Director Rachel Rossi of the Office for Access to Justice (ATJ) traveled to Kansas this week to engage with stakeholders about the access to justice challenges rural communities face and to discuss innovative solutions. The visit built upon the ongoing work of ATJ to address the rural access to justice gap in the United States.
Director Rossi began by meeting with the Executive Director of Kansas Legal Services, a grantee of the Legal Services Corporation that serves all 105 counties in Kansas, to discuss the importance of civil legal aid, the barriers that low-income Kansans face in addressing their civil legal needs, and the operational challenges of providing legal services in rural areas of the state. Director Rossi highlighted various initiatives, including the office’s work to expand and modernize the Federal Government Pro Bono Program — which mobilizes federal government employees to engage in pro bono work, often in partnership with legal service providers — and an online resource developed through the Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable to make federal funding opportunities more accessible for legal service providers.
Following her meeting with Kansas Legal Services, Director Rossi met with the Dean of the University of Kansas (KU) School of Law and Directors of the Law School’s Legal Aid Clinic, which offers students the opportunity to represent low-income clients in civil, criminal, and juvenile cases under the guidance of supervising attorneys. Director Rossi and KU Law faculty discussed recruitment and retention issues plaguing public defense and youth defense systems in Kansas. The clinical professors and Dean shared unique insights into current challenges and potential solutions focusing on creative recruitment strategies to encourage law students to pursue public interest and public defense careers.
Later in the day, Director Rossi met with the Executive Director and Director of Special Projects for the Kansas State Board of Indigents’ Defense Services (BIDS), which oversees Kansas’ 18 regional public defender offices and manages statewide assigned counsel programs, legal services for people in prison, non-capital appellate services, and capital defense. Director Rossi shared ATJ’s Public Defense Resource Hub, a digital compilation of federal resources supporting public defense. The meeting included discussions on caseload standards, recruitment crises, workload standards, and expansion efforts within Kansas' public defense system. Following her meeting with BIDS officials, she met with the Federal Public Defender for the District of Kansas who also chairs the Defender Services Advisory Group. They discussed issues faced by federal public defenders including implementation strategies from a recent report on access to counsel at pretrial facilities.
On Thursday, Sept. 19th, Director Rossi met with members from several committees underpinned by judicial leadership: Rural Justice Initiative Committee created by Kansas Supreme Court; Access to Justice Committee; Language Access Committee. These meetings focused on gathering information regarding unmet legal needs within rural areas while discussing recommendations for addressing these gaps effectively. She also interacted directly with state court judges alongside justices serving on these committees gaining judiciary perspectives regarding roles played towards mitigating access barriers across states.
Subsequently engaging further within agricultural community contexts led discussions between herself alongside representatives from KFB Legal Foundation concerning educational initiatives targeting significant farming-related issues ranging from bankruptcy probates towards ownership transitions amid land-use regulations thereby highlighting necessity increasing attorney presence supporting such demographics particularly through recently launched Rural Law Practice Grant aimed defraying educational costs encouraging new practitioners locating practices rurally.
Concluding her trip involved visiting Washburn University Law School located Topeka engaging faculties administrators alongside students participating within specialized Rural Law program aiming identify externship employment opportunities providing support transitioning into practicing law rurally emphasizing accelerated remote study options lowering entry barriers prospective candidates especially those originating backgrounds rooted smaller communities ensuring continued pipeline future lawyers adequately serving these regions long-term basis.