W&L Community Law Center at the Oliver Hill House

Mission:

W&L Law School operates the W&L Community Law Center at the Oliver Hill House in the City of Roanoke.  The Community Law Center encourages W&L law students to adopt the sense of great purpose which a young law student named Oliver White Hill carried from his admission to Howard Law School in 1930 all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954, when he and many other great NAACP attorneys represented schoolchildren in Brown v. Board of Education. 

We hope that every law student, like Oliver Hill, will find their passion for pro bono legal practice before graduation.  W&L Law has been fortunate to collaborate with the Oliver W. Hill Foundation, which Mr. Hill co-founded and which now carries forward his legacy, to convert Mr. Hill’s boyhood home in Roanoke into a law school legal aid provider.

The W&L Community Law Center at the Oliver Hill House gives W&L Law students hands-on experience representing individuals who belong to a disadvantaged social class facing the threat of injustice in the 21st century.  We currently emphasize three areas of practice:

1. Estate Planning for Elderly Virginians: Personal Autonomy and End-of-life planning
    
2. Immigration: Visas for Victims of Family Violence and Violent Crimes
    
3. Voting Rights: restoring civil rights to ex-felons in Virginia

The W&L Community Law Center also maintains an "Open Door" Policy within the Gainsboro Community.  When called upon by low-income community members for legal assistance with other types of legal problems, we will consider representation on a case-by-case basis.  If you are looking for assistance, please call (540) 491-9302 to speak with someone at the W&L Community Law Center.  If your income qualifies you, we can make an appointment for you to speak with a law student working under the supervision of an attorney.  Because the W&L Community Law Center does not accept federal funding from the Legal Services Corporation, we are able to represent many members of the community who do not qualify for legal aid but nonetheless lack the resources to afford reasonable attorneys’ fees.

Contact:

W&L Community Law Center at the Oliver Hill House
401 Gilmer Ave. NW
Roanoke, VA 24016