Clinics

The culmination of the College's practice development courses in the litigation area are the Civil Clinic and the Criminal Clinic. These courses give third year law students an opportunity to represent actual clients and be involved in real cases. They offer experiences comparable to what a new attorney might face in the first three years of practice. The College of Law has offered clinical courses for over 20 years, and the clinical programs are supervised by three full-time faculty members who have extensive trial experience at both the state and federal levels. The clinics operate year round, and students may take clinic in the summer, fall or spring following the completion of their second year.

The Civil Clinic is located in the Sherman Welpton Courtroom Complex at the College of Law. The goals of the Civil Clinic are to teach skills needed by lawyers such as interviewing, counseling, negotiation, drafting, procedure, trial and appellate advocacy, strategy and decision-making. Emphasis is given to helping students translate theory into practice and to instilling high standards of professionalism. Students enrolled in Civil Clinic represent clients in and out of court in a wide range of civil matters including bankruptcy, tax audits, litigation, divorce and domestic relations, non-profit incorporation, immigration, adoption, landlord-tenant, collection, automobile negligence and estate planning and probate. Students appear in federal and state courts as well as before federal and state administrative agencies.

The Criminal Clinic operates out of the Lancaster County Attorney's Office in the Justice and Law Enforcement Center. Students enrolled in the Criminal Clinic prosecute misdemeanor and occasionally felony criminal cases, including marijuana and cocaine possession, intimidation by telephone, physical and sexual assault, public indecency, trespass, theft, forgery, fraud, receiving stolen property, escape, arson and extortion. Each team of students handles a large number of cases during the semester and learns valuable skills while conducting factual investigations, negotiating, preparing for trial and trying cases. In addition, the students participate in a weekly seminar which focuses on the development of skills necessary to prosecute criminal cases.

An important feature of the Civil and Criminal Clinics is that the students' work on cases is supervised by full-time faculty members, ensuring that students receive a valuable learning experience.

The Immigration Clinic is a course in which two students per year are permitted to enroll by faculty invitation only. Students enrolling in the Immigration Clinic represent low-income clients with immigration problems under close faculty supervision. Most of the work is in the areas of deportation defense, family-based immigrant visas, VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) self-petitions and asylum applications, although other types of immigration cases may be assigned to students from time to time at the discretion of the supervising faculty member. Students may not take Immigration Clinic and Civil or Criminal Clinic. Applicants for the Immigration Clinic will be interviewed in February of each year and can begin in the summer. Watch for an announcement from Professor Ruser after the first of the year.