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Pro Bono at TAP

Changing Lives Through Access to Justice
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Our Pro Bono Program strives to ensure access to justice by delivering the highest quality civil legal services to clients while offering meaningful personal and professional growth for our pro bono volunteers.

Pro bono legal services are integral to our mission of providing free, life-changing legal services to victims of power-based abuse in Texas. By offering your expertise and services without charge, you can help bridge the gap for those who cannot afford legal representation, ensuring that survivors have a fair chance at pursuing justice.

 

  • We screen all pro bono clients for eligibility and determine whether a case is appropriate for pro bono representation.
  • Our expert staff attorneys supervise, mentor and support our pro bono attorneys to ensure that our clients receive the highest level of service.
  • We offer free CLEs to pro bono attorneys.
  • You are covered under Texas Advocacy Project’s malpractice insurance.
     

Although Texas Advocacy Project serves over 11,000 survivors of power-based abuse annually, this number represents only a fraction of Texans who need our help. Each year we are forced to turn down requests for legal assistance from some of the most vulnerable members of our community. We simply do not have the capacity to meet the demand.
 

Texas Advocacy Project offers a variety of pro bono opportunities for attorneys, ranging from advice clinics, to helping a survivor get protection from her abuser, to joining our attorney referral list, and other discrete projects. The time commitment varies by case and pro bono opportunity, and you do not need prior family law experience to volunteer. We provide training, case screening, forms and templates, mentoring, malpractice insurance, and other support to facilitate your pro bono work.

Scroll to view our current Pro Bono Projects.
 

Join Our Team of Pro Bono Attorneys

The first step in becoming a pro bono attorney at Texas Advocacy Project is to complete the Pro Bono Application.

PRO BONO APPLICATION

Participants must also sign a confidentiality agreement, a HIPAA compliance acknowledgement, and pass a background check. Once your application is accepted, you will be invited to take our CLE training and become part of our dedicated pro bono team. If you have any questions or need more information not covered in our frequently asked questions, please email [email protected].

 

Current Pro Bono Projects
 

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Texas survivors with any kind of legal issue related to their abuse can call Texas Advocacy Project’s Legal Line at 1-800-374-HOPE, complete a short pre-screening interview, and schedule a FREE hour-long consultation with one of our staff attorneys. During this consultation, the survivor receives legal advice as well as legal services such as research and referrals, if necessary. Most of the time, these calls are all the survivor needs to understand next steps to address their legal issues. The demand for our Legal Line far exceeds our capacity, and wait times are often longer than we'd like. We are seeking pro bono attorneys to help alleviate this by providing one-time advice and counsel during our Legal Line Clinics.

Training: Training includes recorded sessions on trauma-informed lawyering and basic survivor law (2 hours of MCLE credit), and an opportunity to shadow a staff attorney during a real Legal Line call. We also provide resources, including TAP’s family law manual with key information and sample advice for the most common Legal Line questions, a Legal Line script, and live support via Zoom during the clinic to answer questions.

Time Commitment: Approximately 3 hours per clinic, which includes two Legal Line consultations and time for submitting case notes.

Requirements: Attorneys licensed in Texas (no family law experience necessary). We ask once you are fully trained that you commit to participating in 4 Legal Line clinics within a year.

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Helping a client obtain a protective order is one of the most rewarding and impactful opportunities for a pro bono attorney. A protective order is more than a piece of paper — it is a powerful tool that provides legal protection and helps survivors regain their sense of safety. It prohibits the abuser from contacting or approaching the victim, and can set strict boundaries, such as requiring the abuser to stay away from the victim’s home, workplace, or children’s school. In Texas, standardized forms for protective orders streamline the process, making it easier for pro bono attorneys to assist a survivors seeking this relief on their own (pro se). The Assisted Pro Se model that Texas Advocacy Project has perfected involves you working closely with your client to gather the necessary facts, prepare all documents for filing, and coach them on how to navigate the court hearing. Texas Advocacy Project provides comprehensive training and support throughout your pro bono service. The entire process typically takes less than three weeks.

Training: Training includes recorded sessions on trauma-informed lawyering, basic survivor law, and Protective Order Basics  (3 hours of MCLE credit). We also provide resources including our comprehensive Protective Order Kit, which includes step-by-step instructions on how to obtain a protective order for your client, as well as weekly office hours with a TAP staff attorney to answer any questions that arise during your representation.

Time Commitment: Varies depending on the needs of the clients, but you can expect to spend between 10-20 hours over the course of the representation.

Requirements: We ask that once you are fully trained you commit to taking 2 protective order cases within 1 year.

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Sometimes our clients have needs that fall outside of our areas of expertise. For example, many survivors require assistance with wills and estate planning to ensure their families are protected. Others may need help with housing issues, such as negotiating leases or addressing tenant rights, or even navigating consumer law matters like resolving debt or handling identity theft. Join our pro bono network and provide a free, half-hour consultation either over the phone or in person in your area of expertise to a TAP client. Any subsequent representation of a referred caller would be totally at your discretion and on your own terms. By donating your time and expertise, you empower victims to regain control of their lives and move forward.

Please send an email to [email protected] to let us know you would like to be added to our referral list.