![]() ![]() He recalls working with lawyers, including on issues of access to care for people with HIV and AIDS. Ho’s philosophy of serving the public as a lawyer was shaped by his experience as a community organizer before law school. Being humble and knowing that the clients have something very important to contribute is something that Beyond reminds me of all the time.” “From early in my career, looking back, sometimes I was shocked by my clients and how much they knew, and I should have listened to them more closely instead of thinking I was the expert on everything. “The most essential thing for Beyond’s model is being able to reach out to the community partners.”Ī special counsel for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Chicago, Arumilli says her association with Beyond Legal Aid also has provided perspective on her own work. “He also knows how to reach out to people,” she adds. “He brings the qualities that you absolutely need in a leader. She didn’t know Ho in law school, but throughout her six years on the board, she has seen him build the organization and expand to more than 20 partnerships. ![]() She understood through her own experience as an AmeriCorps volunteer that outsiders need to work in collaboration with community members to effect change. The community-driven approach of Beyond Legal Aid drew Elizabeth Arumilli ’09 to serve on its board, for which she works primarily on development. Ho’s model is built around community partnerships and empowering the people they serve. “We take on cases that other organizations have rejected,” Ho says, “because we’re not just using the law. In addition, Beyond Legal Aid, as its name suggests, assists with many nonlegal strategies to support community members, including organizing and direct action. In fact, community partners and members participate in all aspects of the legal process, even reviewing and editing court filings. Beyond Legal Aid attorneys don’t decide which cases to take the organizations they partner with do. Beyond Legal Aid operates community law offices within local organizations, helping community members (Ho’s preferred term, rather than “clients”) as they deal with issues ranging from housing to workers’ rights to immigration. His model is built around community partnerships and empowering the people they serve. With the grant that followed, Ho launched what would become Beyond Legal Aid, which has, under his vision as founder and executive director, upended the concept of how a public interest legal organization operates. When he explained his concerns, she encouraged him to apply for a seed grant through Harvard Law School’s recently created Public Service Venture Fund, which awards initial funding to innovative projects that further the public good. From that conference room, in the spring of 2013, he called Judy Murciano, associate director of the Bernard Koteen Office of Public Interest Advising at Harvard Law School, who had helped him get his fellowship with Chicago’s Legal Assistance Foundation, which brought him to the city after he graduated. Instead of leaving the law, he discovered that he could create that organization himself. The problem was that he didn’t actually see an organization that matched his vision of what lawyering should be. The problem wasn’t the organization that he worked for, which focused on advancing the rights of people with disabilities, says Ho. ![]() But something was missing, and he found himself pondering whether law was truly the right path for him. ![]() He had achieved his goal of working for a public interest legal organization. Lam Ho ’08 was sitting in a conference room in an office building in downtown Chicago looking out at a view of Millennium Park and the city’s famous Bean sculpture. ![]()
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