Patric Cicero ’99 was recently appointed Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network, a group that delivers legal services to low-income Pennsylvanians. The Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network promotes policies, assists legal aid programs and joins community-based organizations to help and serve low-income Pennsylvanians.
Let's take a look at Cicero's journey since his time at Messiah College.
Shortly after graduation, Cicero received his J.D. from Temple University and worked as a law clerk to Sylvia H. Rambo, a federal judge in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Between 2005 and 2009, Cicero worked as a legal aid lawyer for MidPenn Legal Services, a non-profit law office which serves low income individuals and families, the disabled, elderly individuals, children and survivors of domestic violence. At MidPenn Legal, Cicero focused on consumer and housing cases and helped defend clients against predatory lending and debt collection practices.
At Messiah, Cicero spent two semesters in both Ecuador and Philadelphia. In Ecuador, Cicero's host father was a lawyer who focused on civil rights work and practice. In Philadelphia, he met a few legal aid attorneys who explained the importance of a good lawyer for low income individuals.
Cicero said, "My sociology degree has been foundational in each of the jobs I have held. It was the beginning of my training to think critically. From providing an understanding of the structural problems plaguing the poor to comprehending that law is a system unto itself, the theories of Durkheim, Marx, Weber, and Berger have stayed with me. I am forever grateful that I chose to be a sociology major at Messiah College."