LevittQuinn Spring 2018 Newsletter

A Message from the Executive Director

Spring is a time when we celebrate change and growth, and this spring we at LevittQuinn have much to celebrate.

Last year our Board's Development & Advancement Committee led the effort to bring our organization's branding in line with our mission and goals. With support from Taproot Foundation and a team of talented and generous professionals who donated their time and skill, we refashioned our name and tagline, and got a beautiful new logo.

We welcomed Staff Attorney/Community Engagement Coordinator Kristie Whitehorse and Administrative Assistant Anastasia Finney to the LQ family. These two additions, as well as a recent Weingart Foundation grant of unrestricted funds, are instrumental in helping us to keep our engagement and education efforts moving forward.

FamTech LA 2018 is coming! Family law tech gurus Cari Pines and Kevin Mooney lead the faculty presenting a full day of can't-miss MCLE at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo. Get your tickets today - the early bird rate ends on May 24. Have a tech product that family law professionals need to know about? Then join FamTech as an event sponsor or sign up today to exhibit your tech related products or services.

This is an exciting time to be part of Team LevittQuinn. Come join us!

Brand Alignment

Despite earning a solid reputation over three decades of nonprofit work on behalf of our client communities, some potential stakeholders lacked interest in engaging with us because our branding evoked a private, for-profit law firm. Last year our Board of Directors, led by the Development & Advancement Committee, took on the challenge of addressing this concern. They put in many hours developing new messaging, amending our mission statement, and updating our tagline and name.

We are excited to share these changes with our friends and supporters:

Revised name: LevittQuinn Family Law Center.

We chose to retain most of the original name to continue to honor our founding mothers' legacy.

New tagline: Strong Families. Stable Communities.

New mission statement: LevittQuinn - a nonprofit family law center protecting children and standing with family members in crisis.

With these changes in place, Taproot Foundation played a critical role in helping us to complete the process, by means of a 2017 Visual Identity and Brand Strategy Service Grant. Taproot put together a talented Pro Bono Consultant team that helped us define our brand strategy and develop a new logo that better reflects our organizational values and mission.

New logo:

The Pro Bono Consultants spent many hours interviewing staff, board members, community partners, and funders about who we are as an organization and what we mean to the greater community. We wanted our new logo to reflect 4 key characteristics that came out of that inquiry:

1 . We are known for our hands-on and energetic advocacy that best benefits our client communities.

2 . We are a go-to partner and provider, especially for those hard-to-place cases.

3 . We offer flexible and quick response on a variety of family law matters.

4. Our experienced and hard-working staff is dedicated to the pursuit of the best family law solutions.

Board Development Committee Chair Cheryl Hoelting shared, "The new logo reflects our nonprofit mission of serving those without meaninfgul access to the legal system. I hope it speaks to an expanded audience who would understand that, largely, we are helping parents become heroes to their children."

We love the energy and joy that our new logo evokes. We chose the rich earth color to reflect hope, energy, and dependability.

We are very grateful to our Taproot Pro Bono Consultant Team Members, Account Director Teresa Scaleta, Project Manager Laura Kaiser, Marketing Manager Jennifer Prado, Brand Strategist John Allebrand, and Graphic Designer Michele Weisbart, for sharing so much of their time and talent with us. Thanks to Graphic Designer Vivian Liu for designing our new beautiful and energetic logo.

Welcoming the Newest Members of the LevittQuinn Team

Kristie Whitehorse joined LevittQuinn in March 2018 as a Staff Attorney/Community Engagement Coordinator. Prior to joining LQ, Kristie worked at the Family Violence Law Center in Oakland, first as the Managing Attorney and later as the Director of Programs.

Kristie has significant experience in legal program development, implementation, and oversight. She spent over a decade providing family law services to low-income clients and domestic violence survivors.

Kristie received her J.D. and undergraduate degrees from UC Berkeley.

Anastasia Finney came on board this month as our new Administrative Assistant. She is a recent graduate of Chapman University where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in English with a Literature, Rhetoric, and Cultural Studies Emphasis, as well as minors in Public Relations & the University Honors Program.

Anastasia gained valuable experience from volunteering at a nonprofit, working in events management, and interning at the Orange County Public Defender's Office. She is passionate about social justice and public interest law and is excited to learn and serve LevittQuinn's mission.

Weingart Foundation Helps Us Better Serve Our Client Communities

We are honored to announce a generous grant of unrestricted operating support from Weingart Foundation. Weingart Foundation's mission is "to build a better Southern California by supporting nonprofit organizations to more effectively serve the underserved." LevittQuinn's work aligns with this commitment to advancing socioeconomic equity by working to close the justice gap in LA County through the provision of quality and accessible legal services for poor and modest-means families.

Unrestricted operating support is critical to helping us advance our community engagement and outreach goals. Kristie Whitehorse, our new Community Engagement Coordinator, will lead our efforts. "In my role here at LevittQuinn," explained Kristie, "I will assess and evaluate our work, engage new partners in the community, and utilize technology to increase our impact."

Over the next two years, we will:

Overhaul our intake and community outreach in collaboration with Volunteer Coordinator Becky Miller to maximize volunteer engagement;
Use our data to identify and increase responsiveness to community needs;
Employ remote videoconference technology to connect staff and volunteers with clients from underserved areas;
Recruit partners in other disciplines willing to help our clients resolve ancillary issues that impact outcomes in family law matters, and, as needs are identified, develop future collaborations.

Our goal is to implement changes that help LevittQuinn be more nimble, accessible, and responsive.

The Family Law Tech Event You Have Been Waiting For!

You have never attended a family law training like this. Gather your tech questions, grab your staff, and head to DTLA for a full day of can’t-miss family law MCLE at FamTech LA 2018 .

Event faculty, led by Cari Pines and Kevin Mooney, will show you how to use and incorporate technology into your family law practice.

Earn general, CFLS, and ethics MCLE credits and enjoy an In-N-Out® burger as you learn how to:

Adapt pleadings for a digital court

Navigate the basics of e-filing

Use apps and hardware to present evidence

Improve your courtroom presentations with technology

Explore the top family law software and apps to help you make the most of your practice

Meet the FamTech Presenting Sponsors

OurFamilyWizard® proudly supports LevittQuinn in its mission to provide quality legal representation in family law matters to low-income families across Los Angeles County.

The OurFamilyWizard® web and mobile applications are built to empower successful, child-focused communication between parents in separate homes. Our objective is to provide the best possible tools for co-parents, regardless of income, to communicate and organize their lives. Since our inception, we have remained dedicated to providing free or discounted subscriptions to parents in financial need.

Soberlink is excited to support LevittQuinn and the critical role it plays in ensuring justice in family courts for thousands of poor and modest-means families each year throughout Los Angeles county.

Soberlink is the #1 remote, real-time alcohol monitoring system in Child Custody Cases. The system has two unique program levels that use facial recognition technology to confirm identity of the monitored parent. The identity confirmation along with the Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) are sent in real-time to the Concerned Party assuring a sober environment during parenting time.

Exhibitor and sponsorship opportunities still available!

Save the Date: 2018 Stand for Justice Gala

We hope you will join us in honoring Judge Mitchell Beckloff and Dinah Conyers Ruch at our 37th Annual Stand for Justice Gala on Saturday, September 22, 2018, at the Skirball Cultural Center.

Sponsorship and Tribute Journal ad opportunities are available now !