Two weeks ago, after a push by ASSU Vice President Mondaire Jones ‘09, the Legal Counseling Office (LCO) changed its guidelines to allow for counseling of students whose cases involve disputes with the University. Previously, students pursuing legal action against Stanford were denied help by the LCO.

Founded in 1973 by Stanford students, the LCO is funded by the ASSU and is free for students to use as a source of legal advice, though the attorneys involved do not actually represent students in court.

As chairman of the LCO policy board, Jones said he first became aware that students were denied legal counsel in cases involving Stanford during winter quarter of last year.

“I had noticed in the quarterly report that two individuals had been turned away in the previous quarter,” he said. “I inquired as to why they were denied counseling, and that’s when I first found out that these policies were in place.”

Jones said that the policy guidelines were not in line with student needs.

“It seemed ironic for students to be paying for this service and not receive something very basic, in my mind at least, in return,” he said. “I felt that the University was overstepping its boundaries in posing such restrictions.”

To change this, Jones asked the Undergraduate Senate and Graduate Student Council last spring to pass a resolution urging the LCO Policy Board to amend its guidelines.

“I knew that the legislative bodies couldn’t change the LCO policy guidelines because they lacked the constitutional authority to do so,” Jones said. “Only the LCO Policy Board can amend the LCO policy guidelines, according to the Joint Association Legislative Bylaws.”

Following the resolution, Jones also proposed an amendment to the bylaws to increase student representation on the Policy Board.

“The ASSU was very fortunate to have control of the Composition Board,” he said. “We feel that the majority vote for the Policy Board should be students that are paying for these services.”

At their first quarterly meeting two Thursdays ago, the Policy Board amended the guidelines.

“The University is aware of this development and we are waiting to hear from the lawyer representing the ASSU to discuss it,” Stanford General Counsel Debra Zumwalt said in a statement to The Daily. “We look forward to talking to ASSU representatives and learning more about what they plan to do.”

However, Jones said that the managing attorney of the LCO, William Faulkner, did communicate changes to the Office of the General Counsel and has not yet received a response. Faulkner did not respond to contact from The Daily.

“This was not done under the table or without the knowledge of the University,” Jones said. “There was a University administrator from the Law School present at the meeting.”

Despite the recent policy change, Jones said that he did not believe there would be more cases brought to the LCO against the University.

“The amendment in the policy guidelines still mandates that the counseling office encourage students to pursue existing protocol that the University has in place for resolving disputes,” he said.

Jones hopes students will hear about the changes and use the service if it is needed.

“It is important that students are made aware, otherwise the policy change won’t have the intended effect for providing students with counseling resources,” he said.

The changes to LCO policy are effective immediately.