With Equal Justice Works Fellowships, Loyola alums provide legal assistance to previously unaddressed populations
Hochbaum is one of four Loyola lawyers to
recently receive an Equal Justice Works Fellowship,
a two-year grant for qualified, passionate attorneys
who’ve developed innovative projects that serve
communities in significant need of legal assistance.
Sponsored by law firms or corporations, Equal
Justice Works Fellows receive competitive salaries,
generous loan repayment assistance, training,
and additional support during their fellowships.
Because fellows often obtain additional funding
to continue their projects after the two-year grant
period, the fellowships can kick-start new areas of
public-interest law—as well as the service-focused
careers of the fellows.
In his fellowship project at Equip for Equality,
funded by the law firm McDermott Will and Emery,
Hochbaum is addressing a critical need. More
than half of all students with disabilities in the CPS
population have learning disabilities. Nearly 90
percent of students with learning disabilities are
African American and Latino, many from low-
income families without resources for obtaining
help outside the public schools.
Hochbaum’s project encompasses community
outreach, self-advocacy assistance, and direct
representation. Working with parent groups, after-
school tutoring programs, and local hospitals, he
obtains referrals and educates parents about the
legal rights of children with learning disabilities.
He also provides informal guidance and materials
to parents asking the schools for more specialized
assistance for their kids. As much as time allows,
Hochbaum also represents students seeking
increased services, sometimes suing the CPS when
those negotiations fail.
His interest in learning disabilities is personal—
he has one himself, and finds that discussing his
own history helps inspire his clients. “But I grew up
in a middle-class household and my parents had
the resources to get me help outside the school,” he
says. “My clients can’t afford to get private tutoring
and counseling services. They face additional
challenges I never faced, and they shouldn’t have
to face another one.”
‘Cloning herself’ to
extend her reach
As a law student volunteering with Cabrini
Green Legal Aid (CGLA), Cynthia Cornelius (JD ’12)
was overwhelmed with the volume of requests
she received. “I wished I could clone myself,” she
says. With her Equal Justice Works Fellowship
project at CGLA, she’s doing just that, enlisting
law students across Chicago to conduct research
helping homeless Chicagoans seal or expunge
their criminal records to improve their chances of
employment—and housing. The project, in which
CGLA partners with several social-service agencies,
addresses a specific goal of the Chicago Alliance to
End Homelessness’s long-term strategic plan.
The process of sealing or expunging is
expensive, and not everyone qualifies, putting a
strain on the budgets of already strapped agencies.
In Cornelius’s project, funded by the Albert and
Anne Mansfield Family Foundation, law students
acting as a “Criminal Records Corps” prescreen
clients’ eligibility for these remedies, then convey
their findings to agency case managers and their
clients. Clients choose the form of relief they want
to pursue after discussing employment options
with their case managers, then Criminal Records
Corps members proceed with the legal process for
clearing or mitigating records.
When successful, the mitigation of a
criminal record has a powerful effect on a client’s
confidence and sense of empowerment. A client
whose record had been partially sealed “seemed
to be standing a foot taller,” Cornelius recounts. “He
has a much more optimistic outlook, and is on his
way to getting housed.”
In addition to current fellows Hochbaum and
Cornelius, two Loyola 3Ls have been accepted to
the program beginning next year. Beth Karpiak,
who’s currently an intern at Equip for Equality, has
designed a project to address abuse and neglect
among veterans and athletes with traumatic brain
injury (TBI). The project will provide education
“
We’re dealing with complex and systemic problems,
and I don’t have any illusion that I go to work every day and change the world,” says Daniel
Hochbaum (JD ’12), an advocate for students with learning disabilities in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). “But I’m making things better for
an individual. I can turn back the tide for one person, and if I do that for 10 years or 50 years, I’ll have made a dent.”
“I’mmaking things better for an individual…
if I do that for
10 years or 50 years, I’ll have made a dent.”
—Daniel Hochbaum (JD ’12)
Turning back the tide
QUEST FOR EQUALITY
and direct advocacy services to these individuals
through outreach efforts at health care facilities
serving individuals with TBI, including VA facilities
and sports rehabilitation facilities.
“There’s no shortage of medical research
on what seems to be a TBI crisis sweeping our
nation,” Karpiak says. “The system of care and
community support is not prepared to handle the
demands and meet the needs of these rapidly
emerging populations.” Her fellowship at Equip
for Equality is being sponsored by Walgreens and
Greenberg Traurig.
In a project funded by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals
and the law firm Jackson Lewis, Graham Bowman
will begin work next fall with the Law Project of
the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless to expand
Medicaid access for youth ages 19-25 who are
homeless. This population is becoming Medicaid-
eligible for the first time under the Affordable Care
Act (ACA).
“The mortality rate among the homeless
skyrockets when people reach their 30s,” Bowman
says. “We hope to assist people in this age group
in getting into health services to head off these
outcomes.” In his project, he’ll educate service
providers about the new Medicaid eligibility of
this population, help steer homeless youth toward
enrollment criteria that can garner them the
highest level of services, and represent clients
on appeals for denied coverage.
Bowman says his eyes were opened
through Loyola’s Health Justice Project to “the
connection between health care and the law,
and the difficulties people face in navigating the
system.” He plans a career advocating for health
care for low-income individuals.
“With the passage of the ACA, we’re at a
significant point in American history,” he adds.
“We’re taking major steps toward addressing the
problems in our health care system. I want to be a
part of that, and this fellowship is the first step.”
■
Daniel Hochbaum (JD ’12) and Beth Karpiak (JD ’13) both have Equal Justice Works Fellowship projects at Equip for Equality.
SPRING 2013
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LOYOLA LAW
