For attorneys and other staff working in civil legal aid, Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) remains one of the most important tools for managing student debt. This webinar will cover the Five Steps for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. We’ll discuss available income-driven repayment options now that SAVE is no longer available and RAP is. Finally, we’ll share more about LRAP Minnesota, a nonprofit student loan repayment assistance program that supports legal aid attorneys serving low-income clients in Minnesota.

The Remote Detention Intakes Project was created by Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid to address the needs of Minnesota residents detained by ICE without access to legal counsel. Volunteer attorneys complete intakes remotely and MMLA's Immigration Law Project creates brief advice and collects pro se materials to be mailed to individuals in ICE custody. This CLE will train volunteers on common forms of immigration relief, best practices during intake meetings, and how to contact different facilities throughout the country. 

Some holdover evictions are more than they appear. Homeowners facing loss of their home are often induced to convey their ownership interest in exchange for promises of more time in the home—through rent‑to‑own agreements, leases, contracts for deed, or similar arrangements. Too often, these “deals” are set up to fail, leaving the homeowner evicted and stripped of all their home equity. In this training, you’ll learn how to spot a foreclosure rescue scam and how to leverage Minnesota’s consumer protection laws for your client. The training includes a practice aid you can take with you for easy issue‑spotting and quick reference during a fast‑paced eviction intake. 

The Voting Rights Access Project (VRAP) is a program created by Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid's Minnesota Disability Law Center to support the broader government initiative known as the Protection and Advocacy for Voting Access (PAVA) program.  PAVA was established under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and aims to ensure that individuals with disabilities can fully participate in the electoral process, including registering to vote, casting ballots, and accessing polling sites.  This CLE will educate individuals regarding Voting Accessibility Rights and train participants to serve as volunteers (Accessibility Advocates) able to effectively evaluate polling precincts across Minnesota. 

The CLE will examine key trends in housing matters, including rising eviction filings, increased case volume, and the ongoing impact of economic pressures on tenants and landlords.

This training will provide an overview of common civil trial objections, including tips on how to make objections and how to respond to objections.

Volunteer Lawyers Network and Legal Services State Support present the second of a two-part webinar on Chapter 7 bankruptcies for low-income Minnesotans.

Volunteer Lawyers Network and Legal Services State Support present the first of a two-part webinar on Chapter 7 bankruptcies for low-income Minnesotans.

This CLE is intended to teach volunteer attorneys about the different types of criminal expungements available in Minnesota and the remedies that each type of expungement may offer a client who has been denied employment or housing due to the existence of criminal records.

This training introduces participants to the statewide Disaster Attorney Toolkit.  The recently updated toolkit is a robust response to recent presidentially declared FEMA disasters, local peacetime emergencies, and small-scale community crises in Minnesota.

When co-owning a property becomes unworkable, a partition action may be the only path forward.  Come learn a step-by-step approach to filing your first partition action.  Participants will learn what pleadings to file, how courts divide property through partition in kind or by sale, what evidence is necessary to support each outcome, and how to address valuation, accounting, and related disputes between co-owners. Attendees will leave with a clear roadmap for effectively handling partition actions from initial filing through final resolution.

This CLE will use practitioner-generated hypotheticals to explore the complex and overlapping legal issues facing Minnesota families impacted by recent immigration enforcement actions.  

This session provides an overview of the estate recovery process in Minnesota, including state liens and county actions in and out of probate.  We will highlight key considerations for advocates advising clients regarding estate recovery.  Come learn how to effectively represent clients in this situation.

This session will provide housing practitioners with a basic overview of credit reports, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and practice pointers for achieving the greatest impact for your client in nonpayment of rent cases.

As Minnesota’s public benefits systems face growing administrative demands, county agencies are increasingly missing critical timelines - leaving clients at risk of losing needed coverage.  This session will explore how legal aid advocates can use administrative appeals more strategically when agencies fail to act.

Explore the spectrum of decision-making support available to individuals who may need additional assistance in decision-making.  Participants will gain a deeper understanding of supported decision-making (SDM) and guardianship.  We’ll examine how each approach can empower individuals while ensuring their rights and needs are respected.

Legal Services State Support is excited to announce a statewide mini conference: Opening Doors: Strengthening the Work and Wellness of Intake Staff. This one-day conference will take place on Friday, November 14, 2025, at the offices of Fredrikson & Byron in downtown Minneapolis, MN.

This session provides an introduction to the use of bankruptcy preparation software in Chapter 7 case filings. We will walk participants through the practical steps of preparing a Chapter 7 petition and related schedules using a software platform commonly employed by legal aid providers and private practitioners in Minnesota.

Do you practice administrative law or want to learn administrative law and also have an interest in doing pro bono work?  Volunteer attorneys from Volunteer Lawyers Network (VLN) advise and represent low-income clients in administrative law matters.  If you are interested in doing this type of pro bono administrative law case, then this CLE is for you.

This training introduces participants to the Minnesota Nonprofit Legal Services Initiative.  The Initiative is a robust response to the emergent legal needs of Minnesota nonprofits as they navigate a broad and shifting federal legal landscape.  This partnership between the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and LegalCORPS helps to reduce the high-cost barriers of legal support and features a Nonprofit Legal Help Desk, a Legal Resource Library, and Compliance Support.  Attendees will learn how and why the Initiative was created, how attorneys can engage with the Initiative, and the types of support provided to nonprofits.  Presenters will share recent examples of nonprofits that have benefitted from the Initiative, as well as LegalCORPS' other programs.  This training is ideal for legal professionals interested in engaging with nonprofits that are being impacted by increased scrutiny, evolving compliance requirements, contractual challenges, and the many executive actions that impact funding, operations, and advocacy work. 

This session introduces SMRLS' innovative Social Worker Program, designed to address the complex needs of low-income clients through a holistic, multidisciplinary approach. Attendees will learn why the program was created, how social workers collaborate with attorneys, and the program’s impact on client outcomes. Discover how integrating social work into legal services can improve advocacy and promote long-term client stability.

The 2025 Minnesota legislative session brought new policy changes that will impact Legal Aid clients statewide.  Congress has made deep cuts in funding for services affecting Legal Aid clients.   This CLE will provide an overview of what passed in the 2025 Minnesota Legislature and will also discuss the impacts of the federal cuts, with a focus on how these new laws will affect low-income individuals and families.   Legal Services Advocacy Project (LSAP) attorneys, who provide Legal Aid’s policy advocacy, will highlight the changes and answer questions.  Join us to stay up to date on the latest policy developments and prepare for changes in client advocacy and service delivery.

Attorneys working in client-focused areas face constant stress: demanding caseloads, exposure to trauma, systemic pressures, and difficult ethical decisions. These challenges can take a real toll on well-being while also affecting professional competence, decision-making, and ethical responsibilities.

This session introduces mindfulness as a practical tool to build resilience and manage stress. Participants will learn how stress impacts the brain, explore accessible practices such as mindful breathing and movement, and consider how mindfulness can support sleep, empathy, boundaries, and overall health. Resources for attorney well-being, including services from Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers Minnesota, will also be highlighted.

Motion practice in the early stages of family law cases can greatly impact the trajectory of litigation and the ultimate result of a case.  This program will address initiating and responding to early-stage motion practice in family law cases, specifically discussing substantive content and strategy considerations for ex parte, emergency, priority, and temporary motions. 

This CLE will focus on potential actions that people who are at risk of deportation may wish to take to try to mitigate the disruption to their lives and the lives of family members remaining in Minnesota in the event of detention or deportation.   We will not address immigration legal issues but rather will focus on the myriad other legal issues that someone might encounter as a collateral consequence of being taken into detention or deported.  We will explore issues that people at risk of deportation may want to consider before they are taken into detention or deported.  The CLE will cover an introduction to delegations of parental authority and power of attorney forms, as well as cover topics such as what might happen to someone's rental unit, personal property, unpaid debts, and automobiles in the event that they are taken into detention or deported.  

In this training, volunteer attorneys will learn how to effectively respond to legal questions submitted through online legal advice platforms. The session will focus on real-world examples, demonstrating how to craft clear, thorough, and helpful answers—even when questions seem vague, incomplete, or unanswerable. 

If you have been volunteering in Housing Court for a while or are just starting, this training will help you spot and work effectively on issues for the benefit of your clients.  We will explain defenses to eviction actions for non-payment, breach, and holdover.  We will go over the requirements to properly start an eviction action, how to read a ledger, the Fritz defense, shared meter issues, and domestic violence lease terminations.  

Why do we struggle to stick with wellness goals?  This engaging session explores the deeper motivations behind our wellness intentions using the “5 Whys” method.  Participants will learn how to reframe wellness practices as meaningful opportunities—not just tasks on a to-do list—and gain practical tips for incorporating well-being into even the busiest schedules.  For legal aid professionals and volunteers whose work often involves high stress and emotional intensity, caring for our own well-being is essential to sustainably serving others.  Discover how aligning your wellness efforts with your core values can lead to lasting, positive change.

Dealing with a pro se opposing party is very common in legal aid practice.  It can be tricky for attorneys to ethically navigate dealing with a pro se opposing party in case communications, negotiations, and discovery disputes.  When an opposing party is difficult to work with, it makes it even harder to navigate these situations.  This training will provide an overview of the applicable rules of professional responsibility and best practices attorneys should follow when dealing with pro se opposing parties.  It will also review several hypothetical scenarios common in legal aid practice and go over how attorneys could respond to such situations.

Artificial intelligence (AI), algorithms, and related technologies are used extensively by governments, employers, landlords, educators, and others to make key decisions about the lives of low-income people, usually with devastating consequences.  This session will explore the ways AI is determining how low-income people work, live, learn, and survive--implicating substantive issue areas of benefits, employment, housing, education, domestic violence, and child welfare--and introduce ways advocates can identify and oppose them.