Marion Overholt (BA 1978, LLB 1981), executive director of Community Legal Aid and Legal Assistance of Windsor, will retire on Sept. 29 after 40 years of law practice. She joined Legal Assistance of Windsor in 1988 as a staff lawyer and was appointed as executive director of both clinics in 2013.

“I am so grateful for the opportunity to teach the practice of poverty law to hundreds of University of Windsor law and social work students,” she says. “Our interdisciplinary setting was ideal to support our individual and systemic work. Our community partners were always so supportive and helped us expand our work in disability law, migrant worker rights, workplace adjustment services, and intimate partner violence.”

Those community partnerships extended to Overholt serving on the boards of numerous agencies and social justice groups including the Downtown Mission, Unemployed Help Centre, Windsor Coalition against Poverty, the Welcome Centre, the Windsor Social Justice Coalition, and Project Ploughshares.

Friends and colleagues are invited to celebrate her career at a gathering from 4 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20, at Thyme Kitchen, 100 Ouellette Ave. RSVP to jade.wallace@law.clcj.ca.

With Overholt’s retirement, Harpreet Burmy becomes the acting clinic director at Community Legal Aid, and at Legal Assistance of Windsor, Shelley Gilbert takes on the role of interim executive director and David Cote the role of interim director of legal services.