US Law School Health Law Clinics and Programs
Stanford Law School Center for the Law and Biosciences
The Center for Law and the Biosciences, directed by Professor Hank Greely, examines biotech discoveries in the context of the law, weighing their impact on society and the law's role in shaping that impact. The Center is part of the Stanford Program in Law, Science & Technology.
Situated in the locus of the world's biotechnology industry, within a preeminent research university, the Center convenes a forum of academicians, lawyers, scientists, policy makers, and law students. Through conferences, workshops, lectures, and academic courses, the Center promotes research and public discourse on the ethical, legal, scientific, economic, and social implications of accelerated technological change.
For law students, the Center strengthens the already significant advantages of studying at Stanford with a curriculum that combines legal theory with practical applications in biotechnology. Past course offerings have included: "Biotechnology Law and Policy," "Health Law and Policy," "Genetics and Law," and a course on nanotechnology called "Ideas v. Matter: The Law in Tiny Spaces." In addition, the school offers a full complement of courses in legal areas relevant to bioscience, such as intellectual property, constitutional law, corporate law, and administrative law. Many of our courses involve other Stanford departments, and most integrate multidisciplinary materials.
Beyond the classroom, the Center also provides access to a broad spectrum of practitioners, regulators, and academicians throughout the biotech industry, as well as to hands-on involvement in research and collaborative dialogues.
Our students engage in a wide array of extracurricular activities, and can participate in two cutting edge student organizations. "BioLaw," a new student organization devoted to law and the biosciences, works with the Center to sponsor regular seminars and conferences, and to publish "SNPs," a newsletter about developments in law and the biosciences. The "Stanford Law and Technology Association," with a broader emphasis on both information and life science technologies, also holds regular events and publishes the "Stanford Technology Law Review."
Stanford Law School graduates pursue a variety of distinguished careers in the life-sciences field. Our alumni currently hold leadership positions within biotech companies, federal and state agencies, the White House, major corporations, law firms with strong life-science practices, and academia.
Contact Information:
Center for Law and the Biosciences
Crown Quadrangle
559 Nathan Abbott Way
Stanford, CA 94305-8610
law&biosci@law.stanford.edu
New York University Medical-Legal Advocacy Clinic
This clinic employs a multidisciplinary and holistic approach to provide legal advocacy in a medical setting for clients referred by medical professionals. Many legal-related issues can affect the health of low-income families and many of the problems that affect the health of the children and families have legal remedies. This clinic is a medical-legal collaboration to improve health outcomes for patients/clients by providing on-site legal advocacy assistance and training to medical providers.
In the coming academic year, the clinic’s fieldwork will be based for the first time at LegalHealth. LegalHealth partners with medical professionals to provide free legal services in medical facilities for low-income people with serious health issues and trains health care professionals on the legal issues affecting their patients. When the Medical-Legal Advocacy Clinic was offered in the spring, 2007 semester and fall, 2007 semester, the clinic’s fieldwork was based in the Bronx and cases were referred by social pediatric residents at Montefiore.
LegalHealth, established in 2001, is a division of the New York Legal Assistance Group, a nonprofit organization that offers free legal assistance throughout the metropolitan area to those otherwise unable to afford attorneys. Through partnerships with hospital and community organizations, LegalHealth offers a range of legal services to New Yorkers with chronic and serious illnesses. It provides free legal services onsite in thirteen hospitals in New York City, including Bellevue, Beth Israel, Kings County Hospital, Mt. Sinai and St. Luke’s-Roosevelt. It assists over 3,000 clients and trains over 1,500 healthcare professionals yearly.
Patients are referred to LegalHealth by their physicians and social workers to obtain legal assistance on non-medical issues. LegalHealth helps patients resolve problems that could adversely affect their health or access to healthcare. For example, attorneys have helped asthma patients living in roach-infested apartments negotiate better housing.
Physicians are also taught by LegalHealth attorneys to listen for non-medical information patients bring them and to better screen for potential legal problems. They are also trained about the benefits of medical-legal collaboration for their patients and for the two professions.
LegalHealth is one of the most established of the medical-legal partnerships that have been created nationally. More information about LegalHealth can be found on the LegalHealth website:
www.legalhealth.org. More information about medical-legal collaborations can be found in Retkin, Branfield, Lawton, Zuckerman and DeFrancesco, Lawyers and Doctors Working Together—A Formidable Team, 20 The Health Lawyer 33 (October 2007).
The fieldwork has a three-fold approach: 1) direct client representation; 2) education of the healthcare professional about identifying legal issues and incorporating advocacy into their treatment plans (perhaps also including community education); and 3) identifying and exploring a systemic health care issue and presenting strategies to address the issue.
The direct representation part of the fieldwork will be working with LegalHealth in their legal clinics in the hospital site(s). Students will work on cases of LegalHealth. The cases will be referred by physicians and social workers to obtain legal assistance. We will interview the clients at the hospital, in clinics that will primarily take place on Friday mornings. One of the sites will be in the Pediatrics Clinic at Mount Sinai Hospital, which is on Fridays from 9:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. The advocacy will be in a variety of areas, including housing, public assistance, Medicaid and other government benefits.
The topics covered in the seminar include collaboration and interdisciplinary work; holistic advocacy; interviewing and counseling; cultural competencies; negotiation; theory of the case; formal and informal advocacy; ethical issues, including confidentiality; substantive law training and case project presentations.
Contact Information:
Dulcie Ingleton
New York University School of Law
Furman Hall, 245 Sullivan Street, 5th floor
New York, NY 10012
Telephone: (212) 998-6446
Email: dulcie.ingleton@nyu.edu
University of Virginia School of Law Mental Health Law Clinic
Students represent mentally ill or mentally disabled clients in negotiations, administrative hearings, and court proceedings (to the extent permitted by law) on a variety of legal matters, including: social security, Medicaid and disability benefits claims, disability discrimination claims, access to housing, advance directives for medical care, and access to mental health or rehabilitative services. Under the supervision of an attorney, students directly perform all of the lawyer functions associated with their cases, including client and witness interviews, factual development, legal research, preparation of pleadings, negotiation and courtroom advocacy. [Offered in conjunction with the Legal Aid Justice Center]
Contact Information:
Mr. Gulotta/Mr. Veldhuis
Legal Aid Justice Center
1000 Preston Avenue, Suite A
Charlottesville, VA 22903
Phone: (434) 977-0553
Fax: (434) 977-0558
University of Michigan School of Law Pediatric Advocacy Clinic
The University of Michigan Law School's Pediatric Advocacy Clinic will give you the opportunity to practice law in a unique, interdisciplinary medical/legal collaborative. Your clinic experience will give you first hand experience in representing clients in a variety of civil settings. At the same time, you will gain a broad view of the barriers faced by low-income families and work with the clinic's physician and social work partners to address these barriers with a holistic, coordinated approach.
The Pediatric Advocacy Clinic, a key component of the Pediatric Advocacy Initiative, is part of the Law School's public service commitment and is designed to improve child health outcomes by addressing legal issues that impact the health of low-income children and their families. The clinic was started in the Fall 2004 semester and places students in pediatric health care settings to provide on-site legal advocacy assistance and training to pediatric providers and their patients. Direct casework for clients, the bulk of students' work, includes issues such as family law, public benefits, education law, landlord/tenant disputes, domestic violence, guardianship, and other issues facing these families. Some cases are directly related to a patient's health (e.g. negotiating with a landlord to eliminate mold caused by leaking pipes that is exacerbating a child's asthma), while others more indirectly improve a family's situation and, by extension, ease the stress on an already stressed family structure (e.g. obtaining child support for a single mother who cannot work full time because of the needs of her disabled child).
The clinic's cases range from advice and counsel to negotiation to contested litigation. Much of the casework focuses on preventive legal advocacy, designed to identify and solve legal problems before a full blown legal dispute erupts. For example, if a parent of a sick infant receives public assistance, she can be exempted from work requirements imposed on other welfare recipients. Through education of our pediatric partners and direct work with clients, we can help such a parent obtain a waiver of the requirement before her benefits are suspended for failure to seek employment, rather than appeal a suspension of benefits through several months of litigation while the family is without financial assistance.
On all clinic cases, including trainings and impact projects, clinical professors supervise you, but you will do all of the work for your clients, including interviewing, counseling, legal research, discovery, negotiation, motion practice, trials and appeals. You and your clinic partner will have first-chair responsibility for your cases and your clients. You will work with your clients to identify and prioritize their legal issues, research their legal and non-legal options, pursue informal problem-solving, and litigate in administrative proceedings or trial courts.
There is also an advanced clinical law program that is offered to students who have done exceptionally well in the Pediatric Advocacy Clinic. These students return for a second semester of supervised case-work. The advanced clinic gives you a chance to develop your lawyering skills by working on some of the more complex and sophisticated cases, as well as mentor new clinic students in their orientation to the medical sites and their direct work with clients.
Contact Information:
The University of Michigan Law School
625 South State Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1215
Telephone: 734.764.1358
Case Western School of Law Health Law Clinic
If you want to know what happens in the Health Law Clinic, you should see the legal interns representing their clients. You may see them at Probate Court with their supervisors, negotiating appropriate guardianship services or terminating a guardianship. Or in another court, negotiating a result that protects their clients from collections for health care services. Or they may be in the clinic, deposing a guardian.
You may see them at the Social Security Administration with their supervisors, cross-examining an expert witness before an Administrative Law Judge. Or they may be compiling medical records and writing pre-hearing briefs and preparing their clients for hearings - to support a Social Security finding of disability.
You may find them at nursing homes, as they work under the supervision of the regional Long Term Care Ombudsman. All who do not have conflicts of interest are certified by the state to be advocates in the ombudsman program. At the nursing homes, they may be investigating complaints, participating in discharge or other hearings, advising clients or reviewing nursing homes’ compliance with legal standards.
You may see them with their supervisors in the public schools, working with their clients and school personnel to make sure that children are getting free, appropriate public educations, as required by law, or going to a due process hearing.
They may be observing bioethics committee meetings at local hospitals. Or writing a journal and then discussing their observations in their weekly seminar classes. Or they may be learning law and procedure in class. Or they may be presenting to the rest of the class the cases for which they are responsible in case rounds - explaining and brainstorming their strategies for representation.
Or you will very likely see them in the clinic. There they are making phone calls, interviewing clients, maintaining their paper and electronic case files, conducting research, drafting correspondence or pleadings or briefs, meeting at least weekly with their supervisors concerning the clients the interns are representing or doing all the other things that they eagerly do to represent their clients competently, effectively and ethically.
As you can see, during an entire academic year the Health Law Clinic provides a broad range of representation opportunities to people who are some of the most vulnerable – poor, often disabled, sometimes under guardianship.
Contact Information:
Clinic Professors: Laura McNally, D’lorah Hughes
11075 East Boulevard
Cleveland, OH 44106
Phone: 216.368.2766
Fax: 216.368.5137
Email: lawclinic@case.edu
George Washington School of Law Health Law Clinic
The Health Rights Law Clinic, which serves the Washington, D.C., community as the Health Insurance Counseling Project (HICP), was created in 1995 with the help of a grant from the Health Care Financing Administration. Each year, the clinic serves more than 4,000 members of the community through direct legal services, counseling, and information sessions on health care and health insurance matters.
Second- and third-year students are trained to advise, counsel, and assist in providing legal representation to Medicare beneficiaries and seniors who live in the District of Columbia. Areas of legal representation include Medicaid, HMO or managed care coverage under Medicare, appeals regarding denial of payment for hospital or home health care, and negotiations with collection agencies regarding payment of medical bills. Through the efforts of dedicated students and faculty, the clinic has established itself as an invaluable resource to the District’s senior population.
Contact Information:
Faculty: Suzanne H. Jackson
George Washington School of Law
2136 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20037
Phone: (202) 739-0668
University of Texas at Austin School of Law Mental Health Clinic
Students represent people confined in mental health facilities at civil commitment hearings before the Travis County Probate Court. The weekly classroom component focuses on the Texas Mental Health Code and applicable case law, instruction in trial advocacy, case review, brief writing, and other aspects of litigation. There is a short introductory period during which students observe court proceedings at the state hospital and view videotapes concerning psychiatric diagnosis. Students begin handling cases in February. In addition to providing representation at probable cause and commitment hearings, students may also have the opportunity to pursue a case on appeal.
Contact Information:
Michael J. Churgin
Phone: (512) 232-1330
E-mail: mchurgin@law.utexas.edu
Washington & Lee Law School Black Lung Legal Clinic
Washington and Lee’s Black Lung Clinic assists coal miners and their survivors who are pursuing federal black lung benefits for the years the miners worked breathing in coal mine dust, making a living to support their families. In trying to collect benefits, miners face formidable teams of lawyers, paralegals and doctors that coal companies assemble to challenge those claims.
Even so, W&L’s Clinic has a success rate roughly five times the national average in cases in which its students appear. Under the supervision of clinical law faculty, upper level law students evaluate claims, develop evidence, conduct discovery, depositions, and hearings, and write motions, arguments, and appeal briefs. An attorney who defends mining companies against black lung claims, said the students do an excellent job. While the clinic is unable to accept every request for representation, it has represented about 200 clients since its inception in 1996.
Contact Information
Black Lung Clinic
Washington & Lee University School of Law
Lexington, Virginia 24450
(540) 458-8562
Brooklyn Law School Health Law Practice and Policy Internship
This is an extern clinic in which students work in various public sector field placements that maintain a health law practice. The goal of the clinic is to offer students a practical opportunity to deepen their understanding of legal issues confronting health care organizations and other public and non-profit organizations whose mission include health care delivery, access to care, public health or broader public policy concerns. Placements will be offered in a broad range of sites. For example, the Division of Bioethics at Montefiore Medical Center, the Health Law Unit of the Legal Aid Society, the Cancer Advocacy Project of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.
Students work under the close supervision of an attorney at the placement site. Each student is responsible for producing substantive work products. The nature of the work product will differ from site to site. At some field placements the work will be advisory, transactional or policy development in nature. Other placements may require direct client or constituent advocacy. No matter where they are placed, students should be prepared to do substantive research and writing. Students must devote a minimum of 12 hours per week to the placement and attend a biweekly two-hour seminar.
Contact Information:
Professor Karen Porter
Room 826
(718) 780-7559
karen.porter@brooklaw.edu
George Mason School of Law Law and Mental Illness Clinic
George Mason law students enjoy a unique opportunity to specialize and focus their legal studies in a particular area of law through our specialty track programs. Our specialty tracks offer students the kind of sophisticated understanding of particular practice areas usually gained only after years of practice or through advanced legal study.
For students who wish to develop some expertise in a particular substantive area, but who also seek greater flexibility in terms of taking electives in a broad range of other areas, we offer specialized sequence programs. The sequence programs offer greater flexibility in students' choices of electives. There is no thesis requirement in any of the sequence programs.
The Law and Mental Illness Clinic allows students to gain experience in the judicial, legislative, academic and advocacy aspects of laws concerning the treatment of individuals with severe mental illness. The classroom component of the course studies the history and development of laws affecting the mentally ill, while also preparing the students for representation of petitioners during civil commitment hearings. Students may also represent clients and will locate and interview witnesses, appear at commitment hearings, perform direct and cross-examinations and present legal argument.
Contact Information:
George Mason School of Law
3301 Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22201
Phone: 703-993-8000
Fax: 703-993-8088
Albany School of Law Health Law Clinic
The Health Law Clinic is designed to teach student interns to identify and address the legal issues which poor individuals living with chronic health conditions often face. Through faculty supervised representation of clients living with or affected by HIV or cancer, participating students acquire a broad range of practical lawyering skills in the areas of client interviewing, factual investigation, case planning, client counseling, and litigation advocacy. Student interns are admitted to practice under the Student Practice Rule which allows them to help clients access necessary health care, obtain public benefits, secure or maintain stable housing, establish court-approved emergency plans for the future care of children, and develop proxies which authorize health care agents to make health decisions. Participating interns typically take from this experience both a heightened confidence in their lawyering abilities and a broader perspective of their role in ensuring access to justice for the needy. Clinic clients typically report that the legal services provided relieve stress and allow them to focus their limited energy on their underlying health problems.
Contact Information:
Faculty Supervisor: Joseph M. Connors
80 New Scotland Avenue, Albany, New York 12208-3494
Phone: 518-445-2311
Chicago-Kent School of Law Health & Disability Law Clinic
Students will have the opportunity to work on a variety of compelling disability and health related cases/issues. The clinic represents adults and children with various medical impairments, including diabetes and autism, in cases that typically involve issues such as: disability discrimination in schools; discrimination in employment; vaccine-related injuries; Social Security disability benefits; and benefit denials by private insurance companies. Students will experience what it’s like to use their legal skills, intelligence and passion to advocate for disadvantaged individuals against government bureaucracies and corporate interests.
Contact Information:
Law Offices
Chicago-Kent College of Law
Illinois Institute of Technology
565 W. Adams Street
Chicago, IL 60661
Phone: (312) 906-5050
Fax: (312) 906-5299
CUNY School of Law Health Law Concentration
In the Health Law Concentration, students learn the law and skills needed to represent individual and institutional clients, such as hospitals, in a wide variety of litigation and non-litigation settings related to health care access, health care quality, and the practice of medicine. Students learn relevant practical skills in the Concentration classroom component through role-playing exercises and simulations, as well as in their externship placements and during weekly rounds discussions.
Highlights of Health Law Concentration
l Interviewing and counseling a client about advance health care directives and drafting a health care proxy and living will for that client
l Representing a client in an administrative hearing to recover wrongfully denied Medicaid benefits
l Drafting comments on a set of legislative proposals to reduce Medicaid spending without reducing the quality of care
l Drafting a letter to advise a client whether she has a claim against a health care provider for disclosing her HIV status to a prospective employer
l Drafting an interoffice memo analyzing whether a patient injured during a medical procedure can bring a successful medical malpractice claim against the doctor and hospital
l Interning at a legal organization, law firm, or government agency that focuses on an area of health law, such as mental health law, HIV, medical malpractice, or Medicaid and Medicare rights, or focuses on particular lawyering skills, such as trial practice, legal writing, legislative advocacy, or advising an institutional client (such as a hospital) of particular interest to the student
CLASSROOM COMPONENT: THE LAW AND POLICY SEMINAR
The Health Law and Policy Seminar examines how the Constitution, statutes and the common law determine access to health care, regulate the quality of patient care and resolve disputes among doctors, hospitals, and patients.
Seminar coverage includes:
l Medicaid, Medicare and other government programs guaranteeing access to medical care
l Public policy and theoretical issues related to reforming the U.S. health care system
l Regulation of the quality of health care, including medical malpractice and professional licensing and discipline
l Patients’ rights and bioethical issues, including informed consent, confidentiality, the right to die, physician-assisted suicide, reproductive rights, assisted reproduction, and the rationing of high-cost procedures
l Federal and state regulation of private health insurance and managed care organizations
l The role of professionals, both doctors and lawyers, in our society
EXTERNSHIP PLACEMENTS
Students select from a variety of placements that concentrate on a range of health law-related lawyering skills, such as trial practice, legal research and writing, client interviewing and counseling, class action litigation, motion practice, community education, document drafting, appellate advocacy, and public policy and legislative advocacy.
Placements include:
l Legal organizations that represent individuals to uphold health care rights and/or bring impact litigation related to health care issues
l Law firms that handle plaintiffs’ medical malpractice cases and represent patients and/or doctors in litigation against insurance companies and managed care providers
l Government agencies that regulate health care institutions and providers
l Hospital in-house counsel offices
l Clerkships with judges who primarily handle health law cases
ROUNDS
During weekly rounds meetings, students discuss the work they are doing in their placements. These discussions provide an opportunity for students to collaborate and generate alternative approaches to particular legal problems and consider related ethical and professional responsibility issues.
GRADUATES OF THE HEALTH LAW CONCENTRATION
Graduates of the Health Law Concentration are currently working in private law firms, government agencies that oversee the delivery of care, and public-interest organizations that protect the health care rights of vulnerable populations, such as the poor, elderly, disabled and people with HIV. Law school graduates with training in health law have the opportunity to work in a wide variety of settings that emphasize trial and appellate litigation, transactional work, regulatory compliance, or policy and legislative advocacy.
Contact Information:
Main Street Legal Services
CUNY School of Law
65-21 Main Street, Room 182
Flushing, NY 11367
Phone: (718) 340-4300
clinicoffice@mail.law.cuny.edu
University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law HIV/AIDS Legal Clinic
The Clinical Program at UDC-DCSL represents a significant departure from what has become traditional legal education. All students are required to participate in legal clinics where they work on ongoing cases with clients under the supervision of an attorney-professor. Typically, the student-faculty ratio in clinics ranges from 8 to 1 to 10 to 1.
One vital purpose of the Clinical Program is to provide legal services to citizens of the District of Columbia who could not otherwise afford representation. The clinical approach has also proven its effectiveness as a method of teaching the law. It places theory within the only context in which it is truly meaningful: the resolution of actual legal disputes.
The faculty and students at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law are engaged in the practice of law on a continuing basis. By representing clients with legal problems, students learn the substantive law and lawyering skills in the most realistic setting. This clinical experience not only contributes to a better understanding of the law learned in the classroom, but also gives UDC-DCSL graduates a significant advantage in the workplace over those whose legal education lacks such practical experience.
The HIV/AIDS Legal Clinic provides comprehensive, holistic legal services to families with AIDS by addressing several HIV/AIDS legal issues at once, including access to public entitlements (primarily Social Security disability benefits and Medicaid), and drafting and executing last will and testaments, powers of attorney and advanced directives. Parents with HIV/AIDS face a wide variety of family-law-related issues, as well, such as the need to plan for the future care of their children by transferring legal custody to another member of their family or to a family friend if and when that parent is no longer able to care for the children.
The project is unique to the District of Columbia and is a testament to the kind of community service UDC-DCSL students provide through their legal training. The clinic is a partner in the Family Ties Project of the Consortium of Child Welfare and works closely with Howard University Hospital's Pediatric AIDS Clinic, Project CARES, Children's National Medical Center, Georgetown University Medical Center's HIV Clinic, Miriam's House, Family and Medical Counseling Services and Damien House, among a variety of other medical and social service providers.
In all cases that involve advocating for clients with HIV/AIDS, students not only use their developing lawyering skills, but also must draw upon their "people skills," their compassion for others and their ability to sort through compelling ethical considerations. Students also have the opportunity to explore interdisciplinary approaches to serving clients by working directly with the hospital and medical clinic case managers who are also assisting these families and who refer the families to the clinic.
All students participate in classroom seminars on substantive areas of HIV/AIDS law, Social Security disability law and family law. Other sessions focus on the development of lawyering skills, such as interviewing, counseling, drafting court pleadings and representing clients in D.C. Superior Court and at Social Security Administration disability hearings before Administrative Law Judges. In addition, class sessions provide students with the ability to understand the nature of the disease, the particular problems of disease and dying with which legal counsel must cope, and the complexities of advocating for people who face various types of prejudice, stigma, and discrimination.
Contact Information:
University of the District of Columbia
David A. Clarke School of Law
4200 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Phone: 202-274-7400
Fax: 202-274-5583
Duke School of Law AIDS Legal Project
The Duke AIDS Legal Project has been providing free legal assistance to low-income HIV-infected clients since 1996. The AIDS Legal Project offers law students the opportunity to develop practical lawyering skills through direct representation of clients under close attorney supervision. Each semester ten students are enrolled in this clinical law course, delivering over 100 hours of direct client services each. The students receive practical skills training, specialized training in the law relating to HIV/AIDS, and academic credit. Through their work, the AIDS Legal Project fills a critical need for legal representation of some of the neediest clients in North Carolina.
It was serving the unmet legal needs of a highly stigmatized, largely indigent segment of the population that motivated Carolyn McAllaster to start the AIDS Legal Project 10 years ago. Doing so has proven highly educational for students, in terms of teaching superb research, advocacy, and drafting skills, as well as those pertaining to relationship-building, legal ethics, and compassion that mark truly great lawyers.
“We win disability cases with exceptional legal work. It is the —'value added’ that we put into the case that is the key to success,” says Supervising Attorney Allison Rice. In the process of reviewing a doctor’s affidavit, drafted by a student to support a benefits appeal, she points out that it has to precisely address myriad issues before an individual with HIV will be considered disabled by the Social Security Administration.
“It’s extremely challenging to acquire expertise and understanding of a particular client’s medical condition and situation, have an intelligent conversation with a doctor, and then draft an affidavit for the doctor to sign off on.” Doing so involves skills that are “totally relevant” to practice, adds Rice. “Students learn evidence–what can a witness, lay or expert, say, how to lay a foundation for the evidence, and how to provide concrete detail to support conclusions that the witness is making.”
The AIDS Legal Project provides free confidential legal representation to low-income HIV-infected clients with legal problems relating to their diagnosis. Legal assistance is provided by law students working under the supervision of attorneys.
Because of limited resources, the AIDS Legal Project cannot accept all cases. We handle cases in the following areas:
l Guardianship Planning for families with children.
l Public Benefits, including Social Security Disability, Supplemental Security Income, and Medicaid
l Powers of attorney and wills
l Insurance
l Discrimination in employment, housing, education and public accommodations
l Confidentiality
l We do not provide representation in the following kinds of cases:
l Criminal
l Immigration
l Bankruptcy
l Custody and visitation
l Landlord/tenant
l Worker’s compensation, medical malpractice, and personal injury
Our clients are primarily low-income HIV-infected individuals who come to the Triangle for medical care. Students can meet with clients at their area medical appointments or at Duke Law School.
In addition to direct legal services, we regularly conduct workshops and training throughout the state for HIV/AIDS clients and their caregivers (case managers, health care providers, social workers, friends and family members), on their legal rights. The AIDS Legal Project also provides training to lawyers interested in providing legal assistance to HIV/AIDS clients. In addition, we respond to regular phone calls from case managers, social workers, attorneys and health care providers, requesting information about the legal rights of their HIV infected patients.
Contact Information:
Carolyn McAllaster, Director
AIDS Legal Project
Duke Law School
Box 90360
Durham, NC 27708
Phone: 919.613.7169
Fax: 919.613.7262
Georgia State University’s College of Law Center for Law, Health & Society
The Center for Law, Health & Society advances the key role that law plays in promoting the health and well-being of individuals, families, and communities. Through our interdisciplinary research, education, and community outreach, the Center prepares future leaders in the legal and health professions to address society’s many health challenges in the 21st century.
The Center oversees the health law program at Georgia State University’s College of Law. Our program is ranked among the top ten health law programs in the nation by U.S. News and World Report.
The externship program at the College of Law operates on the premise that the potential for learning outside of the law school is tremendous. Health law externships are available to our students in the rich metropolitan Atlanta legal community through governmental agencies and not-for-profit public interest organizations.
The purpose of the externship program is to tie theoretical knowledge to practical experience by:
l training students in lawyering skills;
l giving students greater insight into the workings of the legal system;
l promoting the development in students of a sense of professional responsibility; and
l developing the ability of students to learn from their experience.
Students selected to take part in the externship program are assigned to work with attorneys, who serve as mentors throughout the externship experience. Law students can receive credit for hands-on legal experience in the following health law externship programs.
Contact Information:
Charity Scott, J.D.
Professor of Law
Director, Center for Law, Health & Society
Georgia State University
College of Law
P.O. Box 4037
Atlanta, Georgia 30302-4037
Direct Dial: 404.413.9183
Fax: 404.651.2092
E-mail: cscott@gsu.edu
University of Houston Law Center Health Law Externship
Clinical legal education programs offer law students an exciting opportunity to have hands-on, practical experience in the legal profession while still in law school. Under the shelter and supervision of clinical faculty, our law students handle all aspect of cases, from interviewing, to filing motions, to conducting trials in court.
The mission of Clinical Legal Education Programs is threefold:
l To train law students to be competent, professional and ethical advocates for their clients
l To provide first-rate pro-bono legal representation to indigent clients and communities in Harris County in the areas of law covered by the particular clinic
l To provide support to the courts and legislature and to develop policies that can improve the surrounding communities
The late professor Joseph E. Hensley began the University of Houston Law Center's Clinical Programs in the early 1960's. Thanks to his vision, leadership and compassion, thousands of UH Law Center Graduates have continued his commitment to provide quality representation to those in need.
The Health Law Externship, with support from the UH Law Center's Health Law & Policy Institute, offers credit for supervised health law and policy field work with non-profit health institutions and government organizations. While many placements are in Houston's Medical Center, students can arrange posts with other non-profit hospitals or government agencies.
Contact Information:
University of Houston Law Center
Health Law
100 Law Center
Houston, TX 77204
713.743.2101
Indiana University School of Law Disability Clinic
Disability Clinic students help unravel the complexities of the federal regulatory system to assist clients in qualifying for or maintaining disability benefits. Students in the Disability Clinic assume primary responsibility for their cases, working under the supervision of a clinical faculty member. As part of the case development, students interview clients and witnesses, gather and evaluate medical records, develop case theories, write persuasive memoranda, and provide administrative representation to persons with physical or mental disabilities. Legal problems involve obtaining initial disability determinations for Supplemental Security Income, continuation of disability benefits, overpayment of benefits, and other matters related to benefits before the Social Security Administration.
Examples of students making a difference for clients include:
l Disability Clinic students recently helped preserve three clients' ongoing disability benefits.
l Five children benefited from Disability Clinic students' efforts when those children were determined to be disabled and started receiving disability benefits.
l Eight disabled adults started receiving benefits - with one receiving a retroactive award covering 10 years in excess of $40,000.
Clinic students practice their lawyering skills, gain confidence in themselves as lawyers, and apply theoretical concepts to actual cases - all while earning class credit. In custody cases, they make it possible for clients to enjoy the laughter and growth of their children again. They help people with debilitating illnesses establish eligibility for disability benefits, allowing them to pay their bills and keep their self-respect. They assist victims of domestic violence who need relief and release from their abusers. They free wrongfully accused people from jail.
The IU School of Law - Indianapolis clinical programs teach students to be competent and compassionate lawyers through classroom instruction and hands-on practice. Students gain skills in every level of practice, from interviewing and counseling clients to defending them in jury trials. They also gain a greater understanding of the need for advocates for underserved people and groups who cannot afford representation. Students provide legal advice and advocate for persons who cannot afford legal representation.
Clinic alumni report that their experiences taught them about the practice of law and engendered a desire to serve after law school, manifested either in their choices of careers or in pro bono work.
Contact Information:
Mary Therese Wolf
Clinical Professor of Law and
Director of Clinical Programs
530 W. New York Street, Room 111
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3225
Tel: (317) 274-1911
Fax: (317) 274-8901
Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington Disability Law Clinic
People with disabilities face challenges to full participation in American society. Poor people with disabilities face the added challenges that poverty entails. These challenges are intensified when advocates, bureaucrats, and decision makers are insensitive to, or fearful or ignorant of the situations and needs of poor people with disabilities. Students in the Disability Law Clinic work with individual clients and disability rights groups to address discrimination and to access benefits and services designed to assist poor people with disabilities.
The Disability Law Clinic provides a structured educational and work experience to second- and third-year students interested in working with people with disabilities. Because students are assigned in pairs as the primary case handlers for their clients, they engage in all stages of case development from intake to appeals. Thus, they develop skills in client interaction, research, writing, advocacy, administrative practice, cultural competence, and collaboration. Opportunities to reflect on their lawyering in class and in supervision meetings encourages students to develop their identities as lawyers, including their approaches to problem-solving, decision-making, social justice, and professionalism.
Clinic fieldwork includes individual client representation and participation in community projects that advocate disability rights. Most individual cases involve claims for federal and state disability benefits at administrative hearings and appeals.
Contact Information:
Carmina Weng
Disability Law Clinic Director
Indiana University School of Law
211 South Indiana Avenue
Bloomington, Indiana 47405-7001
Phone: 812-855-7995
Fax: 812-855-0555
The University of Iowa School of Law Disability Rights Clinic
The clinic's advocacy extends to the statehouse as well as to the streets of our communities. The clinic, through work supported in part by the Iowa Program for Assistive Technology (IPAT), has represented individuals with disabilities in their efforts to secure equipment needed for school, employment, or the home. In addition to these individual cases, the clinic collaborates with and represents community groups to remove barriers and improve the lives and opportunities of persons with disabilities. The clinic has coordinated successful campaigns to enact assistive technology consumer protection laws and small business tax credits, to make Iowa City's Hickory Hill Park trails and facilities accessible, and to have Iowa City fund, build and sell a single family home that showcases universal design features. The clinic partners with the public and private sectors to raise awareness and improve access and disability services, research the law, conduct access surveys, review blueprints and work with architects, owners and builders (at the Coral Ridge Mall, New Pioneer Co-op, the University of Iowa, Cedar Rapids Kernels New Veterans Memorial Stadium, for example). An ongoing IPAT-sponsored project is examining the state program that helps people with disabilities pay for special equipment needed to connect to the phone system.
Contact Information:
University of Iowa College of Law
386 Boyd Law Building
Melrose & Byington Streets
Iowa City, IA 52242-1113
Phone: 319-335-9023
Fax: 319-353-5445
Email: law-legal-clinic@uiowa.edu
Kansas University School of Law Family Health Care Legal Services Clinic
Students provide legal assistance to clients referred from the Family Health Care Clinic in Kansas City, Kan. Students engage, under faculty supervision, in interviewing, counseling, negotiation and other aspects of the legal process. Cases may include health law, family law and immigration. Student work directly with one of the Family Health Care Center medical teams. Students enroll for a full year and receive three credits per semester.
Contact information:
David Gottlieb
(785) 864-9213
gottlieb@ku.edu.
Northeastern University School of Law Public Health Clinic
In cooperation with the school's Public Health Advocacy Institute, the Public Health Legal Clinic covers tobacco control issues in depth, while also focusing on the emerging obesity epidemic and issues involving the gun and pharmaceutical industries. It considers the conflict between individual rights and the need to protect the public health.
Contact Information:
Professors Sara Guardino
Northeastern University School of Law
200 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
Phone: (617) 373-2026
Email: s.guardino@neu.edu
Pennsylvania State University School of Law Disability Law Clinic
The Disability Law Clinic, established in 1985, offers free legal services to Cumberland and Perry County residents with disability-related problems. Qualified law students provide legal services in areas such as:
l Supplemental Security Income claims (SSI);
l Handicap discrimination;
l Americans with Disabilities Act claims;
l Special education problems;
l Social Security Disability claims;
l Other disability matters.
In most semesters, the Clinic is staffed by four second- and third-year students. Students appear before Social Security Disability Hearing Officers and Administrative Law Judges, as well as judges of the Court of Common Pleas. They also handle appeals to the federal courts. Students are supervised by Professor Robert Rains and supervising attorneys Anne MacDonald-Fox and Megan Riesmeyer, who are members of the Bar of Pennsylvania. Students are certified under the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's Student Practice Rule.
Contact Information:
Professor Robert Rains
Director
Dale F. Shughart Community Law Center
45 North Pitt Street
Carlisle, PA 17013
Phone: (717) 240-5203
University of Richmond School of Law Disability Law Clinic
Contact Information:
Professor Adrienne Volenik, Director
Phone: (804) 287-6093
University of San Diego School of Law Mental Health Clinic
USD’s Clinical Education Program is recognized as one of the most extensive and successful in the nation. Clinical program options include simulation classes, placements in the judiciary and agencies, an Administrative Hearing Program, extracurricular programs (such as the Trial Team), and twelve legal clinics (most provide direct client representation).
Our Clinical Education Program has become a national leader in bridging the gap between courses in legal theory and the practical skills and experience individuals need to become effective lawyers. These programs—particularly those directly serving clients—are a public service that instills in student participants a deep sense of social responsibility and a commitment to pro bono service. Clinical programs offer students the opportunity to train under experienced professors and attorneys, learn professional responsibility in the real world, and acquire interpersonal skills.
The Mental Health Clinic is a fast-paced, hands-on course supervised by the director of the Patient Advocacy Program. Students develop their interviewing, negotiation, investigation and critical thinking skills in the context of statutorily mandated administrative hearings in psychiatric facilities and resolving patient rights complaints. Students may attend meetings regarding the administrative/regulatory aspects of behavioral health care. The weekly 1-1/2 hour class component includes lectures, guest speakers, case review and discussion.
Contact Information:
University of San Diego
5998 Alcalá Park
San Diego, CA 92110-2492
Phone: (619) 260-4600
Syracuse University College of Law Disability Rights Clinic
The Disability Rights Clinic, or DRC, as it is known, is a clinic of the College of Law, dedicated to providing representation to individuals and groups in our community who are unable to secure representation elsewhere. Since the 1980’s when the Disability Rights Clinic was founded, its student attorneys have practiced in federal and state courts, and before administrative agencies in a broad range of civil rights matters, including race, gender, age and disability discrimination, sexual harassment, prisoners rights, immigration, accessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal and state laws, and employment matters.
In 2004, Assistant Professor Michael Schwartz was hired to direct DRC. As an expert in disability rights law, particularly the rights of people who are deaf, PILF has begun focusing its litigation and advocacy on the rights of children and adults with disabilities in Syracuse and surrounding communities. DRC also collaborates with other SU College of Law clinics, especially on cases involving families with children who have mental or physical disabilities. In addition, DRC engages in outreach work, educating the community about its rights and responsibilities under the law, and student attorneys are encouraged to research and present on various legal issues. DRC also plays a role in negotiation, mediation, and advocacy, which offer student attorneys a chance to acquire valuable skills that complement their ability to litigate.
One reason DRC clients are unable to find other lawyers to represent them is because of their lack of financial resources. Another reason entails the unavailability of lawyers and law firms which accommodate clients with disabilities, including those who rely on auxiliary aids to enable them to access the lawyer’s office and services. DRC aims to reach and serve this under-represented segment of our community .
Contact Information
Syracuse University College of Law
Office of the Dean
Suite 440
Syracuse, NY 13244-1030
Phone: (315) 443-2524
Fax: (315) 443-4213
University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law Health Law Clinic
The Health Law Clinic introduces students to current issues in medical care and treatment, including how to assure the quality of care and how to make medical care broadly available. Students work in a wide variety of settings in which the issues of quality and access arise. The Health Law Course provides a forum for students to share their experiences and explore these issues in greater depth.
The Health Law course surveys the central legal issues involved in the delivery of health care today. Efforts will be made to integrate traditional legal materials drawn from economics, public policy, health administration and bioethics. Topics covered will include the provider-patient relationship, informed consent, quality of care, malpractice, health-care organizations, licensing and self-care, withholding and withdrawing care, procreation and abortion, and research with human subjects.
Placements with a variety of health lawyers/health-care institutions in the community. These may include malpractice counsel, insurance companies, regulatory institutions or professional associations. Placements may also be arranged with health-care providers or financing organizations. Placements are individually arranged by the instructor in consultation with the student.
The benefits of participating in the Clinical Program can include: learning basic lawyering skills and how to learn from experience, learning about legal institutions and about law in the context of practice, gaining insight into one’s strengths and career preferences, and providing valuable service.
Contact Information:
Prof. Linda F. Smith
Clinical Program Director
332 South 1400 East, Rm. 225
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
Phone: (801) 581-4077
Email: clinical@law.utah.edu
Wayne State University Law School Disability Law Clinic
Students assist low-income individuals with disabilities in a range of issues, including social security/SSI, special education, and Medicaid/Medicare. The Clinic aims to help its clients obtain the services and supports they need to live in their own homes rather than in institutional settings. The Disability Law Clinic offers students an intensive exposure to administrative advocacy, while helping one of Detroit’s most underrepresented populations.
Contact Information:
Prof. David Moss
Phone: (313) 577-3970
Email: david.moss@wayne.edu.
|
