Eugene R. King, director of the Ohio Poverty Law Center, will retire on June 13, 2014. Mr. King joined the Ohio State Legal Services Association (OSLSA) State Support Center in 1982 and became its managing attorney in 1986, a position he held until July 2009, when he became the director of the Ohio Poverty Law Center. The Ohio Poverty Law Center is a nonprofit law office that pursues statewide policy and systemic advocacy to expand, protect and enforce the legal rights of low-income Ohioans.

Mr. King focused his substantive work on access to health care. He worked on Medicaid, uninsured access and other low-income health law issues in Ohio for more than 25 years, and is an experienced manager and trainer. Gene received his JD from The Ohio State University College of Law in 1983. Gene managed OPLC’s work in policy advocacy, litigation support, training, substantive law task forces, publications and specialty assistance and consulting. Gene chaired several statewide legal aid task forces, as well as the Region IV Committee on Training—a three-state legal aid training consortium. Gene has served on numerous legislative, administrative and Ohio bar committees, and has written articles and developed trainings on health law, advocacy skills and legal services management issues. Prior to law school, Gene taught in the Cleveland and Cleveland Heights public schools after receiving his bachelors from Ohio University in 1974.



The Ohio State Bar Association established the Ohio State Legal Services Association (OSLSA) in 1966. Since then, OSLSA State Support, reorganized as the Ohio Poverty Law Center in 2009, has provided leadership, policy and administrative advocacy and direct-services support to the ever-changing legal services community in Ohio.