Alumnus Leonardo Lupiano, a new ventures analyst and engagement strategist, and Holly Webb, paralegal at the Southern Utah Bar Association, offer DSU students free legal advice. Students can get assistance with domestic violence, credit reports, food stamps, Medicaid, bankruptcy and more. Photo by Misha Mosiichuk.
Dixie State University now offers legal help to students with the addition of a new legal clinic on campus in collaboration with the Southern Utah Bar Association.
The legal clinic provides an opportunity for students to receive free legal assistance from lawyers who are coming to campus once a month.
“[The Southern Utah Bar Association] support has been vital to the success of the clinic because through their partnership DSU now is providing one-on-one legal instruction that is completely free of charge to our students,” said Taylor Anderson, alumna and former student body president.
The process for the clinic to be a resource for students was not something that came quickly.
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“Over the past few years, a lot of students have been contacting the dean of students and other university staff about legal issues, so that’s when they realized there was a need for a legal clinic,” said alumnus Leonardo Lupiano, a new ventures analyst and engagement strategist.
Lupiano stepped in to help Anderson bring the legal clinic to campus during the 2019-2020 school year.
Not only did the DSU staff feel the clinic was important for students to receive legal assistance, but Lupiano said the Southern Utah Bar Association was supportive and created the partnership with DSU.
The work Anderson and Lupiano have put into making this clinic function for the Trailblazers was an important matter for her during her time serving as SBP.
“The Legal Clinic was a priority of the DSU Student Association Executive Council during my 2019-2020 term in office because there was a need, but we did not currently have a way to meet that need of our students,” Anderson said. “With that being said, we saw fit that efforts be made in order to create this legal aid for our students to help promote the success of our students.”
As college students venture into new stages of life, they experience new surroundings where they may find a need for legal advice. Some of the topics of assistance the legal clinic has to offer are domestic violence, credit reports, food stamps, Medicaid, bankruptcy and more.
“It’s important because I don’t know a lot of the legal terms and information,” said Kelly Gleason, a junior accounting major from Minnesota. “This is really nice because I can to talk an attorney and not feel obligated to pay anything because I am a college student.”
The legal clinic is just one more service Trailblazers now have access to including Career Services, the Booth Wellness Center, the Tutoring Center and beyond.
Students can receive legal assistance by scheduling an appointment online through the BlazerLink website.
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