Pleasantville wasn’t always pleasant for Kevin Campfield. So he balanced two worlds in his New Jersey hometown growing up: one as a blossoming Catholic school football player and another back in his neighborhood.
“It made me insecure returning home that people I grew up with were seeing me in a better position,” said Campfield. “They would say I was better than them. So that conflicted me and that type of dichotomy was what made me gravitate towards the streets, getting involved with different stuff that leads people to become incarcerated.”
He ultimately spent 13 years in prison. While incarcerated, Campfield was unsatisfied with his lawyer and began learning the law to better advocate for himself.
Those studies laid the groundwork for establishing the National Paralegal Center. When Campfield returned home, he struggled to find employment like many other justice-impacted individuals. His job stocking shelves was nothing to live by. And Campfield felt like he could offer more to the world.
“I already knew I was going to start a business because I knew being formerly incarcerated was going to have to conflict with me being able to find a job that paid fair wages,” he said.
Campfield spent the next three months stocking shelves overnight before he saved up enough for an office space rental and quit. Through the newly established National Paralegal Center, he provides cost-effective legal services for people usually priced out by lawyer fees.
“We help people get out of prison, [provide] post-conviction relief, consideration motions…you name it, that’s what we specialize in… advocating for the freedom of people that’s incarcerated at a legal capacity,” said Campfield.
He soon caught the eye of Columbia Law School, and ended up certified through their Paralegal Pathways Initiative, which he spoke to the Amsterdam News about earlier this fall. He’s since remained at Columbia University as a student, enrolled in the Justice-in-Education Scholars Program majoring in general studies. Campfield is currently eyeing law school after graduation.
For now, he’s got his hands full helping folks around New York and New Jersey, as well as Pennsylvania and Connecticut, through the National Paralegal Center. Now in his fifth year, Campfield says his services contributed to six exonerations.
“My goal is to ultimately bring free legal resources to people incarcerated,” he said. “That’s the ultimate goal. I just want to help people incarcerated, I want to help people in the streets gain knowledge and awareness of law and have resources that can be there to help them immediately.
“I want to make law accessible to everybody that needs it.”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
Proud of you bro
I reached out to National Paralegal Center for services and a contract was generated all services were paid for and my account was then charged unauthorized through Campfield’s office. I have tried receiving my money refunded although after going back and forth correspondence I was then left without a solution.
Me as well i paid my balance of 2,500 and he completely ran off with my money
I’m getting complaints against this guy from system impacted individuals. None of my fellow paralegals know of him and he’s not known by anyone I know in the Wrongful Conviction Advocacy community. I’m actually here because I got another complaint just today. Contact me on my Facebook page BTM Research&Consultation Services LLC
Seriously???? I was looking them up on the Internet to make sure they existed cuz something seemed off!!