The Estate Planning Clinic is a 6-credit hour transactional clinic course where students, under close faculty supervision, represent real clients in the provision of estate planning services. Students will provide legal advice and draft basic estate planning documents, including a will, a power of attorney instrument, advance directives, and title documents.
What to Expect
In addition to the direct client work, there is a classroom component with interactive lectures covering:
- basics of estate planning,
- benefits of estate planning,
- conducting an initial interview,
- drafting a simple will,
- drafting complementary estate planning documents,
- avoiding probate, and
- executing estate planning documents.
Most of the in-house clients served by the Clinic are veterans or spouses of veterans served through our Wills for Heroes Program. Estate Planning Clinic students will also have the opportunity to participate in one or both of the Clinic’s off-site programs: the Rural Estate Planning Clinic, where students work with senior citizens in out-state Nebraska in drafting their estate planning documents, and the Incarcerated Veterans Wills for Heroes Program, where students provide basic estate planning services to veterans in Nebraska’s prison system.
The Estate Planning Clinic has a classroom component that meets frequently (2-3x per week) for the first 3-4 weeks, then once per week thereafter. The Estate Planning Clinic is taught by Professor Ryan Sullivan.
Application to participate in the Estate Planning Clinic can be made as part of the clinic-selection process facilitated by the Law College in the early spring each academic year. Watch for announcements in February/March.