The cliché “justice is blind” has taken on a far deeper meaning for former judge, prosecutor and current legal advocate Nicholas Pomaro. Pomaro has built a highly successful legal career and overcome unique obstacles despite being blind since he was a child.
Pomaro will speak at Vanderbilt Law School on Monday, March 28 at noon in Flynn Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public. The lecture is titled, “Blind Justice” and is sponsored by Vanderbilt’s Disability Law Society.
Pomaro has helped hundreds of other blind people with their legal problems running the Kane Legal Clinic in Chicago, which provides free legal services to the blind and visually impaired.
Pomaro, who has been blind since age six, says he was told by a school administrator during law school that he could never be a trial attorney because he couldn’t see facial expressions of witnesses and jurors. He graduated from The John Marshall Law School in 1964 and for about a decade before he rose to the bench, Pomaro worked as an assistant Cook County state’s attorney prosecuting criminal felony cases.
Pomaro retired from the bench in 2005. Today, he runs the Kane Legal Clinic located at the Chicago Lighthouse. The clinic provides free legal services to blind or visually impaired people on low-incomes who seek representation in matters such as those related to job discrimination, social security, tax issues, and other civil matters, as well as assistance in criminal defense. It is among numerous programs operated by the Lighthouse, one of Chicago’s oldest social service agencies that is widely regarded as the nation’s most comprehensive in meeting the needs of people who are blind or visually impaired.