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A Different Kind of Lawyer
A Bridge to Home
JAMES CHENEY, a member of Notre Dame Law School’s +TI[[ WN _I[ I\ _WZS I\ the Notre Dame Clinical Law Center when the phone rang.
It was late October 2017, and Cheney, a third-year law [\]LMV\ _I[ _WZSQVO ]VLMZ Professor JUDITH FOX ’93 J.D. in \PM -KWVWUQK 2][\QKM +TQVQK¸ WVM WN Å^M NIK]T\a Z]V KTQVQK[ that provide free legal services to individuals, small businesses, IVL VWVXZWÅ\[ QV \PM ;W]\P Bend area. Cheney had been trying to contact Emma Gillam, a prospective client, for several months about the disputed sale of her home to a local real estate investor.
James Cheney ’18 J.D. wins housing case for local woman By Erin Blasko
Earlier in the day, Cheney had sent a letter to Gillam, pleading with her to contact him directly “or else there’s nothing we can do for you.”
10
2018
Fortunately, the person on the other end of the line, a member of Broadway Christian Parish, a local church with a long history of homeless outreach, had good news: They’d found Gillam, living in a homeless encampment beneath an old railroad viaduct in downtown South Bend. Cheney jumped in his 1996 2MMX /ZIVL +PMZWSMM IVL LZW^M south to the viaduct. 0M XIZSML QV I KZ]UJTQVO XIZSQVO TW\ VM`\ \W \PM ^QIL]K\ IVL Y]QKSTa TWKI\ML /QTTIU IUWVO \PM UM[[ WN JTIVSM\[ IVL cardboard mats. “I was embarrassed,” Gillam said. Her clothes were dirty. She hadn’t bathed. The encampment itself smelled of urine and other foul odors. “I started crying.” Experience had taught her to Y]M[\QWV \PM SQVLVM[[ WN [\ZIVO-