Pursuing Justice Podcast Episode 33: Many lawyers go into pro bono unaware of the vicarious trauma they can experience when helping clients in difficult situations. Hear from a pro bono leader and an expert in learning design about how thoughtfully designed training can help lawyers at all stages of their careers become more effective and resilient advocates.
This podcast provides a behind-the-scenes exploration of pro bono and public interest legal work. These heartening stories are told from both clients’ and lawyers’ perspectives to showcase intimate portraits of lawyers helping those with limited access to justice.
Please note: CLE is not offered for listening to this podcast, and the views and opinions expressed within represent those of the speakers and not necessarily those of PLI.
FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE
Lauren Connell
Lauren Connell is the Pro Bono Counsel at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. In this role, she works with Akin Gump’s Pro Bono Partner to manage the firm’s worldwide pro bono practice and develop pro bono opportunities for Akin Gump lawyers.
Lauren maintains an active immigration practice, with a particular focus on asylum seekers and counseling detained migrants. She also advises nonprofit organizations on corporate governance matters. Before becoming Pro Bono Counsel, she practiced corporate law at Akin Gump, with a focus on mergers and acquisitions and securities transactions.
Lauren began her Akin Gump career working as the coordinator of the Karnes City Immigrant Family Pro Bono Project in San Antonio, Texas. In this role, she represented detained Central American women and children refugees seeking asylum in the United States and also coordinated the pro bono effort to match lawyers to clients. Her work was profiled in the National Law Journal and also recognized in the New York Times Magazine.
Most recently, Lauren was recognized by the New York Law Journal as a 2021 Rising Star.
Ken Rosenblad
Ken Rosenblad is an interactive learning producer and process improvement leader with the Practising Law Institute (PLI). He has 30-plus years of experience leading successful learning and development, change acceleration, and process improvement initiatives in global corporate and nonprofit environments. He brings people-focused engagement strategies to his work to ensure that participants are positively engaged and committed to learning, improvement, and change, rather than simply compliant. In addition, he has extensive data analysis skills that support root-cause analysis and provide part of the basis for engaging people in transformations and learning.
Ken holds two master’s degrees from Columbia University’s Teachers College, one in Educational Psychology and one in the Behavioral Analysis of Learning. He also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Brown University and is a GE-certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.
