Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services (TALS) is hosting a series of virtual legal clinics this month as part of Celebrate Pro Bono. At the clinics, hosted by law schools in the state, attorney volunteers will be paired with a small group of law students to answer legal questions submitted by low income Tennesseans via TN Free Legal Answers (TNFLA). The events include an Oct. 10 clinic at Belmont University College of Law, which is co-hosted by the TBA YLD. Other events will take place Oct. 22 at the University of Memphis School of Law and Oct. 31 at the University of Tennessee College of Law. For more information, contact Kirsten Jacobson, TALS staff attorney and TNFLA site administrator.

October is “Celebrate Pro Bono Month,” and Tennessee lawyers are joining their colleagues across the country to provide free legal services to those in need and honor the good work performed by the legal community every day. Now in its 11th year,  the annual National Pro Bono Celebration brings together legal service providers with bar associations, law schools, law firms and individual attorneys to offer free legal services to those unable to afford a lawyer. The TBA will be promoting events throughout the month. If you have information on an event, please share it with TBA.

Knoxville-area legal organizations will hold their monthly Veterans’ Legal Advice Clinic on Oct. 9 from noon to 2 p.m. at the Knox County Public Defender’s Community Law Office. Volunteers are needed and interested lawyers can sign up online to help service members and military families. The clinic is a joint project of the Knoxville Bar Association and its Access to Justice Committee; the Knoxville Barristers and it’s Access to Justice Committee; Legal Aid of East Tennessee; the Knox County Public Defender’s Community Law Office; the University of Tennessee College of Law; Lincoln Memorial University’s Duncan School of Law; and the local Veterans Affairs office.

The next Faith and Justice Clinic will take place Oct. 5, from 9 a.m. to noon at Ball Camp Baptist Church, 2412 Ball Camp Byington Rd., Knoxville 37931. The event will be held in conjunction with Legal Aid of East Tennessee’s regular Saturday Bar Clinic. The goal of the Faith and Justice Clinic initiative is to hold legal clinics in places of worship to create a less intimidating environment for individuals to talk to a lawyer.

More than half of Tennessee attorneys provided pro bono legal services during 2016, according to an annual pro bono report from the Tennessee Supreme Court's Access to Justice Commission.  The report showed that nearly 9,000 practicing Tennessee attorneys provided over 650,000 hours of pro bono service, with an estimated value of over $130 million. The full 2017 Pro Bono Report includes data reported by individual attorneys, bar associations, law firms, law schools, legal service providers mediators and other organizations.  

The Tennessee Justice Center is hosting an Insure Our Kids Enrollment webinar from 3 to 4 p.m. on Nov. 8. The webinar will cover coverage options, eligibility and the enrollment process. Insure Our Kids is a statewide campaign to enroll every uninsured child who is eligible for health insurance.