Pro-Bono Virtual Legal Clinics for Enhancement of Social Impact by Communities Affected by COVID-19

The right to legal advice is an essential entitlement and an imperative step toward effective enjoyment of other fundamental rights, especially to the communities which have limited access to legal opinions due to scarce financial means. Global communities are adversely affected, particularly in relation to employment, domestic violence, and financial hardships during this pandemic. This pro-bono virtual legal clinics project is instrumental in enhancing social impact by ensuring that communities continuously have better access to quality legal advice and information during the COVID-19 Movement Control Order through multiple social networking tools and meaningful collaborations with NGOs.

Leveraging lawyers as strategic company resources

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings This research paper concentrates on how knowledge of the law can be leveraged as a strategic company resource in various ways, to ultimately build a competitive advantage. Managers often mistake turning reactively to legal advice with a proactive, strategic use of law and legal knowledge as their company resource. Such lack of advance preparedness is expensive for companies. Hence creating and following an organized legal strategy can save money. Although there are many legal approaches that companies can take, the authors advocate that proactive ones are the most superior overall, since they assist with crafting a market-resilient competitive advantage. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Conservatism predicts aversion to consequential Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize society by automating tasks as diverse as driving cars, diagnosing diseases, and providing legal advice. The degree to which AI can improve outcomes in these and other domains depends on how comfortable people are trusting AI for these tasks, which in turn depends on lay perceptions of AI. The present research examines how these critical lay perceptions may vary as a function of conservatism. Using five survey experiments, we find that political conservatism is associated with low comfort with and trust in AI—i.e., with AI aversion. This relationship between conservatism and AI aversion is explained by the link between conservatism and risk perception; more conservative individuals perceive AI as being riskier and are therefore more averse to its adoption. Finally, we test whether a moral reframing intervention can reduce AI aversion among conservatives.

The metapragmatics of legal advice communication in the field of immigration law

Metapragmatic comments are crucial in lawyers’ attempts at managing legal advice communication with asylum seekers. Drawing on linguistic-ethnographic fieldwork in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, this paper aims to demonstrate how/when/why textual features which tell interactants how to interpret the ongoing speech are used in the context of lawyer-client communication in the field of immigration law. The data analysis reveals how lawyers frame the discursive conditions (i.e. linguistic diversity, the institutional need for efficiency and the presence of emotional lifeworld concerns) of the local interaction in the lawyer’s office. This is necessary as clients are not always acquainted with the discursive routines of the legal consultation, nor aware of its position within the wider chain of discursive asylum events. As many aspects of the legal advice context resemble the interactional conditions of the government-asylum seeker communication, it proves key yet challenging for lawyers to metapragmatically signal their advocating role in a way that enables a relationship of rapport with their client.

The Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers (opla) in the Houses of the Oireachtas – History, Functions and Recent Key Parliamentary Legal Issues

The Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers (opla) is the in-house legal team in the Irish national parliament. It provides specialist, non-partisan legal advice to Parliament on a broad range of parliamentary, constitutional and corporate legal issues. In recent years, the opla has been assigned additional functions within the legislative process, now providing legal policy analysis and legislative drafting services to non-Government Members in respect of private legislative proposals and advising Members in respect of Government Bills. This article will provide a history of the opla, will outline some recent key parliamentary legal issues and will elaborate on the recent development of legislative drafting and advisory services within the Office.

Lines of Action for Sexting Prevention and Intervention: A Systematic Review

Sexting has become a new form of intimate interaction in line with contemporary communication methods. This phenomenon often leads to positive outcomes, but it can also have negative repercussions depending on the situation, such as the context of the relationship, and whether it is consensual or coercive. Despite this, the main types of sexting behaviors (sending, receiving, and third-party forwarding) must be addressed in order to promote safe and healthy practices. However, the approach to tackling this phenomenon remains unclear. This systematic review sought to summarize the lines of action proposed or conducted in the scientific literature to address sexting, to help researchers and educators create and evaluate effective programs. A systematic search of 21 databases was conducted; only articles relating to sexting education, prevention, and intervention among child and adolescent populations were considered. In total, 456 articles were identified, 91 of which were included for the purposes of this research. The results highlighted a need to respond to the aforementioned sexting behaviors and to tackle the resulting conflict situations. Although interventions across different areas are recommended (e.g., health, family, policies, legal advice, law enforcement, technology experts, and even society as a whole), most studies agree that school is the most practical setting for intervention. Thus, the 15 lines of action identified in this systematic review must all be considered to effectively address sexting in childhood and adolescence.

Fibrotic interstitial lung disease - palliative care needs: a World-Café qualitative study

ObjectivesThe importance of palliative care in those with advanced fibrotic interstitial lung diseases (F-ILD) is recognised, but the palliative care requirements of patients and caregivers affected by F-ILD regardless of disease course are not established. We set out to explore this and identify optimal solutions in meeting the needs of a F-ILD population in Ireland.MethodsImplementing a World-Café qualitative research approach, we captured insights evolving, iteratively in interactive small group discussions in response to six predefined topics on palliative care and planning for the future. Thirty-nine stakeholders participated in the World-Café including 12 patients, 13 caregivers, 9 healthcare professionals, 4 industry representatives and 1 representative of the clergy.ResultsPalliative care emerged as fundamental to the care and treatment of F-ILDs, regardless of disease progression. Unmet palliative care needs were identified as psychological and social support, disease education, inclusion of caregivers and practical/legal advice for disease progression and end-of-life planning. Participants identified diagnosis as a particularly distressing time for patients and families. They called for the introduction of palliative care discussions at this early-stage alongside improvements in integrated care, specifically increasing the involvement of primary care practitioners in referrals to palliative services.ConclusionPatients and caregivers need discussions on palliative care associated with F-ILD to be included at the point of diagnosis. This approach may address persisting inadequacies in service provision previously identified over the course of the last decade in the UK, Ireland and European F-ILD patient charters.

Coffee and Counsel Clinic: Constructing a More Comfortable Place for Legal Aid in the Sub-Urban Community

Legal assistance is one of the needs of the community in the midst of many legal cases today. The existing consultations and assistance also seem formal and very rigid, such as being carried out in offices and the like. In fact, in the success of legal assistance, the comfort of both parties is the main key. This program emphasizes the development of a more comfortable pattern of legal assistance and consultation by combining coffee shops as an alternative place for legal consultation. This program was developed and implemented in Wanureja Village, Tegal, Kendal Regency, Indonesia. This place and program have continually provided clients with access to the best legal advice and representation available, all in an informal, stress-free setting with a low cost for the initial consultation. We meet you where you are most comfortable –an in-person meeting at an attorney’s office, a conversation at the local coffee house, or if you are disabled or incapacitated in any way, at your location.