Closing the Digital Gap – How Ensuring Access to Justice Isn’t Just for Attorneys
October 29, 2025
Authored by: Taylor Tufano and Eric W. Hughes
Taylor is the Senior Digital Strategist at 9Sail. Eric is the Director of Communications at Volunteer Lawyers for Justice.
Taylor Tufano / Connect with Taylor on LinkedIn
Eric W. Hughes / Connect with Eric on LinkedIn
Understanding National Celebration of Pro Bono (“Pro Bono Week”)
As October draws to a close, and with Volunteer Lawyers for Justice (VLJ) having just celebrated National Celebration of Pro Bono, we thought it would be a good time to provide insight into what the celebration is all about.
Informally called “Pro Bono Week,” the American Bar Association’s Center for Pro Bono launched the National Celebration of Pro Bono in 2009 due to the growing need for civil legal services during challenging economic times and the unprecedented response of pro bono attorneys in meeting this demand. Every October since, legal organizations across the United States like VLJ participate in Pro Bono Week to spotlight the need for pro bono civil legal services while recognizing those who give their time and talent year round.
Speaking of the need for pro bono civil legal services, according to the Legal Services Corporation's 2022 The Justice Gap report, nearly 3 in 4 U.S. households experiencing poverty had one or more civil legal issues in the past year. Worse, those households did not receive enough legal help for 92% of the problems that substantially impacted them. This unsettling reality is made worse by the fact that generally, there is no constitutional right to an attorney in civil (non-criminal) cases. That means families facing eviction, community members seeking second chances through criminal record expungement, and veterans trying to access the benefits they earned have no guaranteed legal advocate in their corner.
As a legal services organization whose free civil legal services are provided in part by pro bono (volunteer) attorneys, it shouldn’t be a surprise VLJ enjoys celebrating Pro Bono Week and the people and partners who help make access to justice in New Jersey a reality.
With the country and legal profession regularly celebrate Pro Bono Week, this raises a question: is pro bono only for attorneys? The resounding answer is no. Pro bono is for everyone, and there are many professional skills that can amplify the efforts of organizations like VLJ. One skill in particular—digital strategy.
What is Digital Strategy and Why Is It Important For Pro Bono Organizations?
A digital strategy is a plan for how a business will use digital technologies to achieve its goals, such as improving operations and driving growth. It encompasses:
Digital Presence: Website (search engine optimization), social media, and online platforms
Technology Infrastructure: Systems for managing operations, data, and communications
Digital Communications: How you reach and engage people online
Data and Analytics: Using insights to inform decisions and measure impact, such as those from Google Analytics
Digital strategy is about intentionally aligning digital capabilities with organizational objectives to maximize impact and efficiency.
For pro bono organizations specifically, digital strategy directly impacts your ability to fulfill your mission of ensuring access to justice in a few different ways:
Breaking Down Barriers to Access – Many people facing legal issues can't take time off work to visit an office during business hours, or even lack transportation. This barrier is even more prominent in rural areas lacking public transportation and quality, stable internet access.
Reaching Underserved Communities – Strategic use of digital channels helps you connect with communities that traditionally face barriers to legal services. For example, non-English speakers, people with disabilities, and those who may not know that legal help exists.
Maximizing Limited Resources – Pro bono organizations typically operate with constrained budgets and rely heavily on volunteers. Having a comprehensive digital strategy helps you work smarter and more efficiently to serve the most people possible.
Demonstrating Impact – Funders and supporters increasingly expect data-driven evidence of impact. A thoughtful digital strategy includes systems for tracking outcomes, telling compelling stories, and showing how donations translate to justice served.
Meeting People Where They Are – Most people now search for help online first. Without a strong digital presence and strategy, you're invisible to those who need you most.
Amplifying Volunteer Capacity – Having a strong digital presence can help recruit and support pro bono attorneys and volunteers more effectively, multiplying your organization's capacity to serve.
True access to justice requires legal services that fit seamlessly into modern life, not systems that create additional barriers. A well-executed digital strategy isn't a luxury for pro bono organizations; it's a fundamental tool for fulfilling the promise that legal help should be available to all, not just those with resources, time, and proximity to traditional legal services.
Bridging the Digital Gap for Legal Aid Organizations
While VLJ has a strong staff with deep experience in a broad range of civil legal services, administration and management, development, and communications, we still are a small organization (presently 24 staff members), meaning even with our collective decades of experience, gaps exist. One such gap concerns all things digital, namely VLJ’s presence online, be it socials, website, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Generative Engine Optimization (GEO or more specifically, AI-driven results), and similar. In short, these mediums are how many of VLJ’s new clients, volunteers, and donors find the organization, making bridging the digital gap an important long-term effort.
As mentioned, VLJ has a small (and mighty!) team of dedicated staff, but even they can’t (and shouldn’t) do everything (Eric is making a personal note to remember that for his ambitious communications plans). Since we are a volunteer-powered organization, it makes sense to not limit our volunteerism to only attorneys or even legal paraprofessionals. While legal professionals are a critical part of empowering VLJ’s mission (ensuring access to justice for people experiencing poverty), there are many professionals in the digital space who can help VLJ not only bridge the digital gap, but build a strong foundation for continued growth and reach.
One such example is Taylor Tufano and her colleagues at 9Sail. While in the legal space, 9Sail isn’t itself a law firm, yet the digital marketing services they provide to law firms drive optimization for increased visibility and success. This same service, be it retooling VLJ’s website to ensure its SEO (and now GEO) approach maximizes reach, finetuning VLJ’s Google Ads, or providing mentorship on best practices, has not only made a difference in where and how often VLJ is seen online, it has transformed VLJ’s communications, taking a time-intensive and high-priority item off their VLJ’s in-house plate. The result, capacity to work on other priority items such as narrative storytelling, staff development, and volunteer recruitment.
Lessons for Other Legal Nonprofits and Why Digital Matters Now
The landscape for legal services is transforming rapidly. Artificial intelligence and generative AI tools are reshaping how people seek information and access services.
This shift presents both a challenge and an opportunity for legal nonprofits. Organizations that meet people in these digital spaces—with accessible websites, clear information, and streamlined online services—will reach those who need help. Those that don't risk becoming invisible to the very communities they serve.
For the past few years, VLJ has partnered with 9Sail to strengthen its digital presence and ensure that New Jerseyans searching for pro bono legal help can find VLJ's services. The results demonstrate what's possible when legal nonprofits strategically think about and implement a digital strategy.
The partnership has been a focused effort to improve VLJ's visibility within search engines, ensuring that when someone in Essex County, New Jersey searches for help with housing issues, family law matters, or other civil legal problems, VLJ appears in their results.
The numbers tell a compelling story. Comparing the past three months (mid-July to mid-October) of this year to the same period last year:
Clicks increased by 65%: from 7,370 to 12,200 people actually visiting VLJ's website
Impressions grew by 146%: from 414,000 to 1.02 million times VLJ appeared in search results
Each click represents someone in need finding a potential pathway to legal help and each impression is an opportunity to reach someone who might not have known VLJ existed.
A key component of the strategy has been implementing an evergreen blogging approach with the creation of our blog, Pro Bono: From Passion to Practice. VLJ now creates content that answers the questions people are actually searching for.
This content continues to work 24/7, reaching people at the moment they're looking for answers, which can often be late at night or on weekends when traditional offices are closed. It serves both as immediate guidance and as a gateway to VLJ's more comprehensive pro bono services.
The VLJ/9Sail partnership offers several takeaways for other organizations:
Digital Visibility is Access to Justice – If people can't find you online, you might as well not exist for the majority of those seeking help today. SEO isn't marketing jargon—it's a core access to justice strategy.
Content is Still King – Well-crafted, searchable content extends your reach exponentially. One blog post can serve hundreds or thousands of people who need basic information before they're ready to request direct assistance.
Measurement Matters – Tracking clicks, impressions, and search performance provides concrete evidence of impact and helps refine strategy over time. Digital allows you to see what's working in ways traditional outreach never could.
Strategic Partnerships Work – Not every legal nonprofit needs in-house digital expertise. VLJ's partnership model demonstrates that sustained collaboration with digital specialists can produce transformative results.
Patience and Consistency Pay Off – Digital strategy isn't a quick fix. VLJ's dramatic growth came through years of consistent effort, regular content creation, and ongoing optimization.
VLJ's experience shows that with the right partnership and strategy, even organizations with limited resources can dramatically expand their ability to connect people with justice.
You Don’t Have to Be an Attorney to Make a Difference in Ensuring Access to Justice
When it comes to providing civil legal services, having a law degree and bar license are often a requirement. However, when looking at the broader picture of ensuring access to justice, you don’t always need to be an attorney (and sometimes, it helps if you’re not!).
Whether it’s a legal paraprofessional in a bankruptcy clinic or a Spanish-speaking interpreter from one of VLJ’s pro bono partners, there are many skills that VLJ needs but doesn’t have in house (or has limited capacity). Indeed, taking Taylor and her team at 9Sail as an example, they aren’t attorneys, yet their volunteerism has a profound impact on those who need VLJ’s services, want to volunteer with the organization, or wish to fund our work. Their efforts, like those of VLJ’s growing community of non-attorney volunteers, speak to the collective power of “teamwork makes the dream work.” By leveraging their skills and experience, non-attorney volunteers play an important role at VLJ: bridging gaps and empowering clients. Talk about a powerful win-win for a fairer, more just New Jersey.
If you’re a non-attorney with skills you think might benefit a local legal services nonprofit, reach out to them. Sometimes, those organizations might not even know they need your help. And if it takes someone on the “inside” to help make the pitch, send Eric a note. Who knows, your next fulfilling volunteer opportunity may be only a few clicks away.
Interested in volunteering with VLJ? Then please review this webpage for next steps.
Many thanks go to 9Sail for its continued support and partnership! Their generous donation of time and talent has dramatically improved VLJ’s communications efforts, saving the organization countless hours and dollars while empowering VLJ’s mission of ensuring access to justice for people experiencing poverty.