attorney supervision as the Designated Representative of a PLAN lawyer, PLAN Pro Bono Scholars are afforded unique opportunities to explore their approach to legal practice and build confidence in client communications in an enriching legal community with extensive supervisory support.

♦ After completing a rigorous onboarding program, PLAN Pro Bono Scholars are appointed to serve as the Designated Representative of a PLAN supervising attorney. This role qualifies Scholars to administer unaccompanied prison legal calls and legal visits under attorney supervision.

♦ This uncommon opportunity to undertake unaccompanied legal consultations as a law student serves as a gateway for PLAN Scholars to cultivate their individual approaches to client communications and tackling complex legal issues while expanding service recipients’ avenues for legal contact.

♦ PLAN Scholars impart transformative impact by investigating conditions of confinement complaints and developing and implementing responsive legal advocacy strategies under the legal supervision of PLAN attorneys for a docket of incarcerated individuals.

♦ The community of PLAN public interest attorneys, legal paraprofessionals, jailhouse lawyers, and prisoner rights’ advocates engenders a spirit of collaboration that promotes Scholars’ investigation of innovative solutions while also providing a bedrock of foundational support.

♦ PLAN Pro Bono Scholars gain legal project management experience and help shape the development and implementation of legal strategy and policy in the profession through their co-facilitation of inter-organizational coalition forums that are coordinated by PLAN.

PLAN PBSP Placements: Learn More

PLAN Pro Bono Scholars Placement Principles

PLAN’s Pro Bono Scholars Program welcomes burgeoning practitioners into the legal profession through a thoughtfully formulated field learning and professional development program that invites Scholars to gain substantial direct services experience in a well-supported community.

Extensive Client Services Experience

PLAN provides Scholars with unparalleled opportunities to enhance their confidence and skill in client communications that prepare them to cross the threshold into legal practice. In their capacities as the designated representatives of PLAN attorneys, PLAN Pro Bono Scholars administer unaccompanied legal call and legal visits under attorney supervision. This uncommon opportunity to forge client relationships and navigate legal consultations semi-autonomously fosters PLAN Scholars’ refinement of their existing skills and their cultivation of new ones.

PLAN Pro Bono Scholars are assigned to legal matters at the pre-complaint case development stage. Unlike placements that limit Scholars’ involvement to a single pleading, hearing, or negotiation in casework for which the trajectory is largely pre-determined, PLAN Scholars’ case assignments afford a broader aerial view of the full gamut of case development and legal advocacy. Rather than disjointed exposure to ad hoc case components, PLAN’s model integrates Scholars into legal teams at early case stages that provide a more holistic lens onto direct services in public interest law. Extra-judicial advocacy may adopt a broader array of strategic approaches and invites creative solutions to vexing problems.

Bridging the Justice Gap On A National Scale

In its November 2024 Report To The Chief Justice, the New York State Unified Court System’s Permanent Commission On Access To Justice found that “[l]egal deserts exist across the rural regions of the State impeding access to legal services.” PLAN’s fully remote model is an oasis in legal deserts across the country. Through this remote model, PLAN convenes national legal teams comprised of geographically disparate experts and steers capacity to traditionally underserved regions. PLAN’s advancement of casework on a national scale exposes PLAN Scholars to legal issues and trends spanning multiple jurisdictions.

Cutting Edge Exposure To The Future Of Public Interest Law

In the above-referenced Report, the Commission also found that “the justice gap in New York cannot be solved solely through an increase in the availability of legal services lawyers and recommends the consideration of options to create new categories of non-lawyer legal professionals to best complement and supplement the essential work  of the civil services community…” This finding is consistent with broader national trends that are diversifying the legal profession to include new classes of legal paraprofessionals. As many prisoners’ only access to legal services, PLAN’s community of more than 1,000 jailhouse lawyers and prison paralegals serve as vital witnesses and subject matter experts to prison conditions in U.S. prisons and jails. PLAN Scholars’ legal witness consultations with these directly impacted paraprofessionals provide Scholars with cutting edge exposure to the future of public interest law. This imbues them with proficiency in emerging legal dynamics that are formatively shaping the legal profession.
PLAN’s direct advocacy changes lives. PLAN Pro Bono Scholars provide outcomes-oriented legal services at the forefront of prisoners’ rights law. Through their legal services as authorized attorney representatives, PLAN Scholars expand incarcerated individuals’ access to legal consultations and their opportunities to inform strategies that are responsive to their expressed needs. Using PLAN’s direct advocacy model as a foundation, Scholars are encouraged to explore creative extra-judicial legal strategies that manifest tangible solutions for service recipients. They do so in close collaboration with their supervising and project attorneys in a well-supported learning environment that galvanizes Scholars’ skills. Scholars gain familiarity with nuanced legal principles through their provision of services that impart transformative impact to the benefit the presently and formerly incarcerated individuals PLAN serves.

Individual Skills Development Plan, Team-Based Learning

PLAN Pro Bono Scholars begin their placements by articulating their experiential learning objective and developing an individualized learning agenda in close consultation with their supervising attorney and PLAN’s academic administrator. PLAN Scholars review their progress and attainment of learning milestones throughout the placement. Convening a cohort of Scholars is a pillar of PLAN Program. It engenders a collegial atmosphere that promotes reciprocal learning for the edification of all involved. Channels of peer collaboration and support promotes a learning lab environment that buoys confidence, animates lively discussion, and inspires a vibrant exchange of ideas.

Wide-Ranging Supervisory Support

PLAN’s Pro Bono Scholars benefit from the wide-ranging guidance and support of an extensive PBSP supervisory team that champions their attainment of their professional development goals before, during, and frequently after the placement period. PLAN’s PBSP team includes not only a diverse array of supervising, expert, and mentor attorneys, but also a full-time academic administrator and legal paraprofessional support. This underpinning of staff supervision and support is bolstered by the active involvement of PLAN’s PBSP Committee, which includes former PLAN Scholars.

Enduring Professional Relationships

PLAN’s close-knit professional community is a defining characteristic of its legal practice. PLAN sustains long-term relationships with many past Scholars, both through formal pro bono engagements and informal mentorship and community activities. Several members of PLAN’s non-profit corporate board began their involvement in the PLAN community as Pro Bono Scholars.