Sponsors:	Center for Disability and Elder Law Illinois Legal Aid Online
Date:	Monday, October 18, 2010
Time:	02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Location:	2915 Jorie Blvd. McDonald's Corporation Campus Office Building Oak Brook, IL 60523
Speakers:	Thomas Wendt, Esq. Chief Legal Officer, Center for Disability & Elder Law

CDEL is hosting a free CLE training on drafting Powers of Attorney, as part of CDEL's SCI program.

The SCI brings CDEL staff and volunteer attorneys to senior citizen residences across Chicago and suburban Cook County to prepare Powers of Attorney for Health Care and Property, as well as Living Will Declarations. Since 2007, CDEL has conducted over 100 workshops, assisting approximately 1600 seniors. Typically, between 4 and 10 volunteer attorneys and 8 and 20 seniors participate in each workshop, although some workshops are significantly larger.

To administer the SCI workshops, CDEL staff attorneys and volunteers to travel to low-income senior residence facilities to conduct educational outreaches, teaching the residents of the facilities about CDEL and its services, in particular Powers of Attorney.

CDEL periodically schedules accredited CLE presentations at CDEL's offices, various law firms, as well as through Illinois Legal Advocate, providing training and sample forms intended to educate attorneys on the program and assisting seniors to complete the Power of Attorney and Illinois Living Will Declaration documents. Each participant receives a training guide (available online), including sample forms and step by step instructions.

CDEL staff and volunteer attorneys then return to the site to conduct the workshop, held throughout Chicago and Cook County. Generally, volunteer attorneys travel directly to site, thus avoiding a trip downtown to CDEL’s office. At the workshop, the CDEL volunteer attorneys meet one on one with seniors, where the attorneys consult with the seniors, explain the documents in detail to them and then draft the documents. The documents are then witnessed, notarized, copied and presented to the senior. This is a great opportunity to provide assistance directly to seniors in a discreet, one time manner, with no lingering client matters. Once the documents are completed and the workshop is finished, the attorney client relationship ends. If any follow-up is needed, CDEL handles the follow-up.

• The program is good for attorneys interested in providing pro bono service to clients, but do not have the time or availability to provide long term representation.
• The program is also good for retired and semi-retired attorneys, who simply wish to "give something back" to the community. For retired attorneys, CDEL can even facilitate those attorneys to obtain a Supreme Court Rule 756(j) license (for retired attorneys working for/volunteering at non-profit legal service providers).
• The program is also great for law students who are interested in obtaining practical legal and client interaction experience. For qualified students, CDEL will assist in obtaining a Supreme Court Rule 711 provisional license.

CDEL is also looking for volunteers to travel to the senior centers to provide the initial outreach speaking engagements. Complete training and speaking "scripts" are available for this program. For each presentation, the attorney volunteer would receive 2 hours of "pro bono credit."

Attachments

Click on the link(s) below to open the attached files.
File Name	Type	Size
SCI CLE Handbook1.pdf	PDF	647.8KB

Last Updated: 04/11/2011