December 23, 2017
In response to the critical need for legal services for immigrant and refugee families in Cincinnati, the nonprofit Immigrant and Refugee Law Center was established in the fall of 2017 and will begin operation at the Roberts Academy Community Learning Center in January, 2018. Families from the Academy of World Languages and other immigrant and refugee families from the community will be welcomed. Services will be provided without cost by the Executive Director and international human rights lawyer, Julie LeMaster, with assistance from legal externs from the University of Cincinnati College of Law and other pro bono lawyers with expertise in related areas of need. CLCI Executive Director Darlene Kamine is co-founder of the Immigrant and Refugee Law Center and the president of the IRLC Board.
Prior to her return to her native Cincinnati earlier this year, Julie LeMaster managed programs in the U.S., Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa, and has advised, trained, and published extensively on gender, women’s rights, human rights, migration, women, peace and security, gender-based violence, and human trafficking.
LeMaster has held faculty appointments with the University of Denver and University of Colorado Boulder, and is adjunct faculty at the University of Cincinnati, where she teaches human rights at the College of Law, and international women’s rights for the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. She also serves on various boards and committees including the Hamilton County Commission on Women and Girls, Friends of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at UC, the UC Law School Law Firm/Access to Justice Project, and the Immigration Committee of the Cincinnati Bar Association.
A graduate of Brandeis University, LeMaster received her J.D. from the University of Cincinnati College of Law and a Master’s degree in International Relations and Communication from the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. She is fluent in Spanish and has reading knowledge of French.
For more information about the Immigration and Refugee Law Center, please visit www.irlawcenter.org.