Professors Stephen Wizner, Carroll Lucht to Receive Community Advocate Award

For Professors Stephen Wizner and Carroll Lucht, serving New Haven’s most vulnerable communities has been a shared commitment and passion for decades. Together, through the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School, they have provided free legal representation to individuals and families who otherwise would be unable to afford an attorney.

In recent years, they have co-taught the Legal Services in Immigrant Communities Clinic (LSIC), a free neighborhood legal clinic based out of JUNTA for Progressive Action, a New Haven-based non-profit serving the Latino and immigrant communities. Each week, Wizner and Lucht accompany law students to JUNTA to meet with potential clients to help them assess their rights and options, and, where possible, to offer representation.

Now, after years of giving back, Wizner and Lucht will be honored by JUNTA with the Community Advocate Award at the organization’s 44th Anniversary gala on Sept. 19, 2013.

“For years, Steve and Carroll and their students have served some of New Haven’s most vulnerable people and families: mothers fleeing domestic violence; low-wage workers trying to get paid by exploitative employers; families seeking to be reunited through the immigration process,” said Hope Metcalf, Director of the Arthur Liman Public Interest Program at Yale Law School and a JUNTA board member. “Through their model of compassionate and client-centered lawyering, they have trained generations of Yale Law School graduates to listen to and to serve the community. And their constant support has helped JUNTA to expand our horizons, too.”

Professor Wizner is the William O. Douglas Clinical Professor Emeritus of Law, Supervising Attorney, and Professorial Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. He has been at the law school since 1970. At Yale, Wizner has taught and supervised students in the Law School’s clinical program and taught non-clinical courses in Trial Practice, Evidence, and Ethics.

Professor Lucht is the Clinical Professor Emeritus of Law, Supervising Attorney, and Professorial Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. In addition to supervising students in clinical work at the law school, Lucht also teaches disability law, poverty law, and refugee and asylum law.
Both professors have worked closely with students through the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization (LSO), which links law students with individuals and organizations in need of legal help who cannot afford private attorneys. The clinics cover a range of issues from parental rights and neglect to immigration to transnational development and global poverty.

Sandra Trevino, JUNTA’s executive director, described Wizner and Lucht as extremely committed and humble people who have made a tremendous impact on those JUNTA serves.

“They are incredible individuals who are passionate and caring about the work that they do,” said Trevino. “They show a real commitment to our community and are also great at getting students into working on these causes.”

The gala will feature an evening of live salsa music, food from Latin restaurants in New Haven, a silent auction, and over 200 community and state leaders, advocates, and friends. To purchase a ticket, click here.