The McCloskeys have finally found an organization with which to complete 200 hours of pro bono legal work that will count towards completing their probation requirements.
Mark McCloskey said he received a phone call and subsequently a letter from Jeanne Philips Roth, associate director of client services at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri (LSEM), last month offering the volunteer opportunity of writing formal legal memorandums.
“They're not letting me interact with their clientele, but I'm writing legal briefs for them,” McCloskey said. “Right now, I'm working on the 2020 Amendments to the Missouri Merchandise Practices Act. My wife has a family law-type assignment to do for them to begin with and the associate director said in our phone call that they would assign us more topics."
McCloskey and his wife, Patricia, rose in national prominence during George Floyd protests two years ago after they were arrested and charged with misdemeanors for brandishing guns in front of their St. Louis home while demonstrators marched towards former Mayor Lyda Krewson's home nearby.
As previously reported in the St. Louis Record, on Feb. 8, the Missouri Supreme Court issued an order indefinitely suspending their law permits and requiring them to complete 100 hours each of pro bono legal work as part of their probation.
But the state's highest court denied the McCloskeys' request to represent Project Veritas (PV) to fulfill their service probation requirement and the director of LSEM in Franklin County initially told the McCloskeys they weren’t a good fit for the organization.
LSEM is where low-income families are eligible to receive free legal help.
"This concept that somehow our political positions are contrary to the interests of the indigent or African Americans is weird because that's who we've represented our entire career," McCloskey told the St. Louis Record.
Both of the McCloskeys are trial attorneys who founded the McCloskey Law Center some 25 years ago where they say 85% of their clientele and many of their employees are Black. So far, they have completed about 12 of their 200 hours of pro bono probation requirements.
“It would have been more fun to actually be involved in the nitty gritty and in helping actual human beings instead of writing research, which actually won't benefit anybody,” McCloskey said of the legal memorandums he is completing for LSEM. “I think they are afraid that my political position will cloud their image."
McCloskey sought Roy Blunt's Senate seat earlier this year as a Republican but lost to Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt in the primary.