Even before she began volunteering with LASC, Vivian Opelt had a keen sense of the importance of service to the community. Her family background, she says, was a great model for public service: both her parents taught in Columbus City Schools, and her brother was a dedicated social worker in Franklin County. During her legal career, Vivian focused her charitable efforts on cat and kitten rescue. Working with friends, fellow volunteers, and a cat rescue organization, Vivian estimates she helped to foster and place more than 100 homeless cats and kittens. This sense of compassion and giving has continued to serve her well in her post-retirement pro bono work.

After retiring from Wendy’s International in 2016 after 31 years, she knew she wanted to use her legal expertise to help those without the benefit of legal services. She attended some seminars and legal clinics offered by LASC and SEOLS. Acutely aware of how the needs of lower-income individuals are overlooked, Vivian says, “Access to civil legal aid is paramount if we want to have a society in which there is a fair and equitable system of justice for all. Being shut out from legal resources serves to perpetuate the structures, including the legal impediments, which keep the poor disenfranchised and incapable of upward mobility.”

Vivian has found her pro bono work incredibly rewarding. Among many notable experiences during her volunteering, she recalls the absolute joy of clients at the Immigration and Naturalization Clinics when they realize they are finally on a path to naturalization and becoming a U.S. Citizen; the profound gratitude of clients who receive support in their efforts to reinstate their driver’s licenses; and the appreciation expressed by record sealing clients who, thanks to civil legal aid, are getting a fair shot at a second chance. Particularly vivid is the memory of pride felt by one senior client in Columbus who received help with having her estate documents prepared. The overjoyed client was nearly 70 years old, and said she never expected to have the ability to provide for the future for her three children.

Vivian has simple advice for attorneys who are considering volunteering but are hesitant to get involved: “Just give it a try, take a leap of faith, and no doubt you will find something of interest to jumpstart your volunteer efforts. Every person makes a difference--you are wanted and needed!” LASC/SEOLS staff members, she adds, are immensely patient and kind in guiding volunteers and are always available for support. OSLSA Pro Bono Director Dianna Parker describes how grateful she has been to Vivian for her five years of service to the program, “Vivian is a pleasure to work with and it’s been wonderful to see her growth as a volunteer as she takes on new areas of law and new challenges.”

During the pandemic, Vivian says the already-considerable need for legal aid in the community has only grown, and she looks forward to continuing her work, including with senior estate documents and the Opportunity Port record sealing platform. She is also looking to get involved in more practice areas, particularly tenant issues and with the Tenant Advocacy Project.

In Vivian’s free time, she enjoys spending time with her partner, Mara, visiting with friends, taking long walks in Granville, cooking, reading, and caring for and playing with her four cats, Marty, Rooster, Penny and Baby. She also loves listening to both live and recorded music of all types—classical, rock, pop, blues, folk, and everything in between.

LASC and SEOLS are extremely grateful to Vivian for her outstanding pro bono work!

Please join the Ohio Family Law Task for this free CLE webinar. While all Ohio legal aid staff are welcome to attend, this training is intended to provide new advocates (under three years of experience) with guidance on the unique practice tools needed to represent clients who are survivors of domestic violence. This training is also open to Ohio legal aid volunteer attorneys.

Rachel Ramirez and Bernadette Rieger, from the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, will first present on understanding the trauma experienced by domestic violence survivors. This presentation will be followed by a panel of experienced legal aid family law practitioners, including Alexandria Ruden of the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and Lauren Weller of SEOLS, who will share practice tips for working with survivors of domestic violence. Register now.

Looking to get your firm or group re-engaged? Interested in a Pro Bono Lunch & Learn? Reach out to Patricia Vargas Vegas to schedule a visit!

SEOLS is excited to be offering another Driver’s License Reinstatement Clinic on the morning of Friday, June 24 and we need your help! The event will take place at Fairfield County Municipal Court and is designed to assist low-income individuals who are facing barriers to reinstatement and may benefit from help with Child Support Enforcement, the new BMV amnesty program, or other court remedies. No prior experience is required, and SEOLS will provide you with all the resources and onsite support you need in order to help! To volunteer, sign up now.

For those who need a refresher, we will be offering a virtual Lunch & Learn on Tuesday, June 21 at noon, which you can register for using the link above.

Please share this opportunity with other lawyers or advocates who may be interested in helping. Questions? Email Pro Bono Coordinator Megan O’Dell.

Opportunity Port 

Opportunity Port is an exciting new platform that will help us connect applicants for criminal record sealing in Franklin County Municipal Court with volunteers who can screen them for eligibility and prepare their record sealing applications through the platform. This online portal will also enable clients and volunteer attorneys to schedule appointments and for clients to file their applications with the court electronically. Training will be provided for anyone who joins. Sign up now!

Remote Clean Slate 

In addition to serving the reentry needs of Franklin County litigants, we also continue to need volunteer attorneys for our remote Clean Slate Clinic, which helps rural clients with remote record sealing and/or those seeking help with Certificates of Qualification for Employment (CQEs). Sign up to help out with our remote Clean Slate Clinic.

Family Law Attorneys Needed for Virtual Brief Advice Clinics 

LASC and SEOLS continue to see a need for attorneys with family law knowledge for our virtual advice clinics. Phone consultations take between 15-30 minutes on average, and attorneys can volunteer as little or as much as they wish. Sign up now for a virtual clinic shift. Current volunteers can simply email Patricia Vargas Vegas if they wish to reengage and do not have preferences for specific clinic dates.

We have a backlog of seniors and veterans seeking wills and advance directives. Knowing that some volunteers wish to help but can't meet clients in person, we are asking for help from “attorney mentors” for this project, who provide feedback to non-attorneys who interview and draft the documents for the clients. The non-attorney drafters are law school students who would like to practice this area of law and would be grateful for an attorney mentor. Your mentorship would be very helpful for these up-and-coming legal professionals. Sign up to volunteer today.

Fairfield County Tenant Advocacy Project (TAP): The TAP clinic provides free legal information, advice, and representation to tenants who are being evicted. SEOLS staff and pro bono attorneys meet with tenants prior to their eviction hearings and provide representation in negotiating settlements and attending court hearings (with support from staff). Clinics take place on Tuesday afternoons. Sign up now if you’d like to volunteer. We also offer TAP clinics in Washington and Athens counties, so if you would like to learn more, email our TAP Fellow Caitlyn McDaniel.

Franklin County Tenant Advocacy Project: Legal Aid offers a daily clinic for tenants with eviction hearings each morning in Franklin County. Attorneys handle eviction hearings or negotiate resolutions, including drafting agreed entries. Sign up now if you’d like to volunteer.

The Legal Aid Reduced Fee Referral Project (LARP) at LASC is comprised of a panel of attorneys who accept reduced-fee referrals for uncontested divorces and Chapter 7 bankruptcies. LARP clients are low-income and generally unable to pay the market rate, and these referrals allow them to access much needed services. Clients agree to pay a reduced rate and Legal Aid matches the clients with interested attorneys. If you would like to be added to either the divorce or Chapter 7 bankruptcy referral list, please fill out an attorney application, or email Dianna Parker. We generally ask LARP attorneys to take two pro bono cases a year but there is no limit on the number of reduced-fee referrals.

This is a great opportunity for non-attorney volunteers including, but not limited to, law students, undergrads, and high school students. Volunteers are needed to help with intake, onsite research, and attorney support duties. We have three planned in-person clinics in June:

Fill out our online form to volunteer!

The need for bankruptcy filing has been picking up among our clients and several of our long-term volunteers have been leaving the practice, so if you are interested in joining the referral panel, let us know. LASC works with the qualifying clients to collect all the paperwork necessary to file a bankruptcy and once the client is ready to file, we refer the case to you. LASC prioritizes clients who are very low-income with an emergency need to file such as a wage garnishment or utility shut off for representation. If you have not taken a bankruptcy case in the past, but are interested in learning, we can also match you with a mentor pro bono volunteer. Apply to volunteer.

Ideal for: Transactional and Government Attorneys; Estate Planning Attorneys

COVID Protocols: Ohio Justice Bus handling in-person document execution; Ability to serve by drafting or reviewing documents remotely

LASC Social Worker Chris Kelly was quoted on the effect of rising rents on Central Ohioans in this NBC 4 Columbus story, “Columbus coalition wants rent control on the ballot” (April 29, 2022).

OSLSA Pro Bono Coordinator Megan O’Dell and LASC Managing Attorney Meagan Van Brocklin authored an article in the Columbus Bar Lawyers Quarterly on the importance of LASC’s reentry work, titled “Record Sealing, Expungements and CQEs” (Spring, 2022)

LASC is referenced as a partner in a program to provide employment opportunities for individuals with criminal records in this Op-Ed published in the Columbus Dispatch by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, “Bank CEO: People with criminal records should be hired. Columbus program proof it works.” (May 4, 2022).

LASC Staff Attorney James Mackey was quoted on the effect an eviction record can have on renters looking for safe, affordable housing in this NBC 4 Columbus story, “Even with evictions dismissed, renters still have hard time finding housing” (May 16, 2022).

LASC was referenced as a partner of JPMorgan Chase Columbus office’s program to provide employment opportunities for justice-involved Central Ohioans in this Columbus Business First article, “JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon urges focus on raising wages in Columbus appearance” (May 18, 2022).

OPLC Director Susan Jagers authored a letter to the editor of The Columbus Dispatch about the urgent need for state funding to bolster Ohio’s food banks, titled “Food banks need help now” (May 28, 2022).

OPLC Director Susan Jagers was quoted on the introduction of a bill to make one of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio’s five commissioners an appointee of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel in this Gongwer article, “Bill Would Bolster Consumers' Counsel Input On PUCO Membership” (June 7, 2022).

We have a number of open positions at LASC and SEOLS/OSLSA. Check out the links for more information and to apply!