Fighting Poverty with Data Mining Tools for Legal Services

The need for legal aid among low-income communities isn’t a new phenomenon, and its relevance continues to grow in recent times. That’s why organizations like East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) aren’t just providing legal services - they’re also training the next generation of advocates.

“EBCLC is the highest-volume free legal services provider in Alameda County, California, and we train more than 150 law students each year in our clinics,” says EBCLC Data Scientist Lawrence Karongo, who’s leading up a data-centric approach to serving those in need.

This forward-thinking strategy requires sophisticated tools, notes Karongo, which EBCLC didn’t have access to until recently.

“Our advocates utilize a highly diverse set of strategies to fight poverty, and our old system wasn’t set up to track and report on our community outreach, impact litigation, and policy change work,” he says. “For all these reasons, we needed a system that was highly customizable - something that could support our frontline attorneys in managing everything from eviction defense and asylum applications to employment advocacy and business entity formation. We’re really happy to have found all that we need in LegalServer!”

LegalServer saves our employees’ time, makes it easier for managers to support their teams, and gives me the tools I need to really analyze and evaluate our services.

“Our mission is to advance justice by addressing the root causes and conditions of poverty, and part of that is identifying the most effective possible models to serve our communities using data,” Karongo concludes. “LegalServer has improved our ability to integrate data into our storytelling and communicate our real impact to funders.”

With a treasure trove of data now at their fingertips, LegalServer’s Reporting Tools are supporting EBCLC’s goals, both internally and externally. Bottom line: when advocates’ dedication to helping people is quantified, it illustrates how everyone wins.

Visit EBCLC’s website to learn more about their impact on the Bay Area, and to see how LegalServer empowers you to mine your data for important insights, schedule a demo today.