The Archives and Rare Books Library is excited to announce that the Robert F. Laufman papers have been processed, and a finding aid has been created.
Robert F. Laufman (1931-2024) began his career as an engineer at Proctor and Gamble. He returned to school and earned a law degree in 1961 from Northern Kentucky University. He was an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Cincinnati before establishing his private practice in 1971. His firm focused on assisting clients with social justice issues such as school desegregation, prison reform, employment discrimination, racial discrimination, housing discrimination, and police misconduct. His firm, Laufman, Rauh and Gerhardstein, partnered with Al Gerhardstein and Trudy Ruah, two Cincinnati social justice lawyers to support individuals facing discrimination. Laufman also represented numerous organizations in Cincinnati, including Housing Opportunities Made Equal, Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, and Planned Parenthood. Over the course of his career, he served as counsel on over 300 cases.
Laufman co-founded Volunteer Lawyers for the Poor and volunteered with the Ohio Justice and Policy Center. He served as president and later the board of the Legal Aid Society of Cincinnati and was involved with the Cincinnati Bar Association Grievance Council.
Notable cases documented within his papers include:
- June M. Betts v. Hamilton County Board of Mental Retardation (1989)
- Robert F. Laufman v. Oakley Building and Loan Company (1976)
- Board of Education of the City of Cincinnati Board of Education of the City of Cincinnati v. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1976), which was also known as the St. Mary’s Case
Overview of collection
Most of his case files consist of copies of the original complaint, legal pleadings, correspondence regarding the case, and appeal briefs. Laufman’s papers illustrate social reform movements or in some cases the disregard of federal law when it came to the Fair Housing Act, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, the Civil Rights Act and other legislation prohibiting discrimination.
To view the online finding aid, please visit the Robert F. Laufman papers