A legal clinic is a program that provides legal aid or services to various clients, often with the goal of giving law school students hands-on legal experience. Legal clinics are usually directed by clinical professors and can be associated with law schools or independent organizations. Students typically provide assistance with research, drafting legal arguments, and meeting with clients. In many cases, one of the clinics professors will show up for oral argument before the Court. However, many jurisdictions have "student practice" rules that allow law-clinic students to appear and argue in court. Legal clinics can provide free legal aid with no academic links, or they can be practice-based law clinics that provide hands-on skills to lawyers, judges, and non-lawyers on practical ethical dimensions of the law while offering free public defense legal services.
Legal clinics exist in diverse areas such as immigration law, environmental law, intellectual property, housing, criminal defense, criminal prosecution, American Indian law, human rights, and international criminal law. Clinics sometimes sue big companies and government entities, which has led to pushback in courts and legislatures, including attempts to put limits on whom clinics can sue without losing state subsidies.
Legal clinics provide free legal services to the community while giving students the opportunity to put their classroom skills to work. Each law clinic provides students with the tools they need to practice law and advocate for policies that respond to clients’ needs, push systemic change, and lead to justice. In every law clinic course, students serve as the lead attorney on a case or project, usually on a collaborative team. Most law clinics have a mission of taking on cases or projects that assist clients who would otherwise be unable to access legal services due to longstanding systemic oppression.
Legal clinics can be found in law schools and independent organizations across the United States. If you are a member of the local community and want to become a client of a legal clinic, you can contact the legal clinic office to make an appointment.
