“She tends to make herself known,” he said, meaning it as a compliment.
“She was down here with her husband,” Cheney said of Gillam, whom he described as having a “very vocal personality … a big smile and eyes that kind of shine through.” The hard surfaces amplified the noise of passing vehicles.
The encampment was gone, but the place was only slightly better for it.
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On a cool, dry day in April, Cheney wandered over to the spot where he found Gillam, a small patch of sidewalk next to a damp concrete wall. He’s very, very passionate about representing people like” Gillam, who, because of class, race, income or other factors, struggle to take advantage of the legal system or, worse, become victim to it. I like the idea of fighting for people, and I think the courts, the justice system, they’re like a battleground.”įox said, “He’s very dedicated to the ideas of justice and making sure things come out the right way. “I’ve known since middle school that I wanted to be a lawyer,” Cheney said during a recent visit to the viaduct.
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The son of a teacher and a software engineer, Cheney arrived at Notre Dame in 2015 by way of California Polytechnic State University, or Cal Poly, where he studied political science as a “stepping stone to law school,” following a path that he first laid out for himself before high school.
I like the idea of fighting for people.” – James Cheneyįor Gillam, it was the beginning of an emotional journey home after 10 long months on the street - exposed, broke and often alone - after her husband, drunk and upset after a fight, “sold” their home to a local investor.
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Still, she agreed to follow Cheney to his car, where the two talked for an hour about her situation - the last in a series of actions on Cheney’s part that day that Fox described as “above and beyond the call of duty.”Īfterward, Cheney said, Gillam exclaimed, “I got me a lawyer!”įor Cheney, whose real-world legal experience to that point had consisted of interviews and plea deals on behalf of licensed attorneys, it marked the start of a real-life court battle - his first as a law student. “I couldn’t trust nobody looking for me,” Gillam said. “I started crying.”īut experience had taught her to question the kindness of strangers - even genuine-seeming ones like Cheney, a tall, easy-going California “kid” with gentle, probing eyes, neat blonde hair and an easy smile - so she hesitated. The encampment itself smelled of urine and other foul odors. He parked in a crumbling parking lot next to the viaduct and quickly located Gillam among the mess of blankets and cardboard mats, the men and women sitting and talking and eating and sleeping and drinking in the ramshackle encampment. factory - soon to be a massive tech hub - and the city’s minor league baseball park. Surrounded by vacant lots and buildings, the 1920s-era structure sits in the up-and-coming Renaissance District, a business and technology district south of downtown that includes the sole remaining former Studebaker Corp. “And I was like, ‘Let’s do it.’”Ĭheney jumped in his 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee and drove south to the viaduct. “I got the call, and she was like, ‘Yeah, she should be there right now,’” Cheney said of the caller, parishioner Ronda Hughes. He had been trying to contact Emma Gillam, a prospective client, for several months about the disputed sale of her home to a local real estate investor.Įarlier in the day, Cheney, who is from the Bay Area of Northern California, had sent a letter to Gillam, pleading with her to contact him directly “or else there’s nothing we can do for you.”įortunately, the person on the other end of the line, a member of Broadway Christian Parish, a local church with a long history of homeless outreach, had good news: They’d found Gillam, living in a homeless encampment beneath an old railroad viaduct in downtown South Bend.
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It was late October, and Cheney was working under Judith Fox, a professor of clinical law, in the Economic Justice Clinic, one of five faculty-run clinics that provide free legal services to individuals, small businesses and nonprofits. James Cheney, a recent University of Notre Dame Law School graduate, was at work at the Notre Dame Clinical Law Center when the phone rang.
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