Litigation Planning and Trial Advocacy Skills Training (TAST) is an intensive training designed to provide participants with an opportunity to develop, refine, and practice trial skills.

Litigation Planning is a virtual training where participants will learn about case planning, theme/theory of a case, evidence planning, and the requirements for a trial notebook. Participants will also meet virtually with small groups to work on exercises related to the case file for the training.

TAST is a four-day training that includes lectures and demonstrations on trial skills. Participants will perform and be critiqued on trial exercises, including opening statements, closing arguments, direct and cross-examination, and using demonstrative evidence. Each participant will be videotaped during the exercises and critiqued on their performance by trainers. Participants will have significant homework assignments leading up to and during the training. TAST culminates in a mock bench trial on the last day (October 8).

CORT will apply for CLE credit for these training courses in Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia.

This training is limited to 32 participants. Registering does not mean acceptance into the training. When registration closes, we will work with each state/program to select participants. If you are selected for the training, you will receive a confirmation email with more registration details including how to book your hotel.

Registration Deadline for both Litigation Planning and TAST: Friday, May 22nd at 5pm

Please join the Ohio Racial Justice Law Task Force for this virtual CLE training. Presenter Rachel Siegel, from The Pew Charitable Trusts, will use mobile and manufactured home policy to illustrate how lawmaking actually works in practice. The presentation will explore how legislative and regulatory choices can deepen or disrupt racial and economic inequities.

Pew's research shows that many borrowers are shut out of access to mortgages, which provide significantly better consumer protections and cost savings compared with alternatives. This training session will examine how these outcomes are shaped by statutes, administrative rules, and local codes and promising approaches to expand access to mortgages.

This training introduces advocates to how geographic information systems ("GIS") can be used to further advocacy goals. The presentation will highlight the intersectionality of housing, location, poverty, and race. The presentation will include case studies examples from The Ohio State University's Office of Outreach & Engagement and Center for Urban and Regional Analysis.

Presenters: 

Dr. Jason Reece is an associate professor of city and regional planning at the Knowlton School and Vice Provost for Urban Research & Community Engagement in the Office of Academic Affairs at The Ohio State University.

Dr. Harvey J. Miller is the Bob and Mary Reusche Chair in Geographic Information Science, Professor of Geography and Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Analysis at The Ohio State University.

The Committee on Regional Training (CORT) is co-sponsoring, with the Management Information Exchange (MIE), an in-person Supervising Legal Work Training for legal aid managers and supervisors. The Supervising Legal Work Training is designed to help managers with fewer than 3 years of supervisory experience develop those skills through a combination of substantive presentations and facilitated small group discussions. 

This three-day training targets new, direct supervisors of legal work (with 0-3 years of supervising experience). While this training event includes many general management elements, the content is geared toward managers supervising paralegals, staff attorneys, or pro bono attorneys who provide civil legal services to low-income communities and is aimed at current supervisors of legal work or those preparing to take on that role soon. Topics essential to a new manager's success will be covered, including employment law basics, individual and team dynamics, feedback and evaluation, time management, workplans, and more! 

LOCATION

Weber’s Boutique Hotel,

3050 Jackson Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan

EVENT DATES

Wednesday, August 12th, 2026 (beginning at 8:00 a.m.) to

Friday, August 14th, 2026 (ending by 12:00 p.m. ET)

CLE

CORT will apply for Ohio, West Virginia and Indiana CLE credits for this training.   

REGISTRATION FEES

As a CORT-sponsored event, there is no registration fee for CORT member programs from Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia, and Indiana.

HOTEL ROOMS AND MEALS

After registration closes and attendees are confirmed, more information will be provided about booking overnight rooms in the hotel room block. For planning purposes, the nightly group rate is $114, plus taxes, fees, and parking. CORT will also provide more details about meal costs associated with the training after the attendee list is confirmed.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: CORT has 32 seats reserved at this training for managers and supervisors from CORT programs. Registering does not guarantee acceptance into the training. After registration closes (on May 8th), CORT will work with each state/program to fairly allocate seats among the CORT member programs.

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Friday, May 8th, 2026

This workshop style training will bring together members of Ohio taskforces to strengthen systemic advocacy planning skills. While taskforces often identify important systemic problems affecting our clients, it can be difficult to move projects forward without a clear structure. Without defined goals, timelines, stakeholder strategies, and accountability mechanisms, promising ideas can lose momentum. The Racial Justice Taskforce is bringing this training forward to help groups with actionable advocacy initiatives through project management and strategic planning tools. The training will explore how systemic legal issues often sit at the intersection of poverty and race, and how structured advocacy planning can help advocates more effectively address these inequities.

The intent is for Taskforces to identify a group of members working on a particular advocacy project to attend the workshop together.

Prior to the workshop, each group will be asked to identify a systemic problem within its practice area to use during the training exercises. Participating groups may include representatives from the Community Economic Development, Consumer, Education, Employment, Family, Health & Public Benefits, Housing, Immigrant Advocacy, and Racial Justice Taskforces, their subcommittees, and other affinity groups, including those centered around Veterans, Tax Law, Court Access, and Medical-Legal Partnerships. 

Join us for sessions on Medicaid changes, social security work, administrative hearing skills, medical legal partnerships, and more! National and regional public benefits experts will join our CORT program experts to present on these topics.

Network with other legal aid advocates in the trenches working to secure benefits for our clients. The training is open to attorneys, paralegals, and other legal aid advocates working in the public benefits field. 

BLST is the first in CORT's curriculum of skills trainings for legal services attorneys. This training is aimed at those with less than 18 months' experience, and its focus is the practical day-to-day skills of lawyering in the context of legal services work. Law graduates are welcome to attend.