KEJC's Cassie Chambers in the Herald Leader

Cassie joined KEJC as a Skadden Fellow in December, 2017. A recent Harvard Law graduate, she spent the last year as an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Louisville. Cassie’s work in the Louisville area showed her the many barriers low-income Kentuckians face in accessing the court system. Those experiences are now informing Cassie’s new project with KEJC, the access to justice initiative.

Cassie presented some of the problems she plans on tackling in a recent op-ed for the Lexington Herald Leader. In the piece, Cassie describes a client she represented in a divorce case involving domestic violence. The woman was able to get free representation from Legal Aid, but was forced to pay the legal fees of her husband because he was incarcerated. The fact that he was in jail for assaulting her wasn’t enough to stop the court from putting the financial burden on her. Cassie writes, “Incarcerated people should have fair and adequate representation, even in civil matters. The issue is about who should bear the cost of this system.”

Read the full op-ed at the Herald Leader and keep an eye on this page for updates on the access to justice initiative.

Skadden Fellow, Cassie Chambers