St. Thomas University College of Law joined with renowned attorney Ben Crump to launch the Benjamin L. Crump Center for Social Justice, a new initiative that will train diverse lawyers to work in the social justice realm. The center will offer programming, symposia and training, and is funded by a $1 million leadership grant from Truist Financial Corporation.
Crump has been a very public figure lately, having represented the families of Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others. Much of his career has been devoted to fighting for the marginalized in many areas, including healthcare, environmental issues, intellectual property, and more.
St. Thomas Law is known as one of the country’s most diverse law schools and is well known for its dedication to civil rights and human rights.
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Cleveland-Marshall School of Law is set to launch a Pardon, Clemency, and Expungement clinic in the new year. In January, the clinic will represent clients looking to obtain either an expungement of a prior conviction or a pardon or clemency from Ohio’s governor.
The clinic was developed through a partnership with Governor Mike DeWine’s Expedited Pardon Project, which launched in 2019 to fast-track pardon applications for candidates who have been found to be successfully reformed and contributing members of society. 16 people have been pardoned since the project began, with another 86 in various stages of the process.
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Penn State Dickinson Law announced plans for a new Antiracist Development Institute. The program will offer design-based approaches to implementing antiracist policies to programs across the country. The first iteration of the course will run in the summer of 2022 and will accompany the debut of specific volumes of an eight- to ten-volume book series entitled “Building an Antiracist Law School, Legal Academy, and Legal Profession,” edited by Dickinson Law Dean Danielle Conway.
Dickinson Law received gifts from the LSAC and AccessLex Institute, as well as more than $1 million from donors, to launch the initiative.