Whole-health support

The little girl’s cough just keeps hanging on, and she’s having a hard time breathing.

Her worried father brings her to the Community-University Health Care Center (CUHCC), where they hear the chatter of six different languages in the lobby.

After writing a prescription, the doctor refers the family to the Deinard Legal Clinic, CUHCC’s on-site medical-legal partnership with Stinson LLP, whose attorneys provide pro bono legal services to CUHCC patients.

The doctor suspects the girl’s breathing difficulties are the result of black mold in their rented apartment. The Stinson legal team then helps the father act to hold the landlord accountable for keeping the family safe and healthy in their home.

At CUHCC, located in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis, patients are offered far more than medical and dental care. The clinic has a full suite of supportive services to address social determinants of health, the nonmedical factors that contribute to a person’s overall health and well-being. These supports include not only legal services but language interpretation, patient advocacy, care coordination, health education, and dietitian and pharmacy services. It serves about 12,000 patients annually and is a program of the University of Minnesota’s Office of Academic Clinical Affairs.

“CUHCC is a really special place,” says Tim Sanders Szabo, pro bono attorney at Stinson and director of CUHCC’s Deinard Legal Clinic. “Everyone is working to meet people where they are.”

140,000 hours and counting

CUHCC, Minnesota’s first community health center, was founded by two University of Minnesota pediatricians in 1966 to provide high-quality health and wellness care to low-income community members, refugees and immigrants. Today its providers deliver comprehensive, team-based care to nearly 12,000 patients annually.

Stinson’s partnership with CUHCC dates back to 1993, Sanders Szabo says, when it became clear that many pediatric patients’ health problems were the result of environmental conditions. Medical interventions were simply not enough — legal support was needed to fully address their needs.

Planning for the future

For years, the Deinard Legal Clinic has operated out of a trailer on CUHCC property. Like the rest of CUHCC, it has significantly outgrown its space. In early 2024, University of Minnesota leaders approved a $45 million renovation and expansion that will double CUHCC’s size. The new building, scheduled to open in late 2027, includes a larger, dedicated legal office. Stinson, Otto Bremer Trust and others have made significant gifts toward the University’s $20 million fundraising goal for the building, but additional support is still needed.

Since then, Stinson lawyers have donated more than 140,000 pro bono hours to CUHCC patients, supporting almost 4,000 clients on a wide range of cases.

Last June, Stinson and the Deinard Legal Clinic received the 2025 Law Firm Pro Bono Award from the Advocates for Human Rights for their work supporting CUHCC patients who had recently arrived from West African countries. The same efforts were featured in the Pro Bono Institute’s Signatory Showcase, a series of interviews spotlighting some of the most impactful pro bono work happening around the country.

Meeting the moment

This year, Stinson lawyers have been working almost exclusively on cases involving immigrant families, Sanders Szabo says. During Operation Metro Surge, Stinson’s lawyers launched a rapid response effort to secure access to medication for patients who had been detained, file habeas petitions and argue for release at bond hearings.

“This was really an all-hands-on-deck moment,” says Sanders Szabo. “I’ve been so proud of the people at our firm and other firms who have gotten involved in this work. People were so eager to help.”

Today Stinson lawyers and CUHCC physicians are working together to meet the most pressing needs of formerly detained patients and their families. CUHCC has implemented a trauma-informed care approach to help patients process the mental and physical toll of arrest, detention and family separation. Providers also are offering a series of tests to screen for diseases people may have contracted in detention.

Meanwhile, lawyers are providing post-release legal support, gathering more information on people’s experiences in detention, explaining what is required of them upon release and discussing what options they have to challenge their deportation. In this era of increased immigration enforcement, Stinson has also been providing legal support to patients who decide that leaving the United States is the best option for their family.

Learning through experience

Claudia Martinez has spent much of her third year at Minnesota Law working as a pro bono law clerk on site at the Deinard Legal Clinic.

As one of the largest teaching health science centers in the state, CUHCC helps to address future workforce shortages by offering experiential, team-based care learning opportunities to nearly 200 medical residents and students annually. And through its partnership with Stinson, it is integral to the education of many law students at the University of Minnesota, too.

Martinez sees becoming a lawyer and expanding equitable access to legal services as a meaningful and lasting tool to effect positive change.

“CUHCC is one of my favorite places in the world,” Martinez says. “And the way that providers, lawyers and neighbors have shown up to support immigrants these past few months has definitely affirmed my decision to stay in Minnesota long term.”

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This story was originally published by the University of Minnesota Foundation.