Directory
Ohio Northern Claude W. Pettit College of Law
Ohio Northern
Law School Pro Bono Programs
Contact Information
Jane Ward
Director of Career and Professional Development
419-772-224
[email protected]
Category Type
Independent Student Pro Bono Group Projects with no school-wide program
Description of Programs
ONU encourages students to engage in pro bono work and to develop a sense of obligation to contribute as members of the legal profession. Students who complete 30 or more hours of pro bono work during their three years in law school receive a notation on their transcript of "Pro Bono Service." The Law School also annually recognizes a student, faculty member or graduate selected by the Law School’s pro bono/public interest committee for his or her outstanding pro bono efforts.
Location of Programs
Hardin and Allen Counties in Ohio
Staffing/Management/Oversight
Director of Office of Career and Professional Development (Career Office)
Director of the Clinic and Externship Program
Funding
Student Run Pro Bono Groups/Specialized Law Education Projects
The Public Interest Law Association (PILA)
Faculty and Administrative Pro Bono
Awards/Recognition
Students who complete 30 hours of pro bono work receive a special certificate and a notation on their transcript.
Community Service
The Law School’s clinic takes an active interest in the community and frequently provides students with opportunities to participate in community service. In addition to their cases, clinical students are expected to participate in at least one community engagement activity through the clinic during the semester. Every semester the clinic has a pro se divorce clinic, in which students assist participants with filing for a pro se divorce. The clinic also conducts a wills/health care document clinic, through which students assist elderly clients in completing wills and/or health care directives in conjunction with local agencies serving senior citizens. The clinic has also participated in expungement clinics, foreclosure prevention clinics, and driver’s license reinstatement clinics.
Students also have opportunities to engage in pro bono work through their clinical and externship placements by working additional hours beyond those required to receive academic credit for the placement, which the clinic director encourages students to do. The clinic director has also permitted students to volunteer at the clinic without receiving academic credit in order to serve those in need of legal assistance.
Law School Public Interest Programs
Contact Information
Jane Ward
Director of Career and Professional Development
419-772-224
[email protected]
Certificate/Curriculum Programs
Public Interest Centers
Public Interest Clinics
ONU Law offers two in-house clinics: The ONU Litigation Clinic and the ONU Transactional Clinic.
The ONU Litigation Clinic is a traditional "legal aid" type clinic, which provides necessary legal services to indigent members of the Allen and Hardin County communities. The clinic students represent clients in matters including domestic relations, juvenile custody, bankruptcy, administrative cases, expungements, housing, probate, and other types of civil cases. Additionally, through its community-engagement activities, the clinic assists between 10 and 50 participants each semester in a pro se divorces.
The ONU Transactional Clinic is supervised by the clinic staff, and provides legal assistance to non-profit organizations and churches from the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church. The clinic assists local non-profit organizations in incorporating, as well as attaining non-profit status pursuant to section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Code, and assists non-profit organizations with a variety of legal issues including real estate transfers, incorporations, and risk management. Additionally, through its community-engagement activities, the clinic assists between 10 and 20 elderly clients each semester with estate planning and probate matters.
During the summer semester, ONU Law offers the ONU Summer Clinic, which combines the work of both the ONU Litigation Clinic and the ONU Transactional Clinic.
Every ONU Law student who wishes to work in a clinic is afforded the opportunity to do so.
Externships/Internships
ONU Law has a large number of externship/field placement opportunities through its practice externship and judicial externship courses. Externship placement opportunities include the following:
Environmental Externships : Placement with a non-profit advocacy organization in Columbus, Ohio, that engages in both lobbying activities and environmental litigation.
Government Externships : Placements in government settings, including the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office, and with the Ohio Pharmacy Board.
Judicial Externships : Placements in a variety of judicial settings, including municipal courts, juvenile courts, common pleas courts, the Supreme Court of Ohio, federal district courts, and federal bankruptcy courts.
Non-Profit Litigation Externships : Placements with practicing attorneys or administrators providing assistance to legal aid services and organizations.
Prosecutor and Public Defender Externships : Pacements with both local public defenders and prosecutors.
Every ONU Law student who wishes to participate in an externship placement is afforded the opportunity to do so.
Classes with a Public Service Component
The Law School’s clinic takes an active interest in the community and frequently provides students with opportunities to participate in community service. In addition to their cases, clinical students are expected to participate in at least one community engagement activity through the clinic during the semester. Every semester the clinic has a pro se divorce clinic, in which students assist participants with filing for a pro se divorce. The clinic also conducts a wills/health care document clinic, through which students assist elderly clients in completing wills and/or health care directives in conjunction with local agencies serving senior citizens. The clinic has also participated in expungement clinics, foreclosure prevention clinics, and driver’s license reinstatement clinics.
Public Interest Journals
PI Career Support Center
The Career Office actively promotes public interest positions to students and provides students with information about summer and full-time positions with public interest organizations. The Career Office uses PSJD, an online clearinghouse for law students and lawyers to connect with public interest job listings and career-building resources housed and administered by the National Association for Law Placement, as a resource and guide for students as they seek public interest positions. The Law School is also a member of Equal Justice Works, a non-profit organization focused on public service careers, and actively promotes its activities and public interest positions to students.
Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAP)
In addition to formal loan counseling through the financial aid office, the Law School offers students MAX by AccessLex (MAX), a personal finance education program created for law students that includes in-person workshops, online and virtual programming, and one-on-one counseling with MAX counselors. The Law School enters all students into MAX in the summer before their first year. The Law School requests, but does not require, that students complete two of the MAX lessons before starting school in the fall. Law students receive an in-person introduction to MAX at new student orientation. MAX counselors hold separate in-person workshops for each class of students every semester. Students also receive monthly newsletters, access to MAX podcasts, and other online programming. MAX also teaches third-year students how to manage their federal and private student loan debt after graduation, including by reviewing all available repayment, deferment, forbearance, and forgiveness options. MAX enters students into a drawing for multiple scholarships offered by AccessLex each time students complete an activity, which gives students an additional incentive to engage with the MAX programming.
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:
As a means of encouraging interest in public interest law, the Office of Career and Professional Development offers summer stipends to students who work in a public interest setting for a summer while in law school. From 2012 through 2018, 62 students have been awarded a total of $77,390. The money is raised via an auction of items donated by faculty, staff, alumni, and students. The Law School also regularly brings a variety of public interest and government employers to campus for on-campus interviews, including the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and JAG Programs for U.S. Marine Corps, Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard.
Graduate Student Funded:
Other Funding Sources:
Extracurricular and Co-Curricular Programs
Student Public Interest Groups
Public Interest Law Association (PILA)
6/2/2021