Croak Student Legal Services

Katharine Peña, Director

Mission

Croak Student Legal Services fulfills an educational need to assist DePaul students when they are experiencing legal dilemmas. When legal issues arise, they can distract students and disrupt their education. Croak Student Legal Services helps students resolve potential legal problems before that disruption occurs.

Croak Student Legal Services

Vincentian Mission• Croak Student Legal Services aims to provide

each student individual legal answers, counseling, and recommendations.

• In advising each student, Croak Student Legal Services attempts to assist in a holistic way, with sensitivity to the unique needs of every student, including each client’s individual cultural, social, religious, and ethical values.

• In this way, Croak Student Legal Services continues the Vincentian tradition of service to others.

Croak Student Legal Services

Legal Advice Croak Student Legal Services provides free legal advice to DePaul students on a wide range of common legal issues such as:

• Landlord and tenant issues• Criminal offenses• Small claims actions• Immigration issues • Routine traffic violations• Expungement advice• Contract review

Legal Advice• Informs students regarding both their rights and their obligations• Helps students understand the legal process • Resolves disputes between parties

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Legal Advice• Reviews potential benefits and risks of decisions with students• Directs students to useful resources, such as lawyer referrals and

low-cost agencies• Provides attorney/client privilege

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Limitations on Representation

• Croak Student Legal Services does not advise or represent any student in any type of dispute against DePaul University or any member of the DePaul community.

• While we cannot represent students in court at this time, we can provide students appropriate referrals if a conflict is moving towards litigation.

Preventive Education

Croak Student Legal Services’s mission is to help prevent disruption to students’ education due to legal problems. To that end, we work on educating students on the law to empower them to make educated choices.We present outreach programs periodically on topics of significance to DePaul students.

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Recent Outreach • President Obama’s Deferred Action for

Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is a current highlight of Croak Student Legal Services’s outreach. 

• We recently partnered with the OGC and several other DePaul University offices to present four sessions to DePaul students and staff on the DACA process and eligibility. 

• We also joined with the OGC to present a training session for the Career Center on employment issues (including DACA) for undocumented students.

An Active Role in the DePaul Community

Member of President Holtschneider’s DREAM working groupPartner with the Pro Bono and Community Service Initiative at the College of Law

Teaching volunteer law students general practice obligations such as interviewing new clients and legal research and writing skills

Participant in resource fairs and an active part of student life at the Lincoln Park Student Center

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Contacting Croak Student Legal Services

• SLS is available throughout the year and is located in Suite 308 of the Student Center on the Lincoln Park Campus.

• Students are required to make an appointment. • We encourage students to contact us as soon as

they think they may need legal assistance, rather than waiting for the situation to deteriorate.

• Katharine Peña– (773) 325-1588– kpena1@depaul.edu