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A legal incubator that's trained 20 attorneys in two years to represent low- and middle-income Texans is expanding to double or triple the number of lawyers in its program.

The Texas Opportunity and Justice Incubator, a program of the State Bar of Texas meant to help close the justice gap in which most people can't afford to hire attorneys, is also untethering itself from its physical location in Austin. It's extending its online reach and going virtual so that lawyers from across the Lone Star State can participate in its business, technology and marketing education curriculum.

Applications for the expanded program are due by Oct. 21, and the lawyers who are accepted will begin their training in January 2020.

Anne-Marie Rábago director of the Texas Opportunity & Justice Incubator (Courtesy photo)

Texas Lawyer spoke with incubator director Anne-Marie Rábago about the program expansion. Here are her answers, edited for brevity and clarity.

From what I understand, the incubator is going virtual by adding an online learning component. What's this all about?

As we move forward with providing the services, resources and training to lawyers here in central Texas, we were increasingly getting applicants from other parts of the state and having to say, "Are you able to move?" Lots of folks say, "No, I can't move. I have my family and my community." That is understandable.

Something we've seen with the incubator movements all across the country is the space component of providing the lawyers an office in which to work is not something they make use of.

We initially moved from providing all the lawyers with a dedicated desk to a model used by lots of large companies across the country called hoteling or hot desks. You didn't have your own desk, but had a desk if you came in the office. Over the last several months, we watched usage, and the numbers kept going down, because the lawyers want to work where the lawyers want to work. That seems like something appealing to the next generation coming into our ranks.

That created a perfect storm of lets look what we can do if we do away with the space offering and instead make this a program delivered online virtually.

Will you accept more people into the program?

Yes, it's part of the plan. We're going to change from an 18-month model to a 12-month model and recruit one cohort per year. We are looking now for 20 to 30 lawyers across the state who will come into this program in January.

How are you changing your requirement of how much experience that a lawyer should have to enter the program?

We used to market the program to folks with zero to five years of licensure. That was another point that folks would ask us about: "Why are you only allowing new lawyers to be in this program?" We heard that and at this point are targeting our e-blasts and marketing to lawyers with zero to 10 years of licensure. We are willing to accept anyone with a desire to build a law practice aligned with our mission.

What is your advice for making an application that rises to the top and wins admission?

We really are looking for what I'd label the entrepreneurial spirit: the true desire to build a business and an understanding of what that's going to take by someone from a personal and professional standpoint. They need an idea of why they want to serve, and how they want to serve those clients, and some sense of what that is going to take. It really is a lot of hard work and dedication that you're investing in yourself because you're building something that is yours. We look for the folks who have that roll-up-your-sleeves and get-to-work sensibility.