The American Bar Association (ABA) Health Law Section and the Cancer Legal Resource Center (CLRC) have partnered to further their shared breast cancer legal advocacy goals. The Breast Cancer Interest Group is the ABA Health Law Section's premier pro bono effort. Since its inception in1993, the ABA’s Breast Cancer Initiatives has provided information and education on a wide range of legal issues related to women's health, and provided extensive resources to lawyers and consumers dealing with breast cancer. In 2008, the ABA Health Law Section assumed responsibility for this project , from the ABA Commission on Women, and since then has sponsored several Breast Cancer Legal Advocacy Workshops, authored a comprehensive training toolkit, updated the Breast CancerLegal Advocacy Training Guide, and initiated a project to assemble and host an online library of attorney breast cancer survivor stories.
The Cancer Legal Resource Center (CLRC), a program of the Disability Rights Legal Center, provides information and education about cancer-related legal issues to the public through its national telephone assistance line. The CLRC also conducts national education and outreach programs for community groups, employers and healthcare professionals and is actively involved in community activities to raise public awareness of cancer-related legal and public policy issues.
The CLRC is committed to providing information and resources on cancer-related legal issues to health care professionals, including physicians, nurses, social workers, psychosocial care providers, physicians assistants, patient navigators, patient advocates, and community health advocates. Ultimately, our goal is to train health care professionals to identify cancer-related legal issues and legal barriers to health care and provide health care professionals with resources to assist their patients navigate through cancer-related legal issues and provide appropriate referrals, which we believe will improve the quality of life of cancer survivors and caregivers.
To contact the CLRC's National Telephone Assistance Line, please call (866) THE-CLRC or visit clrcintake.org. For information about how to join the CLRC's Professional Panel of attorneys, visit: https://thedrlc.org/cancer/about/clrc-professional-panel/
Through offering comprehensive breast cancer legal advocacy training and an opportunity to join the CLRC’s Professional Panel, the ABA andthe CLRC partnership connects attorneys who have been trained with those in need of counsel.
The project is the first of many other opportunities being pursued by these two outstanding organizations. Please consider participating in this worthwhile initiative!