‘Use Your Power’: On Advocating for the Vulnerable

July 16, 2024

Amber Harding, L’03 and Patricia Mullahy Fugere, C’81, L’84

The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, which provides accessible legal services to and engages in advocacy on behalf of the homeless and vulnerable in the nation’s capital, has Georgetown Law knit into its history and work. Patricia Mullahy Fugere, C’81, L’84, co-founded the organization in 1986 and served as its executive director from 1991 until she passed the baton in 2022 – to longtime colleague Amber Harding, L’03, who first began working there as a student. For 37 years, Georgetown Law students and alumni have organized the annual “Home Court” fundraiser for the clinic, raising over $13 million to date.

Fugere and Harding, who also co-teach a Georgetown Law seminar on “Homelessness, Poverty and Legal Advocacy,” recently reflected on their career paths and the meaning they find in their work.

Harding: During orientation, I went to OPICS [Office of Public Interest and Community Service] and said, “Help me! I want to do civil rights work with homeless people. Am I in the right place?” And they said, “Yes! You need to talk to Patty Fugere.” So I basically just hung out with Patty, following her around, having lunch with her. One day I called her and I said, “I have two summer internship offers. Which organization do you think would be a better fit?” And she said, “Neither. Come work for us.”

Fugere: I did not have a lifelong passion to become an attorney myself. As a Georgetown undergraduate, I did some tenant organizing, and I thought law would give me tools to make housing more affordable. Then I got involved with a group of lawyers looking to address homelessness, which led to establishing the Legal Clinic.

Harding: Through OPICS, I found a community of other public interest students.OPICS also helped me through applying for the Equal Justice Works fellowship and getting placed at the Legal Clinic. And I’ve been here ever since.

Fugere: It’s important for lawyers to recognize the privilege that we have. Doors open to us that do not open to other people. I think we should use our privilege to craft a more just world. We can also help build the next generation of justice warriors. I think of our seminar students, who are so impressive and who have been a great source of joy and energy for me. And my daughter [Genevieve Fugere Hulick, L’17], who was not quite four years old when I started as executive director, is a graduate of Georgetown Law and works for the D.C. Council – another example of using the law to work for the public interest.

Harding: As a lawyer, you learn ways of expressing yourself that can be very persuasive. So at the end of the day, have you used your power to make the world a better place?

A group of people holding up a large check representing the proceeds of the Home Court fundraiser

Harding, at center next to Dean William M. Treanor, accepting a “check” representing the proceeds of the 2024 Home Court baskeball fundraiser benefiting the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless