Breaking the Cycle: OCU Law’s HEROES Clinic Empowers Second Chances
Launched in January 2025 under the direction of Judge Lorenzo Banks (’11), the Helping to Eliminate Re–Entry Obstacles for Enhancing Stability (HEROES) Clinic at Oklahoma City University School of Law has already made a remarkable impact. In partnership with Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma and other local agencies, the clinic empowers students to advocate for Oklahomans trapped in cycles of fines, fees, and financial incarceration and to restore opportunity through criminal–record expungement. Working across Cleveland, Pottawatomie, Oklahoma, and Canadian Counties, students provide direct representation that helps clients clear burdensome court debt and, when eligible, clear their records to rebuild their lives.
At cost dockets throughout the region, HEROES students work alongside Legal Aid attorneys and clinic faculty to assist individuals appearing pro se to explain why they cannot pay outstanding fines and fees. Students conduct critical client intake, completing hardship questionnaires and conducting focused interviews, often in under 10 minutes, to understand each client’s financial situation and identify viable legal arguments. Students then formulate persuasive arguments for fee waivers, which they present to the supervising Legal Aid attorney or clinic professor for courtroom advocacy. Licensed student interns take this work a step further: after obtaining informed client consent and conferring with the Legal Aid attorney, they present arguments directly to the court, advocating for relief in hearings that may last only 5 minutes yet can resolve debt that has burdened clients for decades.
Students also handle expungement cases, where they conduct comprehensive legal research to determine eligibility under Oklahoma’s complex expungement statutes. They analyze clients’ criminal histories, calculate waiting periods, and assess whether arrests, charges, or convictions qualify for expungement or sealing. Students draft detailed petitions and supporting documentation, often navigating multi–jurisdictional records and working with court clerks to obtain necessary case information. For many clients, expungement represents the final barrier to moving forward to clearing records that prevent them from securing employment, professional licenses, housing, or educational opportunities. Students guide clients through each step of this often lengthy process, from initial eligibility assessment through final court orders.
In just its first three months, student advocates secured over $470,000 in waived court debt for nearly one hundred clients and helped multiple clients achieve expungements. By embedding this work into the law school curriculum, the HEROES Clinic ensures consistent service to the community while preparing the next generation of lawyers to pursue justice with both skill and compassion.
The clinic’s excellence was recognized nationally when its inaugural student team received the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) Student Team Award, honoring their collaboration, professionalism, and transformative results. Their success has set the standard for what experiential education can accomplish when academic rigor meets real–world need.