Volunteer Profile: Nancy Schade

Nancy Schade signed up for an Ohio State Bar Association continuing legal education (CLE) seminar to help those affected by the ongoing foreclosure crisis. She was responding to a letter sent by Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer to Ohio attorneys asking for volunteers to work with the statewide foreclosure-prevention program. The Cleveland Heights attorney wanted to help alleviate the crisis plaguing local neighborhoods and residents. She anticipated taking on one case. At the session, Ms. Schade met Legal Aid attorneys Thomas Mlakar and Ann McGowan Porath and spoke briefly with them about the organization’s Volunteer Lawyer Program. Soon after, she assumed an integral role in Legal Aid’s foreclosure-prevention effort; she set up shop at Legal Aid’s Cleveland office one day a week, organizing additional trainings and more than three hundred volunteer attorneys. Ms. Porath observes that this volume of interest “put pressure on our existing systems,” making Ms. Schade’s professional support essential. Legal Aid attorneys also actively seek Ms. Schade’s feedback on trainings she attends, using her evaluation and suggestions to shape future sessions. Ms. Shade says of her work, “I’m glad to do it.” Ms. Porath adds, “Nancy’s invaluable.”