Since 2008, the Notre Dame Law School has sent students to eastern Kentucky, one of the poorest regions in the country. The students offer pro bono legal services to those who could not afford them otherwise.In recent years, they’ve worked with hundreds of disabled residents who are victims of Eric Conn, a lawyer who committed the largest Social Security fraud in U.S. history. You may have seen the docu-series about him on Apple TV+. Many of the victims have lost their only source of income and are struggling to make ends meet.But this is more than a service trip. It’s an academic course in the school’s curriculum that shapes the way these students perceive and practice law. And it’s one of several experiential learning opportunities with similar, practical objectives.See how Notre Dame is educating a different kind of lawyer: https://go.nd.edu/EducateADifferentKindofLawyer
More from What Would You Fight For?
- 2:01Fighting For Fair HousingIt has been 50 years since the Fair Housing Act made discrimination in buying and selling homes illegal. Fifty years since Edward Brooke, the first African-American senator from Massachusetts, testified that upon his return from World War II, no one would sell him a home because of his race. And 50 years since the act was passed, without debate, just one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. But even after 50 years, there’s still discrimination and scheming against minorities who wish to own homes.Notre Dame Law professor Judy Fox is fighting to combat predatory lending and contract for deed, or rent-to-own, schemes that are prevalent in minority neighborhoods. Last year, in Illinois, she was instrumental in passing statewide legislation against these contracts. Similar efforts are underway in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. And at the Notre Dame Economic Justice Clinic, she’s also fighting individual cases.
- 2:01Fighting For Freedom of ThoughtWhen the Soviet Union collapsed, democracies in post-Soviet territories was fragile, and corruption ruled government, business and education. People were killed for speaking out and demanding justice. But there was a beacon of hope — Catholic universities. Because of their spirit of independence, these institutions could teach radical ideas like human dignity, freedom of speech, transparency and justice.Since 2003, the Nanovic Institute for European Studies at the University of Notre Dame has made a commitment to Catholic education in Eastern Europe bringing together administrators and faculty at seven universities to build bridges that will help them speak truth to power.Learn more: https://ntrda.me/FreedomofThought
