Laurie Jones received Oklahoma County Bar Association's Pro Bono Award!Laurie Jones, Professor of Law at Oklahoma City University, was presented the 2012 Oklahoma County Bar Association's Pro Bono Award at the Annual Awards Luncheon on June 1, 2012, in Oklahoma City.  In her continuing efforts to search out volunteer opportunities for students, Laurie Jones engaged the assistance of Legal Aid and the private bar to implement a very successful pro bono clinic assisting pro se litigants at the Oklahoma County Courthouse. To date close to 400 litigants have been served by the clinic utilizing services of law students and attorney volunteers. The Oklahoma County Law Library board and staff have been instrumental in the success of this program. Most litigants referred by the judges are low-income and many are also victims of domestic violence.

Without the assistance of such dedicated lawyers, most would go unserved.

Laurie serves on the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Access to Justice Committee and has written Access to Justice Articles for the Oklahoma Bar Journal.

Outside of her law school duties, Laurie has taken on a very important role as an attorney volunteer for a local battered women’s shelter. Laurie goes to the shelter to meet with women who are currently in crisis mode due to domestic violence acts committed against themselves and/or their children. She takes the time to listen to the issues and give them advice within days of their arrival to the shelter.

Laurie also takes divorce litigation cases for Legal Aid clients. She doesn’t shy away from complicated or time consuming matters. Currently she represents a lady she originally met at the domestic violence shelter. The client married a man who turned out to be very violent with her. He isolated her from her friends and family, would check the phones to see who she was talking to, would not let her leave the house except to work and he would escort her to and from work. The divorce case has been a highly contested matter and has been ongoing for nearly two years. To date, Laurie has over 200 volunteer hours in that case.

Congratulations to a very deserving award recipient!!!