Ready to take your first guardianship case but not sure where to start? This practical, start-to-finish session walks attorneys through filing an uncontested guardianship of the person in Texas. Designed for newer practitioners this training breaks down each stage of the process, from client intake and evaluating alternatives to the hearing and post-appointment reporting requirements.
Participants will learn how to properly assess standing, obtain and review a Physician’s Certificate of Medical Examination (PCME), draft the application, meet service and notice requirements, work effectively with court-appointed counsel, and prepare for a smooth uncontested hearing. The session will also cover post-hearing filings and annual reporting obligations to ensure ongoing compliance.
This course emphasizes a least-restrictive, person-centered approach and practical strategies to avoid common mistakes that delay appointments or create compliance issues.
Attendees will leave with a clear roadmap, practical tools, and confidence to file their first guardianship case.
Disaster Benefits Team Manager, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid
Brittanny P. Gomez is the Disaster Benefits Team Manager at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and represents low income individuals affected by disasters. Brittanny is a Vice Director of the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division Disaster Legal Services Team and has been recognized... Read More →
Hannah Dyal is an Equal Justice Works Disaster Resilience Program Fellow at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. She recently completed her first Equal Justice Works fellowship on the Disaster Recovery Legal Corps, the first disaster corps of its kind. Hannah has been working in disaster recovery... Read More →
Wednesday September 2, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm CDT Classroom 203
Trial preparation can be one of the most stressful phases of poverty law litigation, particularly for newer attorneys. This program provides practical, step-by-step guidance on managing electronic files, organizing evidence, preparing a trial notebook, making discovery work for your case, and appearing before the judge. The presentation will also address methods for reducing the last-minute anxiety that often accompanies trial preparation. Attendees will leave with concrete systems and workflows they can immediately implement in their own practices.
Leesa Everitt, a native Houstonian, is a staff attorney at Lone Star Legal Aid in the Housing & Consumer Unit. Over the past decade she has handled a variety of civil legal matters, but her focus has been housing and landlord-tenant work. Her law degree is from the University of Houston... Read More →
KIND staff will explore the challenges of representing children seeking Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) in SAPCR proceedings. KIND will review the requisite SIJS findings and common issues that can arise when working through standard SAPCR procedures. Attendees will have the opportunity to work through hypotheticals and review sample filings.
Sick of having to explain to courthouse personnel why you should get free copies? Sick of frivolous SOI challenges from opposing counsel? This session is for you! Knowing Rule 145 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure backwards and forwards, along with its intricacies, is an essential tool for any lawyer working with limited- to no-income clients. This workshop will provide all the tools needed to accurately and easily fill out an SOI form (making sure you are using the right one), persuasively communicate with court personnel to ensure your client’s SOI is honored, and zealously defend against SOI challenges.
Family Clinic Staff Attorney, St. Mary's Center for Legal and Social Justice
Stephanie Medellin is the staff attorney for the Family Law Clinic at the Center for Legal and Social Justice at St. Mary’s University School of Law. Stephanie represents clients in divorce, adoption, name change, and probate cases in court. She also co-teaches clinic seminar... Read More →
Veterans and military consumers face unique vulnerabilities that demand robust protection to honor their service and safeguard their well-being. Many have earned hard-earned benefits through sacrifice, yet they are disproportionately targeted by financial exploitation, scams, and fraud—often due to steady VA or military income streams, personal information tied to service, and challenges like age, disability, trauma, or isolation. Learn about key threats to veterans and servicemembers and what can be done to safeguard them.
Low-income and immigrant families frequently rely on informal caregiving arrangements when parents face medical emergencies, immigration issues, or economic instability. Without written authority, caregivers may be unable to enroll children in school, consent to medical care, or access services that support the child’s wellbeing. This session will introduce delegations of parental authority under Chapters 34 and 35 of the Texas Family Code and explore how these tools can help families create more stable caregiving arrangements. Presenters will also discuss how Community Justice Workers, non-lawyer advocates, can collaborate with legal teams to work closely with families and help identify when these tools are appropriate, support families in understanding their options, and connect caregiver households with public benefits and other resources that support children.
Legal Aid organizations have limited staff and funding to provide probate representation, making the justice gap even wider in this practice area. Additionally, there are few options for pro se representation in probate. Understanding the Texas Estates Code as well as how to practice probate law will inform legal aid attorneys of ways to provide advice or support pro bono attorneys in assisted pro se cases as well as representation.
Directing Attorney - Pro Bono, Lone Star Legal Aid
I am the Directing Attorney for Pro bono. I love talking all things pro bono, but you will often find me talking about marketing and recruitment. I have been with Lone Star Legal Aid since December 2019. Prior to that, I was the Pro Bono & Outreach Director and staff attorney... Read More →
Strong Texas laws protect people purchasing a home under a “contract for deed” or “rent-to-own” contract. The Texas Property Code calls these contracts “executory contracts for conveyance of real property”, and unless the seller follows this strict law ("Subchapter D"), the buyer is entitled to a variety of damages, including additional protections under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
John Grieger has 34 years of bankruptcy law experience. A graduate of Northwestern University (BA-Spanish) and the University of San Diego School of Law, John returned to his native Chicago after law school and worked as a staff attorney for the Chapter 13 Trustee. After that... Read More →
Wednesday September 2, 2026 2:15pm - 3:15pm CDT Grand Salons AB
This session explores naturalization as the ultimate tool for family unity and permanent security in a volatile legal landscape. Presenters will provide a technical deep-dive into N-400 issues, including navigating the "good moral character" requirement, medical waivers (N-648), and the implications of the most recent USCIS policy manual updates. Participants will learn strategies for identifying potential "red flag" cases that could lead to removal proceedings and how to effectively utilize administrative advocacy to resolve delayed applications.
Sara Morales is a DOJ Accredited Representative since 2018 with experience assisting immigrant families and individuals through the immigration legal process. Through advocacy, education, and community outreach, she provides guidance on immigration relief options, citizenship, family... Read More →
Passionately and effectively advocating for clients is a good fight that rewards legal practitioners with their own double-edged sword. On one side, playing a part in securing wins for those who need them most and camaraderie working alongside others committed to the same fight. The downside of this good work builds up over time: exhaustion from knowing there is an ever-growing number of cases, clients, and problems to solve, accumulated grief from the inevitable losses, and secondary trauma from dealing in difficult issues, some of which go beyond the capabilities of legal practitioners.
Michael and Penelope are advocates who have felt these feelings through years of working in various legal aid fields, including environmental justice, family, fair housing, criminal, and community development work. Everyone’s journey to taking care of themselves is different, but we will share our stories and lessons learned in our journeys of acknowledging the very real difficulty of burnout and finding pathways to sustainability. This presentation will focus on specific ways to process and manage your case load, celebrate wins, build community inside and outside of the legal field, and connect with specific mental health and wellbeing resources. Attendees will have various opportunities to reflect on their own wellbeing and consider emotional, physical, and mental health as a part of their legal practice.
Think of it this way: you are not just an advocate. First and foremost, you are a person who practices advocacy. We hope this presentation encourages you and provides specific tools to help sustain your advocacy.
Title IX is often viewed through a compliance lens, but for many students, it functions as a critical access-to-justice framework impacting safety, educational access, and long-term stability across both K–12 and higher education settings.
This session provides a practical overview of Title IX under the 2020 regulations, including the role of the Title IX Coordinator, reporting and response obligations, supportive measures, and intersections with the Clery Act. Presenters will examine how institutional policies and processes affect vulnerable and underserved student populations, particularly those experiencing overlapping challenges such as housing insecurity and intimate partner violence.
The session will also explore prevention as an early intervention strategy and provide an overview of the hearing and advisor process, including due process protections and common barriers students face when navigating institutional systems. In addition, the session will address how Title IX intersects with broader civil rights frameworks, including Title VI, and the implications for case classification, reporting pathways, and institutional response.
Through a multidisciplinary lens, this session connects compliance requirements to real-world advocacy, equipping attendees with actionable insight to better support clients interacting with school-based Title IX systems.
This session is particularly relevant for attorneys and advocates representing students in K–12 and higher education systems or working with survivors of gender-based violence.
This session will delve into the intricacies of representing nonparents caring for children. The two common topics discussed will be Nonparent Authorization Agreements (NPAAs) and Suits Affecting the Parent-Child Relationship (SAPCRs). Legal aid attorneys commonly receive requests from grandparents, aunts and uncles, adult siblings, and other relatives requesting legal assistance after they experience roadblocks while caring for a child. NPAAs are a common “kincare” (kinship care) tool used in Texas, but SAPCRs may also be an option. Knowing the differences between and the requirements of both allows attorneys to better evaluate their nonparent clients’ cases.
Family Clinic Staff Attorney, St. Mary's Center for Legal and Social Justice
Stephanie Medellin is the staff attorney for the Family Law Clinic at the Center for Legal and Social Justice at St. Mary’s University School of Law. Stephanie represents clients in divorce, adoption, name change, and probate cases in court. She also co-teaches clinic seminar... Read More →
This session will examine how eviction practice has changed in the eight months since SB 38 and its accompanying revisions to the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure took effect. We will discuss novel defenses to eviction under the new law and rules, as well as active and planned constitutional challenges, explaining how they have played out in thousands of cases before the twenty-six different Justices of the Peace in the state's two largest counties. The goal is an interactive session in which both presenters and participants share their experiences to improve our collective advocacy on behalf of Texas tenants.
This practical session provides attorneys outside the immigration field with essential insights into 2026's significant immigration developments. The session covers fundamental immigration concepts relevant to general practice, including Alien Registration Numbers, procedures for locating clients in immigration detention, methods for verifying immigration court hearings, and preparing in case of detention and deportation. Topics and updates covered are subject to change in this rapidly evolving landscape.
Jessica Cisneros is a Managing Attorney at the Texas Immigration Law Council. Prior to joining the team, Jessica served at RAICES as the supervising attorney for the Laredo Removal team and as a staff attorney for the Family Detention/Expedited Removal team. Since graduating from... Read More →
Wednesday September 2, 2026 3:30pm - 4:30pm CDT Junior Ballroom
Every rural community deserves a legal system that is both high-functioning and well-resourced. But lawyer scarcity across much of Texas makes such systems aspirational. This session will discuss solutions to the problem of rural legal deserts: Programs that have supported rural doctors for decades can be models for recruiting rural lawyers; Lawyers' educational, licensing, and practice structures can be updated and tailored to rural needs; and courts can modernize their practices. Learn about recent innovations and successes in these areas, and share your own approaches to rural lawyer recruitment.
Senior Staff Attorney, Dedman School of Law, Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center
Camilla Hsu joined the Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center as a senior policy attorney in September 2024. Her work focuses on litigation related to Due Process and the Sixth Amendment Right to Counsel and supporting the Center’s mission of advocating for innovative criminal legal... Read More →
The VA Fiduciary Program and VA guardianship rules (particularly the new VA-DOJ framework announced in March 2026) both address support for vulnerable veterans who lack capacity to manage aspects of their lives, but they operate in distinct yet potentially overlapping ways. The VA Fiduciary Program is a federal, VA-specific mechanism focused narrowly on financial management. VA determines if a veteran (due to injury, disease, age, or minority) cannot manage their VA benefits. The new VA guardianship rules, however, allow for broader decision-making over a veteran, which can include health care decisions, living arrangements, and a veteran’s overall personal welfare. Historically, VA has limited involvement here, but the recent VA-DOJ Memorandum of Understanding (MOU, March 2026) enables VA attorneys (appointed as special assistant U.S. attorneys by DOJ) to initiate and participate in state court proceedings to seek guardianship for certain unrepresented veterans—especially those unable to make health care decisions, lacking family/legal support, and needing it for post-acute care transitions (including some homeless or at-risk veterans in VA facilities). Both target impaired or incapacitated veterans to protect their interests and well-being. Attorneys should be prepared to advocate for veterans in either situation.
