Drexel supports legal aid services
Noah Cohen, Nancy Lan
Issue date: 10/26/07 Section: News
"I give it [legal profession] an A for effort but a D for performance," he said.
Lee said he wants to see less talk about helping minorities and more action.
Drexel has realized the call for action by a designing searchable database of past MLK Fellows through the University's Office of Technology Innovation.
Oxholm explained that in the past it was difficult to find MLK fellows who had left the program. No central records system was in place, which made it next to impossible for public interest law firms to find potential employees.
"The legal profession does not do a bang up job of recruiting and retaining minority attorneys," he said.
The database, hosted by Drexel, will solve this by allowing authorized users to log in and search by a host of criteria, including languages spoken.
Although now at Drexel, Oxholm spent a large portion of his career volunteering in public interest law.
The Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network honored him at the summit for his work chairing the project.
"I've had a passion for [public interest law]" Oxholm said.
Papadakis's financial contribution came from Oxholm's proposal.
Although the new money and new technology given to legal aid was welcomed news, Williams urged lawyers to be aware of the changing times and the challenges ahead.
Maureen Olives, director of public interest programs at Temple Law echoed Williams' message.
Olives said: "We serve low income people, there are low income people who are Asian, there are low income people who are latino, there are low income people who are African American, and when you have that …. Clients come to your office and they see people who can see their language, who look like them, who can understand their cultural differences."
"One of the challenges for you is to understand not the rate of change, but the importance of change," Williams said.
Williams simplified this change into demographic terms. As a former Washington Post reporter, Williams said he had become accustomed to the club of old white men who held sway in the nation's capital.
Lee said he wants to see less talk about helping minorities and more action.
Drexel has realized the call for action by a designing searchable database of past MLK Fellows through the University's Office of Technology Innovation.
Oxholm explained that in the past it was difficult to find MLK fellows who had left the program. No central records system was in place, which made it next to impossible for public interest law firms to find potential employees.
"The legal profession does not do a bang up job of recruiting and retaining minority attorneys," he said.
The database, hosted by Drexel, will solve this by allowing authorized users to log in and search by a host of criteria, including languages spoken.
Although now at Drexel, Oxholm spent a large portion of his career volunteering in public interest law.
The Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network honored him at the summit for his work chairing the project.
"I've had a passion for [public interest law]" Oxholm said.
Papadakis's financial contribution came from Oxholm's proposal.
Although the new money and new technology given to legal aid was welcomed news, Williams urged lawyers to be aware of the changing times and the challenges ahead.
Maureen Olives, director of public interest programs at Temple Law echoed Williams' message.
Olives said: "We serve low income people, there are low income people who are Asian, there are low income people who are latino, there are low income people who are African American, and when you have that …. Clients come to your office and they see people who can see their language, who look like them, who can understand their cultural differences."
"One of the challenges for you is to understand not the rate of change, but the importance of change," Williams said.
Williams simplified this change into demographic terms. As a former Washington Post reporter, Williams said he had become accustomed to the club of old white men who held sway in the nation's capital.
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