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Staff
Rosemary
French, President, practiced law with the Legal Aid Foundation of
Los Angeles and taught at Loyola Law School before turning to training
as a fulltime career. She worked in the Legal Services Corporation,
Office of Program Support in the late 1970's designing, developing and
providing training to legal services people across the country. She
served as director of the Western Center on Law & Poverty Regional
Training Center for three years before founding Benchmark Institute in
1989.
Marie Contreras,
Deputy Director, held supervisory and management positions in local
government for over twenty years. A Benchmark founder, she has shared
her management expertise with nonprofit organizations for several
years doing training and facilitating program-wide retreats. She has
extensive experience in developing teams through training and in the
workplace. She has worked with boards of directors, commissions and
numerous community groups.
Faculty
Culturally diverse faculties are drawn from legal services and public
interest law firms across the country. Faculty members combine subject
matter expertise and expert advocacy or leadership skills with
outstanding teaching ability. Powerful role models during the training,
many continue their relationships with participants serving as mentors
and resources.
Training
and Organizational Development Services
Benchmark Institute provides Core Skills Programs in Legal Skills and
Leadership, Substantive Law Training and Organizational Development
Consulting.
Core Skills Programs: Legal Skills and Leadership
The Core Skill Programs are rooted in the idea that people must have
certain skills and knowledge to be competent in their work. The Core
Programs provide a basic training plan for achieving an acceptable level
of competence. The training events in each Core Program are set out on the
next page.
Required training courses are designed to insure that each participant
obtains the critical knowledge and skills necessary to be an effective
client, lawyer, leader, legal assistant or paralegal in a legal services or
public interest law firm. Electives enable participants to individualize
their training to focus on their unique career goals.
Each Core Skills Program will become a certificate program when all
the training events within a Program have been developed. Participants
may earn a certificate when they complete required and selected
elective trainings and pass a hands-on proficiency examination.
Substantive Law Training
In partnership with substantive law experts, Benchmark has designed
substantive law training in Family, Housing and Public Benefits. These
trainings are the beginning of Core Programs in these substantive areas. As
with the Core Skills Programs, each Substantive Core Program will be
designed to help people achieve the knowledge and skills necessary for
competent practice in that area.
For example, Benchmark has completed three trainings in the Family
Law Core Program. The first training is an overview of the major
institutions and legal issues that arise in representing poor people
in family law matters. The second training focuses on key issues in
dissolutions and completing basic forms; the third deals with
obtaining effective custody and visitation orders. Upon completing
these and additional trainings to be developed, a person should meet
basic competency standards for family law practice.
Organizational Development Services
Public interest organizations that put their values into action with
their own staff very likely provide quality client service as well.
Benchmark believes that helping these organizations become proficient in
leadership and interpersonal skills also helps improve service to clients.
Toward
that end, we provide consulting services that strengthen the
organization. These services include training design and facilitation in
areas such as communication, team building, valuing diversity, and strategic
planning. We also facilitate retreats for governing boards and staff.
Clients
Required:
College of Advocacy
Governing Boards: Keys to Quality Legal Services
Multiple Advocacy Strategies*
Training of Trainers
Leadership
Electives:
Administrative Representation
Intake, Information & Referral Systems
Justice & Diversity: A Client's Perspective
Multilingual Advocacy*
Writing Laboratory
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