A 10-year passion project recently came to fruition for Chicago attorney Jim Fine, when the Roosevelt University Legal Clinic (RULC) officially launched this summer.
RULC, which is being led by Fine, will begin by providing pro bono and low-cost basic legal services to Roosevelt’s students, faculty, and staff, and hopes to expand into the larger Chicago community.
The clinic will be staffed by paralegal student interns from Roosevelt’s Paralegal Studies Program who will gain real-world legal experience under the supervision of Director Fine and volunteer attorneys.
The ‘Madison Crusader’
Fine said the “urge to help people when they needed it” has been a defining characteristic throughout his life.
He received an undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin, a master’s in English and Education from Northwestern University, and a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law.
“One of my reasons for liking Roosevelt so much is that in 1945, many faculty left the city colleges and formed a university, Roosevelt, which would include people of color and women and people who were maybe less financially well off,” he said.
He has taught in Roosevelt’s Paralegal Studies Program for 41 years while also practicing law in Chicago and the suburbs. Most recently, he has been operating a solo law firm based in Northbrook.
A dedication to social justice
About 10 years ago, Fine said he began brainstorming a way to combine his work teaching paralegals with his passion for helping people who cannot afford high legal fees.
He approached Roosevelt’s administration with the idea of creating a program that would provide legal services to students, faculty, and staff at free or reduced rates.
“I think that there are a lot of people in need, especially at Roosevelt,” said Fine, who often jokes that his friends call him the “Madison Crusader” for his tenacity and insatiable dedication to social justice.
Roosevelt prides itself on attracting and serving students from diverse racial and economic backgrounds. Just over 28% of its student population is Hispanic or Latino, 28% is white, and 19% is Black or African American.
Forty-four percent of its undergrad students are first-generation college students and 47% are eligible for Federal Pell Grants, which help low-income students pay for college.
“I have had students tell me that they need a Power of Attorney for healthcare because some live in some very unsafe neighborhoods,” Fine said. “Who are these people going to turn to? What are they going to do?”
RULC will offer set fees for things like estate plans and bankruptcy, Fine said, and the cost of services billed hourly will depend on family size and the 2023 Poverty Guidelines. Attorney fees will be billed at between $0 and $85 per hour and paralegal time will be billed at 50% of those hourly rates.
Fine said this means RULC will be offering “basically free” legal services to those who fall below the poverty guidelines
“If nothing else, we will be helping the students, faculty, and staff in that way,” he said.
How the RULC will work
The RULC will be administered like this: Fine, volunteer attorneys, and the student paralegal interns will handle client intake.
“The paralegal interns will sit in with me and complete the intake forms,” Fine said. Then he or another attorney and the paralegal intern will interview the client on Zoom or in person, and review and sign a form that lists the tasks for the client, the lawyer, and the paralegal.
All of the paralegals’ work will be performed under the supervision of an attorney, Fine said, reiterating the clinic’s focus on compliance with rules governing the unauthorized practice of law (UPL).
He will conduct training for the paralegal interns and volunteer attorneys on staying within the boundaries of UPL rules, he said.
Cases that RULC can’t take past the intake stage will be referred to area legal partners, who Fine hopes will use the services of the interns for pro bono paralegal work.
For example, the clinic’s immigration cases will be referred to Perkins Coie and its personal injury cases will be referred to attorneys who are adjunct faculty at Roosevelt and maintain full-time private practices.
Things like estate plans, wills, simple Chapter 7 bankruptcies, Power of Attorneys, and real estate contracts will be fully handled in-house at RULC, Fine said.
“I’ve had a student say that her grandmother owns land in Mexico and also land here in Illinois,” Fine said. “So, I can help my students. I can look over real estate contracts so that somebody feels comfortable when they are going to negotiate for a buy or sell, things like that.”
Expanding its footprint
Fine hopes to expand RULC’s footprint beyond Roosevelt and into the greater Chicago community through referrals from area legal aid organizations.
He said RULC currently has partnerships with the Hyde Park-based The Village Legal and Community Project, which will refer bankruptcy cases to the clinic, and Law Center for Better Housing, which provides mediation for evictions.
He is exploring additional partnerships with organizations he hopes will refer clients to the clinic, including veterans’ organizations and a reentry program supporting people who are getting out of prison.
“Roosevelt really wants a footprint out there in the world of legal clinics,” he said.
Pro bono paralegal support for attorneys
In addition to providing low-cost legal services for clients and real-world experience for paralegal students, Fine noted that the RULC is unique in that it offers pro bono paralegal services to attorneys.
“One of the challenges with pro bono is that attorneys need high-quality paralegal services but they can’t always afford them,” he said. “This is one reason why attorneys may think, ‘I won’t have any paralegals; I will do it on my own.’”
Access to pro bono paralegal support through Roosevelt’s interns can help attorneys get more work accomplished or take on pro bono cases, Fine noted, helping to increase the number of clients they serve.
Addressing ‘bucket list’ items
After launching the clinic this summer, Fine looks forward to the paralegal student interns beginning this fall.
In addition to establishing connections with organizations that can provide client referrals, Fine is working to build additional partnerships with law firms that can take in cases RULC can’t fully service in-house, specifically in immigration and family law.
“I tell our students to reach out to friends and relatives and make sure that people are aware that we can not only handle simple legal matters in-house, but that we can take on a lot more,” he said.
Overall, Fine said he hopes the clinic will raise people’s awareness of life events that would benefit from legal guidance and increase their access to affordable support.
“So many people come to me, even my friends, and say how relieved they are once these common legal issues are handled,” he said. “We can provide that to people in our community who may not have thought about getting these things done otherwise. We can hopefully add this to their bucket lists of things that should be done to take care of their needs and their lives.”
For more information about the Roosevelt University Legal Clinic, reach out to Jim Fine at jfine@roosevelt.edu or rulegalclinic@roosevelt.edu.
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