A longtime advocate supports the work of the Innocence and Justice Project
For Clarence Sundram ’72, the lessons he learned early in his law school career about the injustices in our legal system have never left him. As a young student, he spent a semester clerking for an Erie County Court Judge, and on weekends he’d work in the pre-trial release program.
“I saw that there was a series of collateral consequences that fell upon people because they were poor and incarcerated. It really brought home the impact of law and poverty on the lives of people,” Clarence Sundram
“I saw a lot of poor people who ended up in jail,” Sundram says. “I saw that there was a series of collateral consequences that fell upon people because they were poor and incarcerated. It really brought home the impact of law and poverty on the lives of people.”
Now, with a lifetime of work in the public interest to his credit, including as a special master in the U.S. District Court system, Sundram is making it possible for new generations of law students to correct inequities in the justice system. A major financial gift from Sundram and his wife, Theresa Rodrigues, will fund fellowships for students participating in the law school’s Innocence and Justice Project, strengthening the project’s work in identifying cases with strong evidence of a miscarriage of justice or denial of due process, and pressing for redress. The project is part of the law school’s Advocacy Institute, and Sundram serves on the institute’s National Advisory Board.