Welcome to Paladin! We’re so thrilled you’re here.
Paladin’s tools for legal service organizations enable you to create, share, and manage pro bono opportunities and volunteer engagement in one centralized place. This guide is designed to help you understand how to manage volunteers who express interest through the platform, including:
What happens when an attorney “expresses interest” in an opportunity.
Communicating with interested volunteers.
“Placing” an opportunity via Paladin.
Clinics and event registrations via Paladin.
Top Tips! Keep in mind these key insights to help get the most out of Paladin’s tools:
Ensure your opportunities are up to date and current. This will mean that potential volunteers are only expressing interest in available opportunities.
Keep an eye out for notification emails connecting you with interested volunteers. If they aren’t the right fit, or the opportunity they’re interested in is no longer available, be sure to see if there’s another matter they might be interested in.
Use Paladin to manage your clinics, trainings, or other even based opportunities. You can download registration information, set limits to the number of volunteer sign ups, and recruit for multiple dates or times using the same entry.
“Interest Expressed” in Paladin
The first step in taking on a matter through Paladin is for a volunteer to click “Express interest” on an opportunity page. What happens next?
When a volunteer expresses interest, the contact person listed on the opportunity will receive an email introduction connecting them with the volunteer. In addition, the Pro Bono Admins will be copied on the volunteer introduction email to support, as needed.
When the expression of interest is made by a user at a firm or corporate in-house team using Paladin, the volunteer's information is automatically logged in Paladin for the referring LSO and the volunteer's pro bono team.
When the expression of interest is made by a user without a Paladin account (because, for example, you have used the Public Opportunity List or published an opportunity to a Statewide Public Portal) they will be prompted to complete the form below. This information is included in the email introduction.
All interest expressed will be recorded on the opportunity listing in your Paladin dashboard. You will also notice that the opportunity will automatically copy from the “Recruiting” tab to the “Interest Expressed” tab on your dashboard.
You can review and keep track of potential volunteers in your Paladin dashboard. Click on the opportunity title, and then select “Volunteer Management” to review volunteer interest. You will see the contact date, volunteer name, volunteer email, and the source (for example, the name of the volunteer's law firm), and location of the volunteer. This information can be downloaded into a spreadsheet, as well.
Once the connection has been made via the introduction email, you can work directly with the potential volunteer. Any conflicts checks, training, engagement letters, or additional screening steps will happen off Paladin, according to your existing process.
The opportunity will remain available for other volunteers to express interest (or sign up) unless and until you “stop recruiting” or the expiration date on the opportunity is reached. Whether or not you continue to keep the opportunity available while the matter is under review is subject to your own preferences. More than one volunteer can express interest in a matter. Firms and corporate in-house teams do not have access to or insights into who else (outside of their own firm) may have expressed interest in a matter you referred.
If at any point you need to communicate with one or more volunteers who expressed interest in an opportunity, you can do that directly from the opportunity listing, as well. To begin, click on the opportunity and scroll to the bottom of the page to view the list of volunteers. Next, select one or more volunteers and click the "Email" button.
A new email box will pop up with your email address in the "To" field. The selected volunteers will be BCC'd. From here, just compose your message and send! Because your email address is in the "To" field, you will receive a copy for your records.
After you have connected with the volunteer and completed any initial screening needed, click the "Initiate Conflict Check" button. This will open a message box where you can enter the client (and, if applicable, adverse party) information and send it to the prospective volunteer. The volunteer will receive an email alert, and will be prompted to confirm whether or not conflicts are cleared.
Once all of the relevant steps have been completed, and you have confirmed the volunteer is able to take on the opportunity, you can “Place” the volunteer on Paladin. This will move the volunteer record from "Interest Expressed" to "Placed," and will send an email notification to the volunteer. (You may also select to have the volunteer automatically Placed once they indicate that conflicts have cleared.)
Remember! Ensure your opportunities are up to date and current. This will mean that potential volunteers are only expressing interest in available opportunities. For more information, or to schedule a time to discuss how Paladin's tools can help your organization, contact [email protected].