Claire Chevrier decided to go to law school when an administrator at the high school at which she was teaching told her to stop trying to get her students special education services, because it wasn’t “like any of their parents know a lawyer.” Determined to become the kind of lawyer her administrator did not believe exists—one who fights for people’s rights regardless of whether they are indigent—Claire graduated cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center, where she focused on education, criminal justice, and civil rights law.
While at Georgetown, Claire interned for the Children’s Law Center’s Special Education Project, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division’s Educational Opportunities Section, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights’ Educational Opportunities Project. Claire also represented low-income tenants in the Landlord and Tenant Branch of D.C. Superior Court through the D.C. Law Students in Court Clinic, for which she won the Nathan A. Neal Award for Outstanding Advocacy. In her last year of law school, Claire had the privilege of interning for Professor Brian Wolfman, which put her on the petitioner’s team for the landmark Supreme Court case, Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District. Claire received the Dean’s Certificate from Georgetown University Law Center recognizing her special and outstanding service to the Law Center community.
After law school, Claire was an Equal Justice Works Fellow sponsored by Arnold & Porter at School Justice Project, a nonprofit that provides free special education legal advocacy for court-involved young people. In this role, Claire represented clients, engaged in systemic advocacy, and established free education legal clinics in Washington, D.C. to expand access to free education legal advice and brief services. Unfortunately, she saw first-hand the ways in which our criminal justice system criminalizes poverty. Claire serves as Policy Counsel for the ACLU of Ohio, where she manages the local and statewide, legislative and judicial pretrial advocacy efforts, working to create the changes her previous clients deserve.
