The Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law
The Ohio State University
Michael E. Moritz College of Law
55 West 12th Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210
www.moritzlaw.osu.edu
Law School Pro Bono Programs
Contact Information
Cybele E. SmithDir. of Public Service and Pub. Interest Programs
614-292-7707
Pamela Lombardi
Asst. Dean of Career Services
lombardi.2@osu.edu
614-292-8814
Category Type
Formal Voluntary Program Characterized by Administrative Support for Student Group Projects
Description of Program
The Public Service Fellow Program at Moritz College of Law recognizes students who volunteer legal service to a non-profit (501)(c)(3) organization or to a governmental agency. Fellows will be recognized at the Honors Convocation, which precedes the Hooding Ceremony, and the PSF designation will be added to student fellows' transcripts. There are four levels of distinction:
- The Public Service Fellow will be given to students who accumulate between 50 and 149 hours of volunteer legal service.
- The Public Service Fellow with Recognition will be given to students who accumulate between 150 and 249 hours of volunteer legal service.
- The Public Service Fellow with Dean's Special Recognition will be given to students who accumulate between 250 and 449 hours of volunteer legal service.
- The Public Service Fellow with the Dean's Highest Honors will be given to students who accumulate 450 or more hours of volunteer legal service.
Location of Program
Career Services
Staffing/Management/Oversight
The Director of Public Service and Public Interest Programs is housed in Career Services and reports to the Assistant Dean of Career Services. The Director administers the Public Service Fellow Program and advises students who are interested in public interest and government sector jobs, honors programs, and fellowships.
Funding
Student Run Pro Bono Groups/Specialized Law Education Projects
Dispute Resolution and Youth Program – This program strives to teach mediation, negotiation, and general conflict management skills to children in middle and high schools around Columbus. The main goal of the program is to show youth that there are constructive ways to solve problems through talking, listening, understanding, and collective problem solving. Mediation and Youth – Law students teach Columbus Public School students how to be peer mediators. They also design the peer mediation program for the school and help the school to implement it.
Pro Bono Research Group (PBRG) – Endowed by an alumnus, this program provides research assistance to Legal Services and Legal Aid attorneys throughout Ohio. Second and third year Research Fellows conduct quality research and gain practical legal experience. In addition, PBRG sponsors events that promote public interest law, including the Frank Woodside III Speaker Series, an annual poverty law symposium.
Street Law Program – This program provides opportunities for law students to visit local high schools to teach classes in basic elements of the law which affects all citizens in daily life. Topics include contracts, landlord/tenant and criminal law. Law students also stage a mock trial in which high school students participate.
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program (VITA) – VITA is a program through which law students help lower-income residents and non-residents prepare their federal income tax returns. Training for the VITA program is done in conjunction with the Internal Revenue Service and College of Law tax professors.
Faculty and Administrative Pro Bono
For information please contact Associate Dean Joseph B. Stulberg, stulberg.2@osu.edu.
Awards/Recognition
At various levels of donated hours, Public Service Fellows are recognized at the College's Hooding and Honors Convocation ceremonies. Also honored are Pro Bono Publico honorees, Equal Justice Works and Skadden Fellows.
Community Service
Each year Moritz student groups perform hundreds of hours of community service in schools, by helping citizens complete tax forms, by raising and donating money to help victims of disasters in the U.S. and abroad, and a variety of other service projects. To see a listing of our numerous and active student groups go to: http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/students/orgs/Moritz Community Outreach Project
The Moritz Community Outreach Project (MCOP) is a volunteer student organization that strives to better Columbus and vicinity. MCOP works with Habitat for Humanity, Mid-Ohio FoodBank, Adopt-A-Highway, and student tutoring groups with the goal of improving the environment and the lives of people within the Columbus community. The organization welcomes participation from all law students as well as the Moritz faculty and administration staff. With the often overwhelming nature of law school, MCOP hopes to help students maintain a proper perspective while interacting with one-another in a fun and rewarding setting.
Law Students for Equal Opportunity Education help the City of Columbus READ Program to develop reading and writing skills of low income elementary public school students.
Law School Public Interest Programs
Back to top
Contact Information
Cybele SmithDir. of Public Service and Pub. Inter
smith.302@osu.edu
(614) 292-7707
Career Services Office
Certificate/Curriculum Programs
Certificate in Dispute Resolution - The purpose of the Certificate in Dispute Resolution is to provide our graduates expertise in the dispute resolution field. Demand for lawyers with dispute resolution expertise has grown steadily over the last decade. The use of dispute resolution processes increasingly is part of the practice of law.
For information see, http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/programs/adr/Certificate in Children Studies at the Michael E. Moritz College of Law- The Moritz College of Law is the only top-fifty law school in the country to offer a specialized certificate in children studies. For information see, http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/jfc/
Public Interest Centers
The Center for Interdisciplinary Law and Policy Studies at The Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law is committed to the promotion of interdisciplinary research, teaching, and public outreach designed to shed light on the nature and operation of law and legal institutions, as well as the impacts of law on society and culture.
The Center embodies the conviction that no single disciplinary perspective is adequate for understanding these issues, and that multidisciplinary approaches are essential to address the social opportunities and challenges in which law can play a constructive role.
Public Interest Clinics
The Clinical Program at Moritz Law provides an approach to clinical education that is distinctive among American law schools. Since 1935, the faculty at the college has recognized that problem-solving, factual investigation, counseling, negotiation, and litigation skills are best learned by combining the actual practice of law, in which students take responsibility for their own cases, with an intensive academic experience in the classroom. The pairing of regular and clinical faculty in a "team" approach to clinical education, while resource intensive, has led to exceptional results. Moritz Law provides opportunities for students in the following clinical settings: Civil Law Practicum, Criminal Defense Practicum, Justice for Children Practicum, Legislation Clinic, Prosecution Practicum, Mediation Clinic. The College also cooperates with the University in staffing the University's Student Housing Legal Clinic. For details go to: http://www.moritzlaw.osu.edu/clinics/overview.html.
Externships/Internships
Each semester, the Moritz College places approximately 25 students as judicial externs to work in judges' chambers. Judges participating in the program include justices on the Supreme Court of Ohio, federal district and appellate court judges, federal magistrate judges, federal bankruptcy judges, and county domestic relations and juvenile court judges. Over the past few years, the program has expanded to include Commissions of the Supreme Court of Ohio, the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, and the Ohio Judicial Conference. Judicial externships provide excellent educational opportunities, including opportunities to glimpse the workings of important courts from the inside, interaction with distinguished judges, and engagement in supervised research and writing. Judicial externs attend several classes at the College, in which they are exposed to a range of topics, including the variety of judicial experiences of their classmates in the program and ethical issues specific to the judicial context. For more details go to http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/programs/judicial_extern/index.php.
Classes with a Public Service Component
For information on the ADR Public Service Projects, see http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/programs/adr/public_service.php.
Public Interest Journals
- Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution
- Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law
- I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society
- Election Law @ Moritz
Public Interest Career Assistance
The Moritz College has a Director of Public Service and Public Interest Programs, (housed in the Career Services Office) as well as a faculty public interest liaison, who serves as advisor to related student groups. All career counselors are kept up to date on public interest opportunities and counsel in that area, while the Director focuses on direct legal service placements, government programs and entry level hiring, post-graduate fellowships and judicial clerkships, as well as serving as the Loan Repayment Assistance Program Coordinator. The Career Service Office subscribes to PSLAWNET, the Government Honors & Internship Handbook, and a variety of other online and print resources, and pays the registration fees for interested students to attend off-campus public interest career fairs such as the Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair in Washington DC, and the Midwest Public Interest Law Career Conference in Chicago, to name a few. Some travel reimbursement has been available for attending interviews and career fairs out of state, and will be reviewed annually to see if funds are still available. Public Interest Opportunity Forum held annually on-campus in early spring for all students.
Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAP)
See 2006 LRAP Policy
Back to top
Post-Graduate Fellowships/Awards
Law School Funded:
Graduate Student Funded:
Other Funding Sources:
Term Time Fellowships/Scholarships
Law School Funded:
Graduate Student Funded:
Other Funding Sources:
Summer Fellowships
Law School Funded:
Graduate Student Funded:
Other Funding Sources:
Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF) fellows are selected by PILF membership annually for summer stipends to work in the public interest and public sector. http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/pilf.
Extracurricular and Co-Curricular Programs
Woodside Speaker Series – The Pro Bono Research Group (PBRG) provides research assistance to Legal Services and Legal Aid attorneys throughout Ohio. Second and third-year Research Fellows conduct quality researches akin to the law journals and gain practical legal experience like that provided by the clinical programs. In addition, PBRG sponsors events that promote public interest law, including the Frank Woodside III Speaker Series, an annual poverty law symposium.
Student Public Interest Groups
Advocates For Children – Sponsors a needy local family during the holidays and collects toys and money to be able to deliver items of clothing, toys and food to family. Caribbean Law Students Association – Fundraised and donated to Tsunami Relief efforts.
Student Animal Legal Defense Fund – Fundraised and donated to Pets Without Parents and local Humane Society.
