Rhode Island Center for Justice launches

THE RHODE ISLAND Center for Justice, a nonprofit public interest law center that formed in January, is formally announcing its launch today. It will be based at Roger Williams University Providence. / COURTESY ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY
THE RHODE ISLAND Center for Justice, a nonprofit public interest law center that formed in January, is formally announcing its launch today. It will be based at Roger Williams University Providence. / COURTESY ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY

PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island Center for Justice, a nonprofit public interest law center that formed in January, is formally announcing its launch today.
The public launch, which is scheduled for 11 a.m. at Roger Williams University Providence at 150 Washington St., where operations are based, includes representatives from the center and the RWU School of Law, a key partner.
The public-interest law center will provide legal assistance to community members struggling with housing, employment, immigration and other critical issues while educating up to four new RWU attorneys at a time.
The Center for Justice’s Board of Directors Chairwoman Miriam Weizenbaum and Vice Chairman Amato DeLuca are joining university President Donald J. Farish and Law Dean Michael J. Yelnosky and others at the launch.
Weizenbaum called the new center “a voice for those who would often otherwise be without qualified legal assistance.”
“Few places in the U.S. are in greater need of these services than Rhode Island,” Weizenbaum said. “While Rhode Islanders have suffered some of the most dramatic economic hardships of the past decade, there is a glaring lack of access to civil legal services for those who struggle with the dire consequences of poverty.”
Operating since January, the Center for Justice is already assisting low-income households through partnerships with Fuerza Laboral, a workers’ rights center in Central Falls; the George Wiley Center, a community organization in Pawtucket; and the Community Action Partnership of Providence.
Executive Director Robert McCreanor began working full-time in January and hired two RWU alumni as fellows shortly after, he said.
“It’s going well,” he said. “One thing that became very clear in the process of forming the Center for Justice and has been corroborated in our first three months of work is that there is a tremendous need for these services.”
The staffing model for the center, developed with the law school, features a post-graduate fellowship program open exclusively to recent RWU Law alumni.
Up to four full-time staff attorney positions will be filled through a competitive application process by which RWU Law alumni from the previous five graduating classes are selected to work at the center for a two-year period.
“The Center for Justice model is an exciting next step in the evolution of RWU Law’s overall approach to legal education,” Yelnosky said. “It will create opportunities for some of our graduates to have a formal period during which they receive high-quality and intensive training that will help them cross the bridge to practice better equipped to serve their clients. It is also consistent with the School of Law’s focus on the obligation of lawyers to serve those who cannot afford legal representation.”

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