Community Law Clinic: Clinical Practice

Located off-campus in a community location at the border between Palo Alto and East Palo Alto, the Community Law Clinic is the closest thing to a traditional legal services office within the Mills Legal Clinic. Serving low-income individuals throughout the neighborhoods near Stanford, CLC is fundamentally a trial practice clinic, practicing in three distinct, but intertwined subject areas: (1) housing, (2) social security disability and public benefits, and (3) post-conviction relief. In addition to its off-campus location, hallmarks of the CLC practice include extensive client contact, civil litigation skills (motion practice, oral advocacy, fact investigation), and the fast pace that comes from being responsible for several matters at once. Each student represents clients in all three practice areas, allowing for a diverse experience with clients, opponents, and other system-actors. Students may also participate in larger policy and legislative efforts in the relevant subject matters. CLC work emphasizes students' embodying the role of a lawyer (as opposed to a policymaker, judge, or intern) and the development of communication, collaboration, time management, cultural humility and other skills necessary for any professional setting. After intensive training in weeks 1 and 2, the clinic curriculum includes two group seminar sessions per week and a once/week student-led case rounds session. CLC's off-campus location affords students a feel for daily life in the communities surrounding the Stanford campus, and the opportunity to form a close-knit and collaborative learning environment. Special Instructions: General Structure of Clinical Courses -- The Law School's clinical courses are offered on a full-time basis for 12 units. This allows students to immerse themselves in the professional experience without the need to balance clinical projects with other classes, exams and papers. Students enrolled in a clinic are not permitted to enroll in any other classes, seminars, directed research or other credit-yielding activities within the Law School or University during the quarter in which they are enrolled in a clinic. Nor are they allowed to serve as teaching assistants who are expected to attend a class on a regular basis. There is a limited exception for joint degree students who are required to take specific courses each quarter and who would be foreclosed from ever taking a clinic unless allowed to co-register. These exceptions are approved on a case-by-case basis. Clinic students are expected to work in their clinical office during most business hours Monday through Friday. Students are also expected to be available by e-mail or cell phone when elsewhere during those hours. Because students have no other courses (and hence no exams or papers), the clinical quarter begins the first day of classes and runs through the final day of the examination period. Students should not plan personal travel during the Monday to Friday work week without prior authorization from the clinical supervisor. The work during a typical week in a clinic is divided into three components. First, as they are for practicing attorneys, most of the hours of any week are taken up by work on client matters or case work (this time includes meetings with instructors to discuss the work). Again, as is the case for practicing lawyers, in some weeks these responsibilities demand time above and beyond "normal business hours." Second, students will spend approximately five-to-seven hours per week preparing for and participating in weekly discussions or other group work in their individual clinic (scheduling varies by clinic). Third over the course of the quarter each clinic student (with the exception of those enrolled in the Criminal Prosecution Clinic) is required to prepare for and attend a few inter-clinic group sessions. Students will be awarded three separate grades for their clinical quarter, each reflecting four units. The three grades are broken into the following categories: clinical practice; clinical methods; and clinical coursework. Grading is pursuant to the H/P system. Enrollment in a clinic is binding; once selected into a clinic to which he or she has applied, a student may not later drop the course except in limited and exceptional cases. Requests for withdrawal are processed through the formal petition and clinical faculty review process described in the clinic policy document posted on the SLS website. Students may not enroll in any clinic (full-time or advanced) which would result in them earning more than 27 clinical units during their law school career. The rules described here do not apply to advanced clinics for students who are continuing with a clinic in which they were previously enrolled. For information about advanced clinics, please see the course descriptions for those courses. For more information about clinic enrollment and operations, please see the clinic policy document posted on the SLS website. Elements used in grading: Clinical case/project work, seminar preparation and participation, attendance, reflection papers and project.