Legislative advocacy is about making your voice heard and taking action that may impact legislation. The AALL Advocacy Training will include tips, resources, and real-life examples for you to engage and influence lawmakers on issues that impact legal information and law librarianship. Presenters will discuss how to develop your advocacy strategies, communicate effectively, and work with your chapters and other allies to make the most impact.

TARGET AUDIENCE:

Law librarians and legal information professionals from all types of law libraries interested in advocacy. 

TAKEAWAYS:

1. Participants will gain skills to effectively advocate for issues affecting law libraries and the legal information profession.
   
2. Participants will be able to identify resources to help them advocate. 

SPEAKERS:

• Beth Adelman, AALL President, 2022-2023
• Deborah Hamilton, 2022 AALL Public Access to Government Information Award Recipient
• J Colin Heffernan, Candidate, Connecticut House of Representatives District 23

COORDINATOR/MODERATOR:

• Wick Shreve, AALL Government Relations Committee Chair, 2022-2023

AALL BODY OF KNOWLEDGE DOMAINS: Professionalism + Leadership At Every Level, Marketing + Outreach

CANCELLATION AND OTHER POLICIES

No refunds will be given for any purchased live AALL webinar. This applies to non-AALL members only; live AALL webinars are free for AALL members.

Beth Adelman is the 2022-2023 AALL President, and the director of the law library & vice dean for legal information services at the Charles B. Sears Law Library at the University at Buffalo, SUNY.

Having been an AALL member for 21 years, Adelman served as chair of the Appointments Committee and Executive Board Strategic Directions Committee, and as a member of the Executive Board Finance & Budget Committee. She also served as chair of the Annual Meeting Program Committee, leading the charge for several innovative process changes to make the AALL Annual Meeting & Conference educational programming more responsive to the needs of law librarians and legal information professionals.

Deborah Hamilton is the 2022 AALL Public Access to Government Information Award recipient. Deborah is the Strategic Services Librarian, Pikes Peak Library District in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

During the pandemic and after her library closed its doors to the public, Deborah ensured patrons had access to a variety of resources, especially information detailing the current Covid-19 situation, with resources reviewed and modified almost daily. Deborah works at one of only four law libraries open to the public in the state of Colorado.

As evictions started rising to critical levels, Deborah worked with the City of Colorado Springs, The Justice Center, and Colorado Legal Services to offer virtual programming on renter’s rights.

Part of this work was done through the Justice Center Board of Directors, on which Deborah has sat for several years, and currently serves as Board Chair. The Justice Center works to decrease the gap in access to justice and legal services in the Pikes Peak Region.

J. Colin Heffernan earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 2002. He earned a J.D. from Tulane University in 2008. Upon completion of law school, he moved here permanently after taking a position with the Superior Court in New London. Colin has been extremely active in the Old Saybrook community for the past fourteen years, serving on the town Zoning Commission and as chair of the Aquifer Protection Agency and Inland Wetlands & Watercourses Commission. 

He has also served as the chair of the nominating committee of the Old Saybrook Democratic Town Committee. Professionally, he has maintained a law practice in Old Saybrook since 2010, representing individuals, families, small businesses and nonprofits across the state, often as a trial lawyer before the Connecticut Supreme and Appellate Courts. Equal rights have been a focus of Colin’s practice and in Law School he served as the Editor in Chief of the Tulane Journal of Law and Sexuality, the nation’s first law journal dedicated to the advancement of legal protections for the LGBTQ community. 

Wick Shreve is the 2022-2023 AALL Government Relations Committee Chair. He is the Head of Scholarly Services and Journals Advisor at the Duke University School of Law. Wick’s scholarship includes work on gender, sexuality, and civil rights.

Wick teaches classes in administrative law research and sex in the law. He is a member of the New York State Bar and the American Bar Association.