Staff Attorney Josh Hinkel, based in our Canton office, is a key member of our team working extensively on record sealing and expungement and housing cases. He earned his law degree from Case Western Reserve University, and has visited the Ohio statehouse to educate elected officials on our work.
Learn more about Josh below!
When did you join CLA?
I first joined Community Legal Aid in the fall of 2019 as a post-graduate fellow. My law school had a fellowship program to help new graduates gain work experience if they were changing areas of law. The fellowship lasted only a few months, as its goal is to help obtain necessary work experience in that field between the bar exam and being sworn in as an attorney. Most of my legal work before becoming licensed focused on criminal law, as I had spent a few years in a criminal defense firm and a prosecutor’s office. So, I started working in the Akron Office as a fellow. When my fellowship ended after two months, Community Legal Aid graciously hired me as a temporary attorney in the Canton Office. I worked as a temporary attorney for a few months and then became full-time in January 2020.
In what areas have you worked since joining, and what is your present role?
My fellowship work focused on our Health Education Advocacy and Law (HEAL) Project. I assisted the attorneys with research and case work. Once licensed, I have worked in the areas of family law (primarily visitation), consumer law, landlord-tenant, criminal record sealing and expungement, and, for a brief time, bankruptcy.
Currently, I work on our Tenant Assistance Project, helping tenants resolve issues with their landlords; the Assisting Reentering Citizens Project, where we help people who have made a few mistakes clean up their record to be able to pursue a better future; and our Neighborhood Law Project, where we tackle systemic issues in our communities.
Why did a career in legal aid appeal to you?
Originally, I had planned to be a prosecutor. I had spent most of my law school career working in the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office in the crime strategies unit, which handles cases involving gangs, threat groups, and systemic crime sprees. One of my jobs as a law student involved listening to the jail calls of defendants in cases the prosecutors I worked for handled. Most of the defendants in the cases I worked on were very young, in their late teens to early 20s. What I came to learn from listening to hundreds of hours of calls is that many of them made the decisions they made due to poverty. I’d hear them describe civil legal issues going on in their lives or their families’ lives, which led them to make a decision that led to their current legal issues. At a certain point, I realized that I wanted to try to alleviate the issues that were leading these young individuals to be in negative situations. It became clear that I needed to make a switch to a legal aid-like organization.
How do your clients inspire you?
The resilience of our clients is truly inspiring. I think many of us would have given up if we experienced some of what our clients have, yet they persist.
What do you want people to know about the work you do/the clients you serve?
The main thing I’d like people to know about our clients is that they are incredible people who are often going through a rough patch.