Three University of Wisconsin Law School students are among 50 chosen to work in the 2024 Rural Summer Legal Corps (RSLC), a program that addresses the pressing legal issues facing rural communities.
Each year, Equal Justice Works partners with the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) for the program participants, called Student Fellows, spend eight to 10 weeks during the summer serving at LSC-funded civil legal aid organizations where they help to provide direct legal services, engage in community outreach and education, and build capacity at host organizations.
Kelsey Gunvalson
Gunvalson will serve as the Native American Housing Rights and Elder Outreach Fellow at Judicare Legal Aid this summer. She will help to address the unique challenges faced by Native American Communities in Wisconsin and empower Native American elders and tribal benefits specialists by providing comprehensive education on the post-pandemic changes in public benefits and ensuring access to stable housing through legal advocacy in tribal courts.
Quinn Rumler
Quinn Rumler
Rumler will join the Employment/Re-entry Project at Legal Action of Wisconsin, where he will help to reduce barriers to employment for people living at or below the poverty line. Rumler will focus on advising people on the status of their driver’s license, litigating to lift driver’s license suspensions, and establishing reasonable payment or community service plans. He will also be involved in criminal record correction and expungement work.
Christin Watkins
Watkins will assist with the Preventing Rental Evictions Program (PREP) at Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services. Watkins will participate in meetings between landlords, tenants, and the PREP navigators to resolve disputes, and help represent tenants being evicted in formal eviction actions.
Rural communities in the United States and its territories face a shortage of lawyers, with a large population forced to travel hundreds of miles to find legal assistance. Last year, fellows helped 2,194 people.
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Submitted by Law School News on July 18, 2024
This article appears in the categories: Features, Students
