2025 Equal Justice Conference
by American Bar Association (ABA) and National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA)
The Equal Justice Conference is an annual event co-hosted by the American Bar Association (ABA) and the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA). It brings together legal services and pro bono advocates to discuss developments and innovations in providing legal services to low-income individuals. The 2025 conference is scheduled to take place from May 15 to May 17 at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square Hotel in San Francisco, California, with a pre-conference on May 14.
The conference will cover a wide range of topics, including sessions on homeless advocacy, promoting LGBTQIA+ legal landscapes, and new pro bono manager training. Workshops will address issues such as cultivating self-awareness for better advocacy, expanding access to justice through legal technology, and ethical considerations in deploying AI chatbots in legal self-help websites. Additionally, there will be discussions on eviction diversion initiatives, board governance, and protecting mobile and manufactured home communities before and after disasters.
Attendees can look forward to networking opportunities, an exhibitor showcase, and special programming designed to foster collaboration among key players in the civil justice system. Notable speakers from various legal aid organizations and advocacy groups will share their insights and experiences, providing valuable learning and sharing experiences for all participants.
This conference is ideal for legal professionals, pro bono advocates, law school advisors, and anyone involved in the provision of legal services to low-income populations. It offers a platform to strengthen partnerships, gain knowledge on current issues, and explore innovative solutions to challenges in the civil justice system.
Speakers(35)
Adam Heintz
Director of Pro Bono at Legal Services NYC
Adam Heintz is Director of Pro Bono at Legal Services NYC. Mr. Heintz works with staff and pro bono partners to create and manage pro bono projects, place cases, and access in-kind resources from more than 100 major law firms and corporations.
Aletheia Stratos
Executive IT Assistant at Statewide Legal Services of CT
Aletheia Stratos is a seasoned professional with extensive experience in technology integration, program management, and organizational improvement. As Executive IT Assistant at Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut, she specializes in leveraging technology to streamline operations and enhance service delivery.
Bill Boies
Counsel at McDermott Will & Emery
Bill Boies focuses his law practice on business dispute counseling and defending financial class action litigation throughout the country. Bill leads a pro bono program at McDermott, Will and Emery that advises national legal aid organizations, Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts (IOLTA) programs, and other nonprofit organizations on a variety of legal issues.
Carmen Wargel
Deputy Director of Systemic Advocacy at Lakeshore Legal Aid
Carmen E Wargel, LMSW, is the Deputy Director of Systemic Advocacy at Lakeshore Legal Aid where she leads interdisciplinary legal services to bridge the justice gap in our civil legal system. Carmen is a social change strategist, systems thinker, and interdisciplinarian at heart.
Chriselle Raguro
Director of Pro Bono and Strategic Partnerships at Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area
Chriselle Raguro (she/her/siya) serves as the Director of Pro Bono and Strategic Partnerships at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCRSF).
Christian Noble
Special Counsel for Technology Initiatives at Maryland Judiciary
Christian Noble Esq., Special Counsel for Technology Initiatives, Access to Justice, Maryland Judiciary, is a Maryland-based attorney and amateur programmer who is always looking for creative and innovative technical solutions to enrich the lives of low-income people and improve access to justice.
Dean Erwin Chemerinsky
Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law at University of California, Berkeley School of Law
Erwin Chemerinsky is Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He is the author of 20 books and over 200 law review articles and frequently argues appellate cases, including in the United States Supreme Court.
Dr. Rishi Manchanda
Heidi Behnke
Statewide Project Manager at Georgia Legal Services Program
Heidi Behnke, MSc., PMP, is the Statewide Project Manager for Georgia Legal Services Program and has served with GLSP since 2013. Her role involves monitoring milestones/benchmarks, creating budgets, resource allocation, and ensuring project deliverables are met.
Ignacio Jaureguilorda
Director, Civil Access to Justice Initiatives at Center for Justice Innovation
Ignacio Jaureguilorda is the Director of Civil Access to Justice Initiatives at the Center for Justice Innovation. He has spent over a decade working to bridge the civil justice gap by building partnerships across the public and private sectors.
James Leonard
Commissioner of Records at City of Philadelphia
Jim Leonard is a lifelong resident of Philadelphia, who has spent most of his career in public service on behalf of the City of Philadelphia. He has served as the Commissioner of the City of Philadelphia Department of Records since 2016.
Jennifer Shack
Director of Research at Resolution Systems Institute
Jennifer Shack is Director of Research at Resolution Systems Institute. She has more than two decades of experience conducting complex evaluations of court-based ADR programs and researching the effectiveness of ADR in court settings.
Jenny Mittelman
Attorney at Law at State Bar of Georgia (Retired)
Jenny Mittelman was a lawyer regulator with the State Bar of Georgia for 35 years, where she prosecuted disciplinary cases and provided ethics advice.
Julia Wilson
Coach & Consultant at Julia Wilson Coaching
Julia R. Wilson is a leadership and team coach and nonprofit management consultant working with individuals and teams in civil legal services nonprofits around the country. She brings to her work over 25 years of experience in legal services, having served in a variety of roles from staff attorney to executive director.
Julian Castronovo
Deputy Director at LGBTQ+/HIV Unit, Legal Services NYC
Julian Castronovo has a J.D. from CUNY School of Law and is a Supervising Attorney at Legal Services New York City (LSNYC) in the Comprehensive Rights Unit. Julian provides representation to marginalized clients in an array of civil proceedings in New York City and helps coordinate and mentor LSNYC's pro bono name and gender marker change clinic.
Karen Westwood
Law Library Director at Hennepin County Law Library
Karen Westwood is Director of the Hennepin County Law Library in Minneapolis, MN. Her background is in law firm, government, and academic law libraries. She also practiced law for a short time doing corporate and securities work.
Kelly Tautges
Pro Bono Counsel & Director at Faegre Drinker
Kelly Tautges serves as Faegre Drinker’s pro bono counsel and leads the professional team that manages and supports the firm’s pro bono practice and community service activities.
Kristi Schulenberg
Chief Operating Officer at Maryland Legal Aid
Kristi Schulenberg serves as Chief Operating Officer at Maryland Legal Aid (MLA), where she spearheads operational initiatives that ensure efficient, high-quality legal support for underserved communities. With extensive experience in nonprofit management, Kristi has been instrumental in enhancing service delivery and organizational effectiveness.
Lauren Gilbride
Executive Director at The Chicago Bar Foundation
Lauren Gilbride is the Managing Attorney of Intake and the Volunteer Lawyers Program at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. She oversees an intake department that handles over 25,000 requests for service and provides advice and other assistance to several thousand clients each year.
Matthew Kugizaki
Pro Bono Director at Inland Counties Legal Services
Matt Kugizaki is an attorney and the Pro Bono Director at Inland Counties Legal Services, a nonprofit legal services organization serving Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Matt oversees ICLS’ pro bono programs, including a Small Business Clinic and a Bankruptcy Clinic.
Michael Froehlich
Managing Attorney at Community Legal Services
Michael Froehlich (he/him) is the Managing Attorney of Community Legal Service’s Homeownership and Consumer Rights Unit. He leads CLS’s work on behalf of homeowners and victims of predatory consumer scams.
Michelle Garcia
Deputy Director at New Mexico Legal Aid
Michelle Garcia J.D. (she/her/ella) is the Deputy Director of New Mexico Legal Aid. She is a graduate of Loyola University who is admitted to the New Mexico Bar, the Navajo Nation Bar, the State Bar of Louisiana, the Pueblo of Pojoaque, and the Federal District Court of New Mexico.
Nell Brimmer
Prior to joining the Center for Reproductive Rights as the U.S. Director of State Advocacy, Nell Brimmer served as the Director of Policy and Government Affairs at the National Institute for Reproductive Health.
Nikole Nelson
CEO at Frontline Justice
Nikole Nelson is the founding CEO of Frontline Justice. Prior to joining Frontline Justice, Nikole was the Executive Director of Alaska Legal Services Corporation, Alaska’s only statewide provider of free civil aid.
Nora al Haider
Assistant Director at Stanford Legal Design Lab
Nóra Al Haider is the Assistant Director at the Stanford Legal Design Lab. Nóra is a multilingual lawyer and interdisciplinary researcher. She combines the fields of law, design, data, and tech to increase access to justice and equity in the legal system.
Rachel Schaefer
Assistant Federal Public Defender at Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of Texas
Rachel Schaefer is an Assistant Federal Public Defender with the Capital Habeas Unit for the Northern District of Texas, in Dallas. In this role, she represents people sentenced to death by Texas juries and courts in their federal habeas petitions and related litigation.
Roxane Crowley
Attorney at Philadelphia Legal Assistance
Roxane Crowley (she/her) is an attorney in the Consumer Housing Unit at Philadelphia Legal Assistance (PLA) where she supervises the Tangled Title Team. The majority of her career has involved working on tangled title and heirs’ property issues.
Russ Bloomquist
Program Manager & Senior Full Stack Developer at Maryland Legal Aid
Russ Bloomquist is a Program Manager & Senior Full Stack Developer at Maryland Legal Aid, specializing in software development, innovation, and automation. With over 25 years of experience in design and development, Russ has a proven track record of leading transformative technology projects that improve access to legal services.
Salena Copleland
Executive Director at Legal Aid Association of California
Salena Copeland (she/her) is the Executive Director of the Legal Aid Association of California. She has extensive experience in legal services and is dedicated to promoting access to justice and strengthening the legal aid community in California.
Samantha DiDomenico
Director at Stout
Samantha DiDomenico is a Director in Stout’s Transformative Change Consulting group. Samantha has 10 years of experience providing consulting services to for-profit and non-profit clients in a variety of industries. She has expertise in understanding large, complex systems and data, and in developing and implementing strategies to drive meaningful change.
Sandra San Emeterio Fair
Director of Community Outreach and Education at Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut
Sandra L. San Emeterio Fair, Esq., is the Director of Community Outreach and Education at Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut, where she leads efforts to expand access to justice for underserved communities.
Silvia Argueta
Executive Director at Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
Silvia Argueta has been the Executive Director at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) since 2008. LAFLA is the frontline law firm for low-income individuals in Los Angeles County. LAFLA is committed to promoting access to justice, strengthening communities, fighting discrimination, and effecting systemic change through representation, advocacy, and community education.
Simone Chriss
Director of the Transgender Rights Initiative at Southern Legal Counsel
Simone Chriss is a civil rights attorney and the Director of the Transgender Rights Initiative at the non-profit public interest organization Southern Legal Counsel (SLC).
Stephanie Beaugh
Access to Justice Projects Counsel at Louisiana State Bar Association
Stephanie Beaugh, Access to Justice Projects Counsel at the Louisiana State Bar Association (LSBA), serves as staff liaison to the Self-Represented Litigation, Technology, and Accessibility Committees of the Access to Justice Commission.
Tracey Frisch
Executive Director and Division Vice President at AAA-ICDR Foundation and American Arbitration Association
As Division Vice President of Mediation, Tracey leads the American Arbitration Association’s mediation business. Prior to this role, Tracey was the Associate General Counsel for the American Arbitration Association involved in a variety of legal matters that impacted the Association.
Event Details
- Date
- May 16, 2025
- Location
- 🇺🇸 San Francisco, United States
- Hilton San Francisco Union Square Hotel
- Audience
- Legal professionals, pro bono advocates, law school advisors, and individuals involved in providing legal services to low-income populations.