Connie Kratovil-Lavelle, JD, Senior Legal Advisor, is building and expanding the SAFE Center’s pro-bono and low-bono attorney networks to seamlessly connect our clients to attorneys when our clients have family law, landlord/tenant, criminal justice, labor and employment, and legal issues other than or in addition to immigration. An attorney, collaborative law practitioner, and mediator, Connie has 20 years of experience developing and managing legal service programs for non-profits. She established a legal service and social justice organization that promotes the peaceful resolution of conflicts through collaborative law and other forms of alternative dispute resolution, provides pro bono and reduced fee legal services to persons of low and moderate income, and offers restorative justice services. Prior, Connie served for 10 years as executive director of the Department of Family Administration within the Maryland’s Judiciary Administrative Office of the Courts in Annapolis. Her work included developing policy and programs promoting best practices in family law cases, promoting family court reform in the State; managing all Judiciary domestic violence programs and projects; and developing programs that expand the use of alternative dispute resolution in domestic and juvenile cases. Connie developed the first collaborative law program on-site in the Maryland courts for family law and probate cases, called the Expedited Collaborative Process. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the Maryland Legal Services Corporation Award for improving the civil legal services delivery system in Maryland; Maryland Access to Justice award for developing programs within the Maryland Judiciary; the Women’s Law Center of Maryland Access to Justice award, Civil Justice of Maryland award for developing a reduced fee legal service program, and the Daily Record’s Maryland’s Top 100 Women.