Consistent support and strategic investment in technology infrastructure improves productivity and morale

Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless is a steadfast advocate for the homeless people of Washington, DC, and a long-time anchor for the city’s legal services community. They accomplish this with a limited budget by recruiting, training and managing a network of 200 lawyers from law firms, associations, and government agencies who provide legal services pro bono. In 2007, the Legal Clinic staff and volunteers opened 1,367 cases and generously donated over $3.3 million in pro bono legal services to their clients.

Like many outstanding mission driven organizations, the Legal Clinic focused on keeping operating expenses as low as possible and put its resources into delivering services to the community. This was especially true when it came to technology – the Legal Clinic relied on donated hardware and called on volunteers to maintain its network. In its early days, the Legal Clinic used donated computers and had a single server that was too slow to effectively run their client database. However, the Legal Clinic’s thriftiness came at a price – network outages, staff downtime, and considerable user frustration.

NPower Greater DC Region originally partnered with the Legal Clinic to provide onsite support and make periodic network upgrades. Later, the Legal Clinic commissioned NPower to do a comprehensive technology assessment which became the basis of a successful grant request to the Phillip L. Graham Fund. The grant made it possible to overhaul the Legal Clinic’s technology and upgrade to new workstations and servers. With NPower’s guidance, the Legal Clinic enhanced their internet connection from DSL to T1. The faster internet access has given them the ability to establish remote access to their server for staff and volunteers. The Legal Clinic also purchased three laptops so staff can work off site without having to use their personal computer equipment.

Finally, to keep all systems working efficiently, NPower established an on-line technical support portal using NPower’s NPower ON! solution – a remote technology solution that can identify and resolve tech problems with little or no involvement from the Legal Clinic’s staff or the added expense of having an NPower consultant visit their site.

New computers, a faster internet connection, and remote access have sent staff productivity and morale soaring at the Legal Clinic. “The most important thing better technology has done for us is improve morale,” says Administrator Leslie Plant. “When things aren’t crashing, work gets done in a timely way and people are happy!”

“Having better technology allows us to work more efficiently,” confirms Executive Director, Patricia Mullahy Fugere. “We work with 200 attorney volunteers and our new technology keeps us apprised of what’s going on with every case.”

“Also, the ability to access all client files and office resources remotely has been a huge gift for staff,” says Fugere. “Ultimately what this means is our clients are getting better representation."