An unanticipated benefit experienced by the Maryland project is that practitioners working in community development organizations with relationships to the Law School s Housing and Development Clinic have regularly referred clients to network members. The Maryland project has attracted a significant number of practitioners of color. This may be because the network is providing them with opportunities for networking, mentoring, and support that may be difficult to find elsewhere. Exposing students interested in public interest work to these networks of like-minded practitioners is valuable. It provides them with role models and an understanding of the possibility of performing public interest work in a private practice setting.
Practitioners are enthusiastic about participation in community education projects.
Having an administrative staff has enabled the CUNY Project to overcome serious technology inadequacies of member attorneys. At Northeastern, due to the absence of administrative support, helping to build practitioner capacity by introducing them to legal software and other technology is beyond the resources of the project due to the financial and time costs involved in training. Practitioners most need assistance with marketing and client development and the most successful network participants are those practitioners who are adept at networking. Some practitioners are hesitant to use students to support them in their practices. This has led to a realization that training attorneys to supervise interns would be useful and that building trust between them is essential.