Talk Justice, an LSC Podcast: Unlocking the Power of Medical-Legal Partnerships

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WASHINGTON— A doctor and lawyer discuss the success of medical-legal partnerships (MLPs) on LSC’s “Talk Justice” podcast, released today. Host Lee Rawles is joined by Dr. Stan Sonu, the Medical Director of Child Advocacy for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and part of Atlanta Legal Aid’s Health-Law Partnership, and Rakuya Trice, Deputy Director and Director of Medical-Legal Partnership at Indiana Legal Services.

Sonu and Trice discuss how MLPs support communities, improve patient outcomes and help to alleviate the burden on the health system. MLPs promote a holistic approach to healthcare by allowing medical and legal professionals to collaborate and address the root causes of health problems that have legal solutions.

“A physician cannot do it all on their own, just like a lawyer cannot do it all on their own,” says Sonu. “We need both people to be in a team-oriented setting to be able to navigate the complexities of our social system.”

Indiana Legal Services has been participating in MLPs for about 20 years and currently provides legal services for 11 different healthcare partners around the state. These healthcare providers have stuck with the programs because of the benefits they have seen.

“Because of having an MLP, it has been a savings to their organization, [and] they've told us that it has improved patient outcomes,” says Trice. “They've also told us that the MLP has reduced the time that their staff are spending on matters other than providing health treatment to patients.”

In the episode, Trice and Sonu also share patient success stories. Trice describes how an attorney helped a family facing eviction to seal their eviction record, which enabled them to find housing before winter began. The MLP’s intervention not only prevented the negative health effects associated with homelessness, but it also helped stabilize this family for the future.

“We're not just helping that individual with their case that day,” says Trice. “All of us working together and taking that holistic approach, we really do have the ability to have long-term generational impact on our clients and their families.”

Sonu shares how Atlanta Legal Aid’s Health-Law Partnership worked to correct Medicaid’s denial of a critical bone marrow transplant for a child with sickle cell anemia. The child’s doctor tried multiple times to appeal the denial but made no progress until an MLP attorney intervened. The transplant cured the child’s condition, which otherwise would have brought her back to the hospital again and again for costly emergency care, medications, imaging, blood tests and more.

“We have avoided all of that in her future, and that absolutely translates to tens of millions—perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars—saved that would actually burden the health system and the insurance payers,” Sonu says.

On the heels of the White House’s proposal to defund LSC, and as Congress considers LSC’s funding in the federal budget for FY 2026, Sonu explains his concerns as a physician who has seen first-hand the impact of legal services for families in his community.

“The ripple effect of cutting back on funding for LSC is going to mean more families are going to be sick, and their children are going to be sicker, because families will not have access to these legal services that absolutely have an impact on health and the development of children,” Sonu says.

Talk Justice episodes are available online and on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Podcasts. The podcast is sponsored by LSC’s Leaders Council.