"The Mississippi Civil Clinic provided me with an opportunity to both learn about the legal process in a more practical setting, and to help serve the legal needs for the local community. I strongly recommend it for all students."

   Chadwick G. Robison, Class of 2004

"I felt a sense of fulfillment by helping clients who may not have been able to afford representation or receive equal access to justice without our help."

   LaDonna Curtis, Class of 2005

"I never expected the personal growth that I encountered. My interaction with the clients at the food pantry dispelled many myths concerning the poor in our society. The University of Mississippi Civil Legal Clinic has instilled in me a sense of duty to use the skills I have learned in law school in a way that can offer the missing element of hope to the poor in the community where I develop my practice."

   Kevin Perkins, Class of 2005

"Working with the Civil Legal Clinic this year has been incredibly rewarding. Frankly, before my association with the Clinic, I had no desire whatsoever to practice family law. But seeing the difference our Clinic has made with the clients has changed my mind. Through my experience as a classroom teacher, I was sadly aware of the widespread nature of abuse, but it wasn?t until I worked on these cases that I realized how much difference an attorney can make in these women?s lives. I am sold."

   Rebecca Gurner, Class of 2006

WHAT IS THE CIVIL LEGAL CLINIC?

The University of Mississippi School of Law's clinical and externship programs provide third year students with opportunities to learn practical skills and substantive law by representing low income clients under faculty supervision. The clinics? dual functions of education and public service are accomplished through a law firm model in a classroom setting. Students meet weekly in class to learn substantive law and practical skills and to discuss ethical issues in clinic cases. In addition, students are assigned to one of the clinic?s seven practice units, each under the supervision of an adjunct or full time faculty member. The clinic?s educational goals are to integrate academic and skills components of legal education and to provide instruction in interviewing, counseling, fact investigation, problem solving, drafting, and other lawyering skills not emphasized in traditional law school classes. Its public services goals are to assist persons unable to secure needed legal services and to instill in its students the importance of pro bono assistance as members of the bar. The clinic serves hundreds of clients who have no other access to legal services.

The Civil Legal Clinic aspires to better prepare its students for the practice of law, to offer the resources of the University of Mississippi School of Law to help meet the community need for legal services, and to prepare its students to open the justice system to all members of society.

WHO DOES THE CIVIL LEGAL CLINIC SERVE?

The lack of adequate legal assistance for low and even moderate income persons in Mississippi is an undeniable fact. The state?s federally-funded legal services organizations, the primary source of free legal services, serves approximately 16,000 potential clients for each of the thirty-five legal services attorneys in the state. Many citizens with income above the legal services guidelines are unable to afford private legal assistance. Families with low to moderate income need assistance with consumer cases, divorce, custody, and support matters, property issues, health insurance and other benefits, social security, medicare and medicaid. Without the assistance of the private bar, Mississippi citizens are denied even the most basic access to the justice system. Law schools can help to close this gap by offering direct services and, more importantly, by graduating students committed to pro bono practice and trained in providing needed assistance.

WHAT IS THE CLASSROOM COMPONENT?

All Civil Legal Clinic students attend a common classroom component. The class meets two afternoons a week for an hour and a half. In addition, all students enrolled in the Civil Legal Clinic must attend the Clinic Orientation, which takes place a few days prior to the start of the semester.

WHAT CLINICAL UNITS ARE OFFERED WITHIN THE CIVIL LEGAL CLINIC?

The Civil Legal Clinic offers seven separate clinical experiences. Clinic students typically work in groups of two on cases or projects within their separate clinic unit, under the supervision of the clinic unit professor. The Clinic units include:

• Child Advocacy Clinic. Students represent children in youth court in matters of delinquency, school discipline, and abuse and neglect. This includes all aspects of the youth court process, including detention, adjudication, and disposition. Students also assist in acting as guardians ad litem in highly contested custody and visitation cases. Students are supervised by Julie Waterstone, a full-time Clinical Professor.
  
• Consumer Clinic. Students work on a variety of consumer cases, including Truth-in-Lending, predatory lending, breach of warranty, and Landlord-Tenant cases, and provide assistance ranging from advice and counsel to full litigation. Students are supervised by David Calder, a private attorney in the law firm of Rutherford and Calder.
  
• Elder Law Clinic. Students assist in the representation of elderly and/or disabled clients of North Mississippi Rural Legal Services and in developing written materials to inform the public on elder law topics. Students also participate in exercises related to Elder Law, including a visit to a nursing home or assisted living facility with a long-term care ombudsman, and report their findings to the class. Students are required to make a presentation to a community group or a group of service providers for the elderly on an elder law topic. Students are supervised by Catherine V. Kilgore, Director of the North Mississippi Rural Legal Services Elder Law Project.
  
• Family Violence Clinic. Students assist family members who are victims of family violence in custody, and visitation actions, in obtaining temporary restraining orders, and in adoption and termination of parental rights actions. Students are supervised by David Calder, a private attorney in the law firm of Rutherford and Calder.
  
• Immigration Appeals Clinic. Students prepare an appellate brief to be filed with the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) located in Falls Church, Virginia. The majority of cases handled by students in this component will be matters where an Immigration Judge has denied certain types of legal relief (asylum, withholding of removal, relief under the Convention Against Torture) to a client who claims that they are fleeing persecution in their country of origin. The immigration appeals clinic will be supervised by an adjunct. This Clinic is offered in the Spring only.
  
• Legislative Clinic. Students research, analyze, and draft legislation, prepare explanatory documents and memoranda regarding legislation, and work with Mississippi legislators and advocates for passage or revision of legislation. Students are supervised by Deborah H. Bell, Director of the Civil Legal Clinic and a full-time law professor. This Clinic is offered in the Spring only.
  
• Street Law Clinic. Students are available on a weekly basis at the Oxford Food Pantry to provide legal assistance to Food Pantry clients. Students respond to questions on public benefits, disability benefits, unemployment benefits, divorce, custody and child support, basic contract and property law, consumer law, landlord-tenant law, and other issues. In some cases, students will follow cases through to full litigation. In others, only brief service and advice is provided. Students may also conduct interviews at Oxford Litigation Center of North Mississippi Rural Legal Services and serve as assistant counsel on litigation cases which do not originate from the Food Pantry. Students are supervised by Minnie Howard, Managing Attorney of the Oxford Litigation Center of North Mississippi Legal Services.

HOW MANY CREDITS WILL A STUDENT RECEIVE?

Civil Legal Clinic students receive four graded hours of credit. Class requirements include class attendance and participation, a minimum of one-hundred twenty hours of clinical work, and completion of a substantial research and writing project on a clinic-related issue.

WHO CAN REGISTER IN THE CIVIL LEGAL CLINIC?

The clinic is open to all second and third year students; however, in accordance with ABA-AALS standards, the clinic may accept only a limited number of students per supervisor. Graduating third year students will be given preference if there are more applications than available clinic openings. Only third year students may actually appear in court under the Mississippi Limited Practice Act.