College of Law Events

CLE: Strengthening the Champaign-Urbana Immigrant Advocacy Community

Friday, October 4, 2024, 12-3 p.m. & Saturday, October 5, 2024, 9-Noon and 1-4 p.m.

University of Illinois College of Law
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, Illinois

Course Level: Beginner

*This course has been approved for 8.0 hours of Illinois MCLE Credit -- 6.5 Hours of General Credit, 1.00 Professional Responsibility (Ethics) Credit, and .50 Professional Responsibility (Mental Health) Credit; and CEU Credit: 6.

This program is an interdisciplinary collaboration designed to build the capacity of social work and legal professionals to serve the immigrant community in Illinois. Specifically, this project will develop and implement a series of trainings to facilitate social worker and lawyer collaboration on cases involving immigrants. Trainings will provide lawyers with guidance on recognizing trauma, interviewing traumatized immigrant clients, as well as educating them on immigration law and those benefits potentially available to their non- citizen clients. Additionally, professionals will be given guidance on how to ethically and effectively work with interpreters (and how to recognize and remove unethical interpreter practices). As part of these trainings we will build a roster of professionals willing to offer occasional pro bono services to the immigrant community. In building the capacity of professionals, this project aims to expand access to justice for the ever-growing immigrant community and to diversify the toolkit of Illinois lawyers. The program will consist of three sessions for CLE credit, and an additional non-CLE session that addresses training interpreters in ethical interpreting.

 Course Objectives:

1. Equip social work and legal professionals with the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively collaborate on cases involving immigrants, including recognizing trauma, conducting trauma-informed interviews, expert witness testimony and understanding immigration law and available benefits for non-citizen clients.
2. Provide guidance to professionals on the ethical considerations and best practices for working with interpreters in the context of immigrant advocacy, including strategies for recognizing and addressing unethical interpreter practices.
3. Establish a network of professionals willing to offer occasional pro bono services to the immigrant community, thereby expanding access to justice and diversifying the toolkit of Illinois lawyers while fostering a stronger immigrant advocacy community in Champaign- Urbana.
   
   Presented by:
   
   Lauren R. Aronson, University of Illinois College of Law
   Clinical Professor of Law
   Immigration Law Clinic Director 
   
   Dr. Flora Cohen, University of Illinois School of Social Work
   Assistant Professor
   
   Free and open to the public, but registration required. REGISTER HERE