Giving Compass' Take:

• Connie Loizos, writing for TechCrunch, describes how a new portal helps lawyers find pro bono opportunities to help people affected by coronavirus.

• How can the private sector create more opportunities like this to get people help in the wake of the pandemic? What can you do to support innovative efforts for legal action in the next few tumultuous years? 

• Learn about how your funding can help nonprofits survive the coronavirus.

The coronavirus pandemic has laid low a lot of Americans, more than 62,000 of whom have already died since the beginning of March and 30 million more who are now out of work owing to the resultant shutdown of most businesses and public gathering places.

The ensuant crisis it has created is so massive that any type of coordinated effort is a challenge to pull together. Fortunately, that hasn’t stopped the American Bar Association and a justice tech company called Paladin that we introduced to readers last year. On the contrary, the SaaS startup — which helps legal teams sign up for pro bono opportunities, then makes their work and its impact easier to track — has teamed up with the ABA to help lawyers find pro bono opportunities specifically to help people affected by the coronavirus pandemic and other natural disasters.

It’s a way to accelerate work that the ABA has been doing for the last 13 years through its Young Lawyers Division’s Disaster Legal Services Program — because time, right now, is of the essence.

We were in touch yesterday with Paladin co-founder Kristen Sonday to learn more about the new portal, which helps lawyers filter opportunities by practice area, communities to serve, type of engagement and the ability to work remotely. We asked how it might better hep attorneys and those in need of their services to connect faster.

KS: Our mission is to increase access to justice by supporting pro bono legal services, so this project seemed like the perfect way to leverage Paladin’s expertise and increase impact. There is no cost for attorneys to use, nor cost to the legal services organizations posting opportunities. It is a great way to raise awareness of Paladin’s work more broadly.

Read the full article about how lawyers help people affected by the pandemic by Connie Loizos at TechCrunch.