UNIVERSITY
OF OREGON SCHOOL OF LAW
and
LANE COUNTY LEGAL AID AND ADVOCACY CENTER
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The Civil Clinic offers third-year law students an opportunity to develop practice skills in court and administrative hearings, while representing low-income clients in various legal matters. The clinic is supervised by Jim Kocher, who has over twenty-five years of experience in private and public interest law practice.
The Civil Clinic is an intern program at Lane County Legal Aid and Advocacy Center, a nonprofit agency which represents low-income clients in civil legal matters. Some examples of cases successfully handled by previous clinic students are:
- a federal court suit based on the Americans with Disabilities Act to force the state of Oregon to provide a lifesaving liver transplant to our client;
- a Social Security hearing involving a client who had nine multiple personalities;
- an interstate child custody case involving simultaneous legal proceedings in Massachusetts and Oregon;
- a national appeal of a home foreclosure by the Farmers Home Administration; and
- a suit for an emergency injunction to stop a landlord from shutting off water and electricity to tenants who had complained about housing conditions.
Every student is assigned several cases which may result in a court appearance or contested case hearing. For example, students may represent clients in family law cases and landlord-tenant cases in state court, and in consumer law cases which may be in state or federal court. Nearly every student will represent a client in one or more state or federal administrative hearings (which are usually half-day mini-trials) involving social security, welfare, food stamp, public housing or unemployment benefits.
Clinic students are responsible for all aspects of each case, from the initial client interview until conclusion. Students develop skills in interviewing, counseling, drafting, negotiation, discovery, and litigation. Most importantly, students learn how to analyze client cases and develop strategies to address various legal problems.
All work is closely supervised so that students begin to learn how to practice law and develop confidence in their skills in a safe and supportive environment. Students find that clinic experience may be very helpful in making career plans, offers real-life case experience which is valuable during job interviews, and is a rewarding opportunity to provide pro-bono service to the community.
If
you are interested in Civil Clinic or would like more information,
please call
Jim Kocher
at Lane County Legal Aid and Advocacy Center (485-1017 x.145).
Also check out our website at www.lanecountylegalservices.org.
| Over five thousand
low-income persons in Lane County seek help from Lane County Legal Aid and Advocacy Center
each year. Many of these people have serious, imminent legal problems. Our agencies always need volunteers. If you are interested in
volunteering, |