After a two-year process to hire a lawyer for Northwestern students, the Associated Student Government is continuing its search and expects to name a lawyer next month, said ASG President Jordan Heinz.
The Office of the General Counsel, lawyers who work exclusively as NU’s legal representatives, is submitting a pool of lawyers for ASG to interview.
“I’ve met with mixed success in trying to get potential candidates,” said NU Deputy General Counsel Thomas Cline. “So we’re trying to get a few more.”
The lawyer is expected to start work in October and work at Norris University Center between eight and 15 hours a week, said Heinz, an Education senior.
The part-time position would consist of providing free legal advice and referrals to students, most often dealing with tenant-landlord problems. The position would also entail dealing with parking, driving and drinking violations, all involving the city of Evanston, Cline said.
“It’s $40,000 for students who have scrapes with the law,” said Neil Shah, an ASG senator. “That would be his primary function.”
However, there are limitations. If students use the lawyer in court, they would still have to pay regular legal fees. And the lawyer is also deterred from dealing with anything related to the university because of conditions stipulated in NU and ASG’s agreements, Cline said.
“The way we discussed it initially, the fee would cover the initial consultation,” Cline said. “If there was any further expenditure of time, that would not be covered [by ASG].”
Heinz said most Big Ten schools have a lawyer to advise students, prompting ASG to budget $40,000 for the position during Winter Quarter, including salary and supplies. One-third of ASG’s senators voted against the budget, said Shah, a Weinberg senior.
“Never before have 15 senators voted against the ASG budget,” Shah said. “It was completely because of [the lawyer]. There was no other reason.”
Shah, who led opposition of the bill, said the lawyer isn’t worth the money.
“It’s an enormous amount of money for something the students have not explicitly asked for,” he said. “He’ll see probably two people an hour for eight hours a week, which is 480 total the whole year. When you look at what student groups could do with $40,000, you can do a lot more for people.”
Two years ago, the Legal Aid Office disbanded, creating a void for free legal counsel for NU students. The office was a student-run organization that offered services similar to the lawyer’s.
“Students would call for legal advice, and other students would answer the phones,” said Nick Kacprowski, Weinberg ’01 and last year’s ASG treasurer. “That disappeared because students aren’t qualified to give legal advice. It wasn’t the fact that it was unpopular – they always got a lot of calls.”
After the office disbanded, former ASG President Adam Humann, Weinberg ’01, spearheaded an effort to hire a lawyer. However, ASG was denied the money in Spring Quarter, 1999. Last year, before the end of Humann’s term, he brought up the idea again during ASG’s Winter Quarter budget proposal. Shah said the Executive Board was adamant in its support for Humann’s bill, so it did not allow the rest of the Senate to gauge student interest.
In the end, after intense debates, the budget passed.
But Shah still isn’t satisfied.
“If students said they wanted it, I’m cool with it,” Shah said. “If it was a major part of someone’s platform and people voted for that candidate knowing that it was on his platform, or if the Exec Board allowed a week (for senators) to talk to their constituents, … but none of that happened.”
