Chicago Professor Receives Technology Award From LSC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, DC--Ronald Staudt, a professor and associate vice president at the Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology, has been recognized by the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) for "outstanding contributions" to LSC's six-year-old Technology Initiative Grants (TIG) program. The award is the first of its kind.

In presenting the award, LSC President Helaine M. Barnett said, "TIG projects have created a sea change in the delivery of civil legal aid. They have educated low-income Americans about our legal system, equipped them to represent themselves in court, and enabled them to secure millions of dollars in earned benefits. At the same time, they have enhanced technical expertise among LSC-funded programs, increasing efficiency and improving the quality of service for clients coast to coast.

"From the start, our Technology Initiative Grants program has had no better friend, no stronger supporter, and no more generous contributor than Ron Staudt."

In his current position at the Chicago-Kent School of Law, Staudt is director of the Center for Access to Justice, which emphasizes use of the Internet and builds Web-based tools for legal services advocates, pro bono volunteers, and pro se litigants. Previously, he worked as a lawyer in private practice, as a legal aid attorney, and as a publishing industry executive.

Staudt graduated from St. Joseph's College, where he majored in mathematics and philosophy, and received his law degree from the University of Chicago, where he was a member of the law review.

Created by Congress in 1974, the Legal Services Corporation has a dual mission: to promote equal access to justice and to provide high-quality civil legal assistance to low-income Americans. A fact sheet on the TIG program follows.

For a TIG fact sheet, click here.