UNIVERSITY
OF OREGON SCHOOL OF LAW
and
LANE COUNTY LEGAL AID AND ADVOCACY CENTER
INFORMATION FOR LAW STUDENTS
Introduction
The
Lawyering Skills Manual
Classroom
Instruction
Interviews
Attorney-Intern
Conference
Follow-Up
Work
Court
Appearances
Evaluation
of Clinic Interns
The Civil Practice Clinic is an intern program for University of Oregon law students at the Lane County Legal Aid and Advocacy Center. LCLAC is a nonprofit agency which represents low-income clients in various civil legal matters. Typical clinic cases involve family law, landlord-tenant law, administrative law (welfare, housing authority, unemployment, social security) and consumer (debtor-creditor) law. Actual cases may involve divorces, custody disputes, evictions, federal subsidized housing programs, disability benefits, garnishments, unlawful trade practices and many other legal issues.
Third-year law students who enroll in the clinic represent LCLAC clients in various civil matters, under the supervision of the clinic instructor. During the term, each student will be assigned ten to fifteen individual cases. Clinic students are responsible for all aspects of each case, from the initial client interview until conclusion. Students will develop skills in interviewing, counseling, drafting, negotiation, discovery, and litigation through field experience at the LCLAC office.
At the beginning of the term, there will be an orientation at LCLAC for all clinic students.
The Manual is a reference guide for practices and procedures in clinic cases and your responsibilities as a legal intern.
Chapters 1 through 6 outline the basic procedures you will be following during your participation in the Civil Practice Clinic. You should be familiar with these chapters and should review these frequently during your first several weeks in the program.
Chapters 7 through 12 are reference materials to which you should refer for assistance and guidance in handling various cases which are assigned to you. These chapters contain substantive materials about certain types of cases and forms and other reference guides to assist you in handling these cases.
At the beginning of the term, clinic students meet once each week for three hour classes taught by the clinic supervisor. These classes will introduce students to the clinic and to Legal Aid, will address professional responsibility, interviewing and counseling of clients, maintenance of case files, factual investigation, negotiation, and letter writing. Later classes give students an overview of typical issues in Legal Aid cases and strategies and procedures for handling the cases. The Manual will be used as the text for the classes.
Also at the first class, students will set up their schedules for client interviews and conferences at Legal Aid. As the term progresses, each clinic student will be assigned more cases. Approximately halfway through the term, the classroom instruction will end so that students have more time to devote to casework.
Each clinic student will be assigned two client interviews per week. Each interview is scheduled for one hour.
LCLAC divides the interview process into two steps: The intake interview and the legal interview. The intake interview is conducted by nonlawyers when the client first comes to LCLAC on a walk-in basis. Clients are screened as to their eligibility for Legal Aid assistance. The screening deals with financial eligibility and eligibility as to type of case.
After the intake interview, if the client is eligible for Legal Aid representation, the case is then assigned for a legal interview. Emergency cases are referred immediately to a staff attorney. Non-emergency cases are given appointments with legal interns in the civil clinic.
Therefore, the clients which you will interview have already been screened for financial eligibility and type of case. You will then conduct the initial legal interview to obtain factual information from the clients so that you can identify the legal issues and evaluate the merits of the case with the clinic supervisor. Detailed procedures for these interviews are set forth in Chapter 4 of this Manual.
Each week, clinic students will have a conference with their supervising attorney to discuss their interviews with new clients and develop a plan of action for handling each case. In each conference, two students meet with the attorney for two hours.
Following the client interview, you should organize your notes and prepare for the conference. You may need to do some preliminary research before the conference in order to be adequately prepared. However, you should not make any phone calls or send any letters prior to the conference.
At the conference, for each new case, each intern is expected to:
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give the name of each new client;
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clearly and concisely present the facts of the case;
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identify the legal issues and the relevant statutory or regulatory provisions;
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propose strategies for handling the case; and
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with the assistance of the supervisor, develop a plan of action for the following week.
For each open file, the intern is expected to:
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report on all work done since the previous conference;
- analyze the legal status of the case;
- propose the next steps to be taken; and
- with the assistance of the supervisor, develop a plan of action for the following week.
As you acquire more cases throughout the term, part of each conference will be devoted to reviewing your existing cases and planning follow-up work. Typically, the student is responsible for all casework: interviewing, investigation, research, drafting, negotiating, trial preparation, etc.
In addition to the scheduled conferences, you will often consult with your supervisor or other LCLAC staff members for help. You will find the LCLAC staff to be very accessible and helpful. They recognize that you have limited experience and will need assistance so that your clients will be properly represented.
Clinic students may appear in court and in administrative hearings as provided in the Law Student Appearance Rule adopted by the Oregon Supreme Court. Each student must be certified by the Supreme Court; the application forms are available from the Clinic secretary at the Law School.
Courtroom experience may include contact with a judge at ex parte, oral argument of a motion, conduct of a brief show cause hearing, or actual trial in some cases. In complex cases, the supervising attorney may assume responsibility for trial and have the student assist in pretrial preparation and act as co-counsel at trial.
Typical administrative hearings which may be handled by students involve welfare, food stamps, subsidized housing authority, social security and unemployment.
The consent of the client must be obtained in any case in which a law student will be appearing on the client's behalf before a court or administrative tribunal. The supervising attorney is responsible for explaining the procedure to the client. At the hearing or trial, the student will be accompanied by the supervising attorney.
In certain cases, students may also appear in pretrial or prehearing matters without supervision. For example, in welfare cases, a prehearing conference is conducted prior to the actual administrative hearing. At the discretion of the supervisor, students may participate in these conferences on their own.
Throughout the term, each student's work will be monitored by the clinic supervisor. We will review phone calls, letters, court appearances and other activities so that students can learn from their experience in the clinic.
The Clinic is intended as a learning experience, and students need not be afraid of making mistakes. Part of the supervisor's role is to provide a safe environment for students to begin learning the practice of law. Emphasis will be placed not so much on what you know but on developing good work habits and routines which will benefit you long after this class has ended. Part of this experience is learning how to handle the unexpected problems, the unavoidable surprises and mistakes, the difficult clients, etc. that accompany the practice of law.