Joshua Klein (’21) is dedicated to having marginalized voices heard. Allison Tirres, associate dean for academic affairs and strategic initiatives, describes him as “having a wide-ranging intellectual curiosity, a willingness to engage with difficult subjects and the capacity to find creative solutions. I first got to know Josh when he was a student in my Constitutional Law course, and now I work with him in his capacity as symposium editor for the Journal for Social Justice. His qualities will serve him well in his career as an attorney and advocate, and I am very excited to see where his path takes him next.”
As chair of communications for OUTLaws—a student organization dedicated to building awareness about and sensitivity to LGBTQ issues among the law school’s students, faculty and administration—Klein sees a great opportunity to support and raise awareness. He plans to use social media to share academic articles related to the LGBTQ community, as well as showcase DePaul students and alumni who are active in that community. He hopes that being more active on social media will allow people to understand “that the law is accessible to everyone. There is a perceived barrier between the law and regular people, and part of our goal is to show how the law affects everyone’s life. A law that may seem obscure can have an actual impact on real people, and I want to draw attention to those laws, champion those who have gotten involved, and get others to care.”
Klein recognizes the importance of the October 11th National Coming Out Day in expanding the
perception of what LGBTQ means. After attending a small high school, college showed him that the larger LGBTQ community is “much broader and more diverse” than the standard media representations. He sees National Coming Out Day as an opportunity to educate himself and others about this and other issues facing the LGBTQ community. Klein also enjoys learning about historically significant people in the LGBTQ community, such as one of his role models, Pearl Hart, a Chicago attorney who was the first woman named a public defender in Chicago’s Morals Court and who famously defended gay people in the early twentieth century. According to Klein, she was known as the “Guardian Angel of Chicago’s Gay Community.”
Before coming to law school, Klein completed his undergraduate degree in music performance at Winona State University in Minnesota. He subsequently worked in retail for three years and became a manager at the Chicago Water Tower Place Macy’s, but he felt the need to make more of a difference in the world. He remembers, “I was at a seminar learning about dinner plates when my phone was blowing up with news about Trump’s travel ban. I read about lawyers going to airports to help stranded foreigners, and here I was learning about dinner plates. I decided, ‘That’s it, I’m going to figure out how to go to law school.’”
Law has always been an area of interest for Klein because of its omnipresence. As he puts it, “One of the reasons I wanted to go into law school was due to all the reading I did in my free time that had some type of legal component. Whether science, business or social justice, there’s always a legal component, and there’s always more to know.”
After graduating from DePaul Law, Klein aspires to work at a private firm focusing on civil litigation, and he looks forward to participating more in the LGBTQ and legal communities. He is especially excited about joining the Chicago Bar Association Symphony Orchestra (which he has been unable to do because their season is active during class times) and becoming a practicing attorney and active musician. “I plan on auditioning on the clarinet, but I also play the saxophone.”