Pro Bono and Community Service Program
Preparing students for leadership in public and community service is an integral part of a Cleveland-Marshall education. Through our Pro Bono Program, students donate more than 9,000 hours a year of volunteer service.
Students work with the Legal Aid Society to assist clients at free legal advice clinics, they help establish juvenile diversion programs at a number of suburban courts, and they serve as coaches and advisors to high school students for the Cleveland Public Schools Mock Trial Competition. Over Spring Break 2006, 15 of students traveled to New Orleans to assist lawyers in aiding the poor and to assist the poor in rebuilding their homes. In Spring 2007 45 students received tax preparation training, were certified by the IRS to prepare tax returns for individuals with low incomes. As part of the Cuyahoga County Earned Income Tax Coalition they helped thousands of persons file their 2006 tax returns. Community service also includes building houses with Habitat for Humanity, preparing and serving lunch at a local soup kitchen, or planting a garden in the inner city of Cleveland.
These projects engage students in providing legal assistance to the poor and other under-represented groups, demonstrate the rewards of public service, and develop the habit of rendering pro bono service when students graduate and become lawyers.
Students and faculty are also involved in a revolutionary program run by the Cleveland Bar Association. In this program, teams of lawyers and law students teach civics classes to high school students in Cleveland and East Cleveland Public Schools. Over 70 students, faculty and staff participated in the 2006-07 inaugural year.
Students who volunteer a minimum of 40 hours a year (in the course of one or more placements) are recognized at the College of Law annual awards ceremony.
Through our clinics students also represent actual clients who cannot afford private representation. For example, our Urban Development Law Clinic provides legal advice to neighborhood and community-based non-profit organizations in Cleveland. The UDLC has been recognized by community and political leaders as an important part of the comprehensive effort to revitalize the urban core of our region.
In our Fair Housing Law Clinic, law students have the opportunity to assist homeowners and renters enforce their rights under a variety of federal, state and local laws. This Clinic, which operates out of the offices of a public-interest law firm, provides practical litigation experience to our students.
For more information please contact Pamela Daiker-Middaugh,Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Pro Bono Program, , LB 59c, 216-687-6878, pamela.daiker-middaugh@law.csuohio.edu.