A new fellowship created in memory of an OU law professor who passed away from cancer last August has been awarded for the first time.

The OU College of Law established the fellowship to honor the memory of professor Cindy M. Foley, who worked for 19 years in the OU College of Law Criminal Defense Clinic. The Cindy Foley Memorial Indigent Defense Fellowship was founded through a partnership with her family and is awarded to an OU law student who has excelled in indigent defense services. Second-year law student Luis Arango-Petrocchi was selected as the first recipient of Foley’s fellowship.

The fellowship honors Foley’s dedication to pro-bono service by awarding a $1,000 stipend to one law student for 200 unpaid hours of indigent defense services to the public during the summer.

“She was very near and dear to everyone’s heart here in the clinic,” Arango-Petrocchi said. “She helped create not only lawyers that are willing to help people that are unable to afford private council but also created that sense of community and sense of commradery at the clinic.”

Foley earned her Juris Doctorate from the OU College of Law in 1983. She went on to work in the Oklahoma County Public Defender’s Office and was recognized for ‘outstanding accomplishment’ by the Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyers Association in 1988.

Foley joined the Criminal Defense Clinic in the College of Law in 1991 and served as both a public defender and a supervisor to interns. The clinic offers free legal services for people unable to afford legal counsel, and provides students real world experience in criminal law.

The Foley fellowship is not the only public service fellowship offered within the College of Law. Each year the college awards the Coats Fellowship for Summer Public Service to three law students in the amount of $1,000 each and the Marjorie P. Maute Memorial Pro Bono/Public Service Fellowship to one law student in the amount of $1,500.