AUWCL 3L Caitlyn McDaniel Receives Peter M. Cicchino Award
April 24, 2020
American University Washington College of Law 3L Caitlyn McDaniel has been named recipient of the 2020 Peter M. Cicchino Awards for Outstanding Advocacy in the Public Interest.
Cicchino was an AUWCL professor, scholar, and public interest lawyer. In January 2000, the AUWCL faculty voted unanimously – with Cicchino abstaining – to create an award in his name. The Peter M. Cicchino Awards are given annually to honor students and alumni whose devotion to, and creative service in, the public interest exemplify the highest ideals of AUWCL.
"I am pleased to accept this award and to be included among a long list of public interest honorees at WCL. I am especially grateful to the Office of Public Interest for being so supportive,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel serves as a student attorney in the Disability Rights Law Clinic, where she provides representation to clients facing discrimination based on disability, and families seeking individualized education programs for their child with a disability.
Over the past two summers, McDaniel has interned at Southeastern Ohio Legal Services, serving as Rural Summer Legal Corps Fellow. In 2019, she worked to develop a list of practices to create education plans for children with disabilities, while developing a “know your rights” campaign for parents and guardians about public school fees. In the summer of 2018, she investigated the way in which court costs and license suspensions impact low-income criminal defendants, and presented her finding to the Assistant Public Defender for Franklin County, American Civil Liberties Union, and the Ohio Poverty Law Center. McDaniel also represented a client, before an Administrative Hearing Officer, seeking to continue disability benefits.
Upon graduation, McDaniel will be return to Southeastern Ohio Legal Services where she will serve as a Ohio Access to Justice Foundation Fellow.
McDaniel has also served on the board of the AUWCL chapter of the National Lawyers Guild during her time at AUWCL. She currently serves as president of the organization, and is a legal observer. McDaniel also serves as director of finance for AUWL’s SBA.
"In a very competitive field, Caitlyn McDaniel stood out for her dedication to access to justice for the underrepresented. Her summers spent in legal services, serving poor people in rural communities, and her year as a student attorney in WCL's Disability Rights Law Clinic demonstrated her commitment to this ideal,” said the Public Interest Faculty Committee, who selects the recipient, in a joint statement. “Caitlyn also served WCL in leadership positions, as president of WCL's chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, and as finance director of the Student Bar Association. Her activism and her passion for using law as a means for social change make her a worthy recipient of the Cicchino Award."
The Office of Public Interest hopes to reschedule the annual Peter M. Cicchino Public Service Dinner where McDaniel, along with two alumni honorees, will be recognized to October 2020.