OPLC Staff
 Eugene R. King, DirectorEmail: gking@ohiopovertylaw.org Phone: (614) 221-7201 ext. 125 The son of a physician, Gene King has worked on health law issues in Ohio for over 25 years and is an experienced manager and trainer. Prior to law school, Gene spent several years teaching in Cleveland Public Schools. Gene received his JD from the Ohio State University College of Law in 1983. Immediately after law school, Gene joined the OSLSA State Support Center and became its managing attorney in 1986, a position he held until July 2009, when he became the Director of the Ohio Poverty Law Center. Gene manages OPLC's work in policy advocacy, litigation support, training, task forces, publications, and specialty assistance and consulting. Gene chairs several statewide legal aid task forces as well as Ohio’s Medical Care Advisory Committee and the Committee On Regional Training, a three state legal aid training consortium. Gene has served on numerous legislative, administrative agency, and Ohio bar committees and has written articles and developed trainings for legal services managers. ******************************************************************* |
 Michael R. Smalz, Senior AttorneyEmail: msmalz@ohiopovertylaw.org Phone: (614) 221-7201 ext. 129 Mike Smalz has been working at OSLSA/OPLC on statewide family law, domestic violence, and other poverty law issues in Ohio since 1988 and has been practicing law for over 30 years. Mike received his JD from the University of Minnesota College of Law in 1976. Prior to joining OSLSA/OPLC, Mike practiced in legal services in Michigan, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Ohio Supreme Court's Advisory Committees on Domestic Violence and Children, Families, and the Courts. He has also served on many Supreme Court, Bar, and administrative agency committees and task forces, and the Ohio Child Support Guidelines Council. Mike has argued, served as counsel, or filed amicus briefs in nearly a dozen major Ohio Supreme Court cases and has given trainings and presentations for attorneys and non-attorneys on domestic violence, child support, fair housing law, public utility law, appellate practice, and other topics. He has published articles on federal civil rights laws, the primary caretaker custody doctrine, and domestic violence and is the author of two major guidebooks on fair housing law. ******************************************************************* |
 Linda Cook, Senior AttorneyEmail: lcook@ohiopovertylaw.org Phone: (614) 221-7201 ext. 124 Linda Cook has over 20 years experience practicing law and heads the Ohio statewide consumer law task force. Linda received her JD from the Ohio State University College of Law in 1987 and began her legal career in the Chillicothe office of Southeastern Ohio Legal Services. She served as managing attorney of that office for eight years before joining OPLC in 2006. Linda is a member of the Supreme Court’s Commission on Certification of Attorneys as Specialists and is a founding member of the Ohio Coalition for Responsible Lending, a statewide, broad based coalition addressing payday lending reform. In 2008, Linda played a key role in bringing about the reform of Ohio’s exemption laws, increasing the homestead exemption and enacting an automatic cost of living adjustment. She has been a member of Ohio’s Save the Dream legal assistance planning group since its inception, and she is the project manager for the Ohio Foreclosure Project, the statewide collaborative legal services foreclosure intervention effort. Linda coordinates and facilitates statewide trainings for legal services advocates on a variety of consumer issues, and has lectured on consumer issues such as mandatory arbitration in consumer transactions, post-foreclosure issues, and unregulated utilities. ******************************************************************* |
 Joseph V. Maskovyak, Staff AttorneyEmail: jmaskovyak@ohiopovertylaw.org Phone: (614) 221-7201 ext. 105 Joe Maskovyak has been practicing law for over 24 years, litigating and solving housing problems for indigent people in Franklin County and, for the past several years, addressing low-income Ohioans’ housing problems on a statewide basis at OPLC. He received his JD from the Ohio State University College of Law in 1985 and began his career at the Legal Aid Society of Columbus (LASC) in 1985 as a Reginald Heber Smith Fellow. Joe was the managing attorney of the housing unit at LASC for 12 years before joining OPLC in 2007. Joe has given presentations and trainings on Ohio landlord tenant law, federal subsidized housing law, and fair housing law topics. Joe has also worked on litigation to keep residential utility rates from rising and to bolster low income assistance & weatherization programs in Ohio. ******************************************************************* |
 Sarah Biehl, Staff AttorneyEmail: sbiehl@ohiopovertylaw.org Phone: (614) 221-7201 ext. 130 An Ohio native, Sarah Biehl received both her undergraduate and law degrees from Ohio State University and clerked for Chief Judge James G. Carr of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio before being awarded a Skadden Fellowship with the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago. While in Chicago, Sarah designed and operated a legal clinic inside a public charter high school on the west side of the city and developed a strong commitment to community-based lawyering as a means of working for systems change. Sarah moved back to Ohio in early 2008 to focus on systemic advocacy on education law issues as a staff attorney at the Ohio Poverty Law Center. Sarah is deeply committed to empowering low-income children and their families and has represented children and their parents in a variety of areas. Sarah has done presentations on special education law and students’ rights, published articles on school discipline and safe haven laws, and chairs the statewide task force in Ohio on education law issues. Sarah is also a core group member of the Dignity in Schools Campaign, a national coalition of advocates who aim to challenge the systemic problem of pushout in the nation's schools. ******************************************************************* |
 Chris Barley, Staff AttorneyEmail: cbarley@ohiopovertylaw.org Phone: (614) 221-7201 ext. 123 Chris Barley specializes in public benefits law, including cash assistance, food stamps, child care, and related Medicaid issues. Chris has a wealth of prior experience working for the State of Ohio, which gives him a unique and valuable perspective on the issues other legal aid attorneys face in trying to obtain public benefits for their low-income clients. Prior to joining OPLC in 2009, he worked for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services for 16 years, holding a number of positions including hearing officer, senior staff attorney, and 9 years as chief of the bureau of state hearings. Under his management, the bureau began issuing decisions in a timely fashion for the first time in 10 years. He modernized and automated many administrative functions, including the drafting and issuance of hearing decisions. He focused on legal training and decision writing for hearing staff. Chris also sent more than half of the hearing officers to Reno, Nevada to take the National Judicial College Administrative Law course. Prior to leaving the Department, Chris consolidated the administrative appeals under the bureau and streamlined the process to improve timeliness and efficiency. Chris received his JD from the Capital University College of Law in 1993 while working for the Ohio Department of Human Services in the Information Management Office. ******************************************************************* Email: mlindsay@ohiopovertylaw.org Phone: (614) 221-7201 ext. 113 Melissa Lindsay grew up in the Cincinnati suburb of West Chester, Ohio. In 2006, she received a bachelor’s degree in History and, in 2009, a law degree from Ohio State University. Also in 2009, Melissa was awarded an Equal Justice Works Fellowship to work at the Ohio Poverty Law Center. Melissa’s two-year EJW Fellowship is focused entirely on statewide prisoner reentry issues. Her work includes: building relationships between existing prisoner reentry resources and programs around the state; developing training materials and seminars for legal and social service providers working with post-release individuals; providing legal information clinics for post-release individuals; developing an electronic database of prisoner reentry programs and resources available in Ohio; being involved in the State and local reentry coalitions; working on pertinent legislation; and providing support to legal services attorneys around the state when they encounter reentry issues. ******************************************************************* |