39th Annual Home Court

Planning for the first Home Court game started in 1987, the same year the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless was founded, when Georgetown University Law Center student Jeff Schwaber took to heart the painful juxtaposition of the hundreds of homeless men and women staying at the Community for Creative Non-Violence just a block away from his law school. Jeff and his classmates pulled together and organized the first-ever Home Court game, with the goal of raising $10,000. At the urging of Professor Florence Roisman, Jeff connected with Patty Mullahy Fugere, who was then helping to organize an ad hoc committee of the DC Bar to provide legal services to homeless residents – a project that went on to become the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. In 1988 first Home Court took place and was wildly successful, bringing in $40,000. The law student organizers chose to donate the funds to the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, to hire its first staff attorney. 

The original format of the game was a bi-partisan charity basketball game between Members of Congress and the faculty and administration of the Georgetown University Law Center. Remaining a strong student-run event in its more than three decades of existence, in 2024 Home Court saw a new format, in which students and faculty from GULC and George Washington University Law School faced off in a highly competitive and spirited game night that has energized a whole new generation of Home Court fans.  

The event continues to be the centerpiece of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless’ main fundraising campaign of the year, and our staff and board are eternally grateful to all who have had a hand in making Home Court such a wonderful success over the years.