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2026 Poverty Law Conference
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Be a LEGO: What Legal Deserts Teach Us About Building Community Partnerships
Friday September 4, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm CDT
Classroom 203
A staple in the toy industry is the building blocks known as LEGO – designed to connect, build, and bring structures to life through creativity and ingenuity. Similarly, this session will teach legal advocates how to be a "LEGO", using lessons learned from serving communities in a legal desert to demonstrate practical, adaptable strategies used by TxILC’s Economic Justice Initiative (EJI) fellows for connecting clients to both legal and non-legal resources to bridge the access to justice gap through their work in family law and domestic violence in rural areas. With limited resources and an expansive area to cover, the ultimate question that EJI and the fellows aim to address is how do we best serve our clients with their legal and non-legal needs in a meaningful and intentional way, extending client impact past their case.  “What Legal Deserts Teach Us About Building Community Partnerships” will discuss how the community justice worker (non-attorney advocates) framework is being used to address family law and domestic violence cases in rural communities, and teach legal advocates in the session, through hands-on and collaborative activities, strategies on how to identify imminent needs in the community, how to identify key partners that can help address those needs, and how to facilitate sustainable yet flexible support systems specific to each community for attendees to take with them. The approaches shared are designed to be replicated across a range of settings where advocates face challenges in linking clients to meaningful support.
Speakers
avatar for Johana Soileau

Johana Soileau

EJI Legal Access Fellow, Texas Immigration Law Council
Johana Soileau is a graduate of UT Austin with her Bachelor of Arts in Government and Sociology. She has spent many years dedicated to service and empowerment of underrepresented communities through non-profit work, education, mentoring, and now the legal field. Her philosophy is... Read More →
avatar for Lisa Davila Lang

Lisa Davila Lang

Attorney Fellow, Texas Immigration Law Council
Lisa Davila Lang is a first-generation attorney. She began her professional journey in healthcare, earning her Certificate in Vocational Nursing from Western Texas College in 1995, and later her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from West Texas A&M University in 2014. Lisa pursued her... Read More →
Friday September 4, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm CDT
Classroom 203
  Multidisciplinary/ Miscellaneous

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