Community Legal Services celebrates 60 years
Recent gathering also paid tribute to longtime senior manager Lena Hopkins.
Marlene Carrion, Chris Kemp, Margaret Harrell and Leo Henriquez, left to right, pose together during the Community Legal Services Pro Bono Happy Hour & 60th Anniversary Celebration at Mainstreet Community Bank of Florida in Ocala, Fla. on Thursday, July 9, 2026. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2026.
Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida marked its 60th anniversary during a Pro Bono Happy Hour & 60th Anniversary Celebration at Mainstreet Community Bank of Florida in Ocala.
The nonprofit civil legal aid organization provides free legal assistance in civil matters to low-income and vulnerable residents throughout Central Florida, working with staff attorneys and volunteer lawyers to help clients protect their homes, health, families and livelihoods. The organization also coordinates pro bono legal services by recruiting private attorneys to represent qualifying clients.
The July 9celebration also paid tribute to Lena Hopkins, Community Legal Services’ longtime senior manager of pro bono services, who died June 29 after dedicating more than 27 years to the organization and recruiting hundreds of volunteer attorneys to expand access to justice.
During the event, local attorney Daniel Hightower led a toast in Hopkins’ memory using Lake Ridge Sweet Red wine, her favorite.
Hightower recalled meeting Hopkins more than two decades ago when she recruited attorneys to volunteer with Community Legal Services’ weekly legal aid clinics and described her as a dedicated advocate who devoted her career to ensuring “justice for all” and serving those who could not afford legal representation. He said Hopkins’ legacy reflected three defining qualities: “Lena the person,” “Lena the patriot” and “Lena the servant.”
FULL TEXT OF TOAST
A tribute to Lena Hopkins
By Daniel L. Hightower, lawyer
Background. When Lena and I first met 25-30 years ago, she was the pro bono coordinator for Community Legal Service of Mid-Florida (CLS), also known as Legal Aid. She was charged with corralling local lawyers to donate time (and money, if they wished) to helping people in our community, who could not afford a private lawyer, with their civil legal problems…pro bono…for good and at no charge. Lena and I hit it off immediately because I have been a supporter of Legal Aid since the 1970s.
Lena organized a weekly Legal Aid Clinic at the local CLS office staffed by other volunteer local lawyers and me to dispense legal advice and more to local people who called the CLS office asking for legal help with early problems before they were sued. These were usually lesser legal problems like landlord-tenant disputes, credit card collection agencies, etc., but huge problems to our clients. The full-time CLS lawyers handled the cases after our clients were sued.
Several other local lawyers and I volunteered for Legal Aid Clinic one afternoon per week. Thursdays as I recall. Lena or others would book us for 1, 2, 3 and 4 p.m. appointments. We‘d meet with the clients, listen to their legal problems and then handle them. I could usually solve my clients’ problems with a letter on CLS stationary to whoever was pushing around my clients and probably violating some law. My CLS clients just needed someone to explain their legal rights to them and stand up for them in disputes with heavy-handed corporations and others.
When I think back about Lena and her many years of contributions to our community, I see her through three lenses:
One, Lena the person! She was born with her unique set of gifts and talents (like we all are) and she worked hard to multiply them. Parable? Lena was smart, confident, personable, persuasive and proactive and she used her gifts and talents to benefit less fortunate people via pro bono legal services.
Two, Lena the patriot! Carved in the granite over the entrance to the U.S. Supreme Court Building are the words, “Equal Justice Under Law.” The last six words of the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag are, “…with liberty and justice for all.” All…not just for the affluent or the financially comfortable. Pro bono legal services in civil legal disputes fills the previous void in America’s promise of “Justice for All.” And Lena was pro-active in organizing pro bono legal services for CLS clients.
Three, Lena the servant! Scripture tells us, “Whatever you have done for the least of these, my brethren, you have done for me.” Lena dedicated her life to serving “the least of these” with pro bono legal services.
Lena, we’re fortunate to have known you. You were an inspiring example to us. And we pledge to continue the good work that you dedicated your life to.
To read a recent feature obituary for Hopkins in the “Gazette,” go to A woman of ‘passion and compassion’ | Ocala Gazette
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