Inside ALSP: History, Expansion and New Office Space

Recently, we sat down with the Adoption Legal Services Project (ALSP) Director Mike Wahlen to discuss his team’s journey over the last two years, which includes a significant expansion and a brand new office space.

Q: To start, can you give a brief history of the Adoption Legal Services Project (ALSP)?

A: ALSP began in 1996, thanks to the late State Supreme Court Justice Max Baer, who was then the Administrative Judge in the Family Division in Allegheny County. At the time, there was a huge backlog of children waiting to have their adoptions finalized. Justice Baer sat down with SWAN to create a program that could move these cases forward more efficiently.

Because the backlog was so large, he decided to use volunteer attorneys to finalize adoptions pro bono. Reed Smith even donated office space, phones, and computers after Justice Baer called their managing partner. That’s where ALSP started, and the project remained housed at Reed Smith through multiple moves downtown.

Over the years, we became known for handling termination of parental rights petitions (TPRs) and adoption finalizations, and ALSP ultimately became the foundation for what later expanded into the SWAN Legal Services Initiative (LSI) across the state.

Q: How did the recent expansion in Allegheny County come about?

A: Until 2023, Allegheny County had two offices doing TPR and adoption work. ALSP handled about 25% and the Adoption Legal Unit (ALU) did the rest.

The county ultimately decided they wanted a one-office model for consistency and efficiency. The state approved our expansion in October 2023 to bring the whole program under the management of the SWAN prime contract. This allowed ALSP to combine with ALU, taking on the full county workload and triggering the need for new positions.

Q: What were the biggest challenges during that transition?

A: Staffing was the first challenge — figuring out how many attorneys and paralegals we needed and how to divide the work between intake and contested teams.

The second thing was blending three groups of people: existing ALSP staff, staff from the former contractor, and brand-new hires. Many had never worked together, but some had worked together for years, and each group had its own procedures and culture.

Q: How did you bring everyone together?

A: We focused heavily on mission alignment. If everyone understands the purpose, serving families and expediting permanency, the details become easier.

Attending the All-Staff Meeting and the Child Welfare Legal Overview sessions led by the SWAN legal services training team was helpful, too, because it gave everyone time in the same room to collaborate. In addition to learning together, everybody was able to go out to dinner, sit at the same table, and literally share and break bread together.

Q: Did the expansion change your day-to-day operations?

A: Well, the biggest thing is scale. We went from doing some of the TPRs to all of them. And we had to figure out how to do that as one team. What we’ve seen now, over two years, is that our client, which is the county, is very happy with the change.

We also changed our work structure: attorneys primarily work from home, and paralegals follow a hybrid model. That brings us in line with how SWAN LSI operates in the region.

Q: What benefits has the county seen from the one-office model?

A: Consistency – before, they had two offices with different ways of doing things, and so the county had two sets of rules to follow. They also don’t have to guess which office to contact when something comes up. Now it’s a one-stop shop. We also make an effort to attend county staff meetings so we can stay connected, troubleshooting issues early, and keep communication open.

Q: What has staff feedback been like about the new office space?

A: They love it. The new space really feels like this makes the expansion official. It’s much more accessible. No more stairs just to get into the office or use the restroom. It’s open, bright, and not the maze that our old office was. And the biggest win: we finally have a real kitchen and Wi-Fi!

Before we moved in, people would walk through the empty floor and pick their cubicles because they were so excited. The layout fits us perfectly — space for the paralegals and our legal secretary, with room for attorneys to drop in as needed.

Q: Anything else you want to share about where ALSP is today?

A: We’re about two years into expansion, and the team is operating well. We’re consistently meeting our benchmarks as far as achieving timely permanency outcomes. We watch our numbers closely — kids in care, permanency referrals, and monthly case volume — so we can stay ahead of staffing needs. The new office kind of feels like a capstone on the completed expansion.  So, we’re well-positioned to keep expediting permanency for Allegheny County children and families.

Photos from the new ALSP office showing off the city views, the dedicated staff, the new kitchen, and team bonding during the holidays.