Legal Support Services
Previously known as “Criminal Defense Support Services”
Aiding attorneys in zealous representation since 2015.
Our Legal Support Services (LSS) offers Oregon defense attorneys a one-stop shop for all their case support needs. We offer investigation, document management, paralegal, witness preparation, and mitigation services from the trial level all the way through appeals, release, and re-entry. We can help with the smallest misdemeanor case to the most serious felony.
We provide the following resources to public defenders in Oregon. Most of these services can be billed to the Office of Public Defense Services through the NRE process.
Need assistance? Complete our intake form to request services from Legal Support Services or contact Allyx Pershing at [email protected] directly for more information. Information shared with the OJRC LSS will be kept confidential.
Intake
Employment opportunities
Interested in working for OJRC Legal Support Services? Please complete the form below. Legal Support Services prioritizes second chance employment opportunities with our document management team. The Oregon Justice Resource Center is an equal opportunity employer. We strongly encourage formerly incarcerated people, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, immigrants, LGBTQQIAAP people, parents, and people with disabilities to apply. Any/all information shared with the OJRC LSS will be kept confidential and not shared with any third party.
Allyx Pershing
Manager, Legal Support Services
[email protected]
Allyx Pershing is a licensed investigator and has been working on criminal defense cases for over five years. She started this work while studying journalism at the University of Oregon, from where she graduated in 2016. Allyx started working for Criminal Defense Support Services in 2016 and has assisted on a variety of cases. In addition to being an investigator, Allyx is now the manager of OJRC Legal Support Services.
Allyx grew up in Oregon and is passionate about the rights of the people in her community. Allyx has lived her life with empathy and has carried that into defending those caught in the legal system. She believes that compassion is vital to not only interacting with the world, but also in the work she does.
Background
In 2015, Conrad Engweiler and Althea Seloover met over their shared passion for juvenile justice reform, specifically for helping youth treated as adults in our criminal legal system. In August of that year, Conrad and Althea founded Criminal Paralegal Services which quickly became Criminal Defense Support Services, LLC (CDSS). CDSS offered document and team management, investigation, mitigation, victim outreach, as well as paralegal services. Althea and Conrad shared a vision to provide a one-stop shop for small defense firms and solo attorneys to get their case support needs met.
In 2017, Trevor Walraven came on board as the document management department head and joined Althea and Conrad in efforts to attend to the needs of those youths who had been prosecuted in the adult system. As they built out the document management department, they prioritized hiring people with lived experience of the justice system. They found that not only were they able to cultivate a supportive community within the company, the company also benefited from the team members’ knowledge of the system.
The following year, Trevor, Althea and Conrad officially partnered with us at OJRC to start the Youth Justice Project (YJP), while continuing to work full time at CDSS. Earlier this year, we were able to obtain funding to support their full time work with YJP. CDSS has now merged with the OJRC to form OJRC Legal Support Services. OJRC Legal Support Services will continue to build on the values and vision of CDSS in offering essential support and expertise to public defenders across the state and, most importantly, in committing to second chance employment opportunities for those returning to the community after incarceration.