1L Alyssa Martindale Helps Close Gap in Access to Justice by Assisting Clients with Name-Change Petitions

Alyssa Martindale

1L Alyssa Martindale helped clients navigate the name-change petition process during Alternative Spring Break, gaining insight into the ways that legal aid helps close the access-to-justice gap.

1L student Alyssa Martindale prepared name-change petitions for clients and helped them navigate a change in state law during Alternative Spring Break (ASB) in East St. Louis, Illinois.  

  • Worked for Land of Lincoln Legal Aid in East St. Louis, Illinois, planning and running a legal name-change clinic during Alternative Spring Break.  
  • Her group of students helped about 28 clients access the legal system and change their names.  
  • Intends to apply lessons from her ASB experience to a career in health law. 

1L Alyssa Martindale: 

I spent a week with three other students in East St. Louis, Illinois, where we worked with Land of Lincoln Legal Aid to help clients legally change their names. There are many reasons people want or need to change their names, such as returning to a maiden name after divorce. The overwhelming majority of clients I worked with changed their names for gender-affirming reasons.   

I spent the week with fellow students preparing for the name change clinic. On the day of the clinic, we participated in or led meetings with clients and pro bono attorneys from the St. Louis area. Approximately 28 clients participated in the name change clinic, and each student drafted around seven petitions.   

Illinois law changed the week before the clinic, reducing the steps required to change legal names. Before March 3, 2025, Illinois had a publication requirement, which meant anyone seeking a name change had to publish their name change in a qualifying publication, like a local newspaper.  

A petitioner could ask a judge to waive that requirement, but either way, it was a step that became an obstacle for many Illinoisans. The new law eliminated this requirement and allowed petitioners to request that the court impound their case. Informing clients of the new, more straightforward process was incredibly rewarding.  

This experience demonstrated how important legal aid work is in ameliorating the access-to-justice gap. Staff at Land of Lincoln Legal Aid also emphasized that, although they continually expand their services to meet as many community needs as possible, there are hundreds of thousands of people just in Illinois who qualify for their services that they cannot reach.   

I aspire to work for the State of California in a role related to health law. This experience reminded me that a benefit or right must be made accessible in order to be meaningful. On our ASB trip, that looked like a clinic guiding clients through the name-change petition process, with attorneys filing the petition on their behalf. In the health law context, that looks like legal representation when appealing an adverse decision regarding Medicaid benefits. I aim to integrate this lesson into my career.    

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