Holistic Advocacy: Navigating Direct Service Work with a Focus on Clients and Advocates as Whole People

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Providing high quality direct legal services in a fast-paced environment can be challenging. This presentation aims to identify challenges specific to legal service providers working with immigrant and/or low-wage workers. We will discuss the following challenges and share ethical approaches to: managing expectations, meaningful language access, and respectful client storytelling. The second half of this training will focus on providing ethical advocacy in a way that is sustainable for the advocates themselves. We will explore what it means to support staff with lived experience, define moral injury, discuss what meaningful collaboration with colleagues looks like, and create intentional, safe spaces for staff to regularly discuss emotionally challenging cases.

List specific strategies for managing expectations and incorporating language access in communications with prospective and current clients.
Identify why staff with lived experience are an important part of ethical representation and learn about ways to support colleagues with lived experience.
List strategies to share client stories ethically and respectfully.
Define moral injury and consider its impact on direct service providers.

Pretty Martinez, Esq.

Staff Attorney

Justice at Work (PA)

Pretty Martinez is a staff attorney with the employment unit at Justice at Work. There she works with low wage immigrant workers across the state of Pennsylvania on cases including wage theft, sick leave, discrimination, and deferred action for labor employment. She represents clients in complaints with agencies including the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, OSHA, PA Department of Labor and Industry, PHRC, and the Philadelphia Office of Worker Protections. Prior to joining JAW, Pretty was an immigration attorney with Nationalities Service Center providing pro bono representation to indigent clients in a wide variety of cases. Pretty received her B.A. in Philosophy from Cornell University and her J.D. from Temple Beasley School of Law. She is a member of the Pennsylvania bar, National Employment Lawyers Association, and the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. Pretty lives in Philly with her cat, Castiel, where they listen to podcasts and eat lots of cheese.