- Employment Discrimination Mediation Representation Clinic
- Child Advocacy Clinic
- Mediation Clinic
- Immigration Law Clinic
- Health Law Clinic
- Innocence Clinic
- Small Business - Non-profit Clinic
- State Public Defender Clinic
- Student Director Clinic
- Trial Practice Clinic
Law students represent clients under the Minnesota Certified Student Practice Rule in eleven Hamline law clinics. They are supervised by in-house attorneys or adjunct faculty members who are experienced practitioners. Cases are chosen to maximize student interaction with clients and foster student control and responsibility for every aspect of case management. Professional Responsibility is a prerequisite or concurrent requirement for all clinics.
As a certified student attorney, you will have the opportunity to experience being a lawyer with all its excitement, challenge, frustration, and reward. You will see how law works in society from the point of view of an individual client. You will face ethical issues and employ the skills and values of lawyers in your representation. You will work in collaboration with other students and will receive intense and constructive feedback from your faculty supervisors. You will be encouraged to reflect upon your experiences in the clinic to help you develop the life long habit of being a reflective lawyer. Finally, you will be encouraged to continue to use the skills you develop in the clinics when you graduate by providing pro-bono services to needy clients as an attorney.
The Hamline law clinics give students the opportunity to develop litigation, transactional, and alternative dispute resolution skills.
Please see the Clinic Happenings Newsletter for examples of clinic casework.
Education Law Clinic
This clinic offers students the opportunity to both study education law and represent clients at the Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services office in St. Paul under the supervision of an experienced education law attorney. The office is just a few blocks from Hamline University. The particular substantive focus of the course and case work will involve laws related to equal educational opportunities for children from low income families, educational rights of limited English Proficient children, educational rights of children with disabilities, school expulsion, tracking, racial discrimination, and bias in schools. Students will be expected to spend some time at the legal services office working on their cases. Students also conduct community education and outreach. Students are required to complete 130 hours, consisting of 60 hours class work and 70 hours of case work. Adjunct professors Lilian Ejebe and Atlee Reilly, staff attorneys at Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services teach the Education Law Clinic.
Employment Discrimination Mediation Representation Clinic
This clinic offering takes advantage of a collaboration between Hamline, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. Students represent victims of alleged employment discrimination in cases where the EEOC and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights have offered early intervention mediation. The clinic compliments theorizing in the classroom about redefining "winning" and "zealousness" by allowing students the opportunity to apply new visions of lawyering to clients' real problems. Students are required to complete 130 hours, consisting of 60 hours class work and 70 hours of case work. This clinic can be chosen as an elective course for the Certificate Program in Dispute Resolution. Professor Joseph Daly teaches the Employment Discrimination Mediation Representation Clinic.
Students interested in the Employment Discrimination Mediation Representation Clinic might also be interested in the Mediation Clinic and the Dispute Resolution Institute.
Child Advocacy Clinic
This clinic offers students many opportunities to appear in juvenile court and administrative hearings concerning children. Students advocate directly for children who are involved in minor juvenile cases, cases for Child in Need of Protection or Services (CHIPS), truancies, school expulsions, adoptions, and minors seeking to live independently. Law students may work on guardian ad litem cases or juvenile delinquency cases as available. Students are required to complete 130 hours, consisting of 60 hours of class work and 70 hours of case work. Clinical Professor Mary Jo Hunter teaches the Child Advocacy Clinic.
Mediation Clinic
This clinic is a collaboration between Hamline and regional providers of mediation services. Students mediate cases referred by small claims or housing courts; those students with prior family mediation training may also co-mediate family law cases, including divorce and post-decree disputes. Students are required to complete 130 hours, consisting of 60 hours of class work and 70 hours of case work (actual mediation time and completion of required post-mediation reports). This clinic can be chosen as an elective for the Certificate Program in Dispute Resolution. Adjunct Professor Jessica Kuchta-Miller, Mediation Center, teaches the Mediation Clinic.
Students may also be interested in the Employment Discrimination Mediation Representation Clinic.
Prerequisite: One of the following--Mediation Skills, Family Mediation, completion of a state certified 30 hour civil mediation or 40 hour family mediation training.
Health Law Clinic
This clinic offers students the opportunity to represent individuals who are parties in health law related administrative hearings. Clients may include persons with medical needs or disabilities who encounter barriers to their eligibility for health care. Clients may also include healthcare workers with licensing issues. Students will gain experience in interviewing, counseling, and litigating these cases as well as exposure to law governing health care licensure and Medicaid eligibility and finance. Adjunct Professors Lindsay Davis, staff attorney at Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services, and Susan Schaffer, private practice, teach the Health Law Clinic.
Students are required to complete 130 hours, consisting of 60 hours of class work and 70 hours of case work. Prerequisite or Concurrent: Professional Responsibility
Immigration Law Clinic
This clinic provides students with the opportunity to represent clients with immigration cases under the supervision of an experienced immigration practitioner. Students will work with several clients in immigration cases. Case types may include family-based petitions, fiancée applications, naturalization, adjustment of status to permanent residence, visa processing, Violence Against Women Act, or removal proceedings. Students will also have the opportunity to observe immigration hearings. Students are required to complete 130 hours, consisting of 60 hours of class work and 70 hours of case work. Adjunct Professors Susan Jorgensen Flores, staff attorney at Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, and Paula Schwartzbauer, staff attorney at Legal Aid Society of Minnesota, teach the Immigration Law Clinic.
Innocence Clinic
In this clinic, students will have the opportunity to investigate inmates' claims of innocence to determine if there are any grounds for post-conviction relief. Investigation issues may include concerns related to eyewitness identification, false confessions, snitches and informants, government misconduct, ineffective assistance of counsel, and forensic sciences including DNA testing. Students will obtain primary source material, police reports, forensic reports, court pleadings, transcripts, appellate briefs, and opinions. Students will be expected to prepare written summaries of these materials and to present and discuss these materials during class. Students will conduct interviews with inmates and potential witnesses. Students will have the opportunity to assist Innocence Project volunteers, private investigators, forensic experts, and attorneys in preparing claims of actual innocence. The course will include lecture, discussion, and guest speakers about eyewitness identification, post-conviction remedies, and false confessions. Speakers will be selected both for the general subject matter and for the specific cases under review. Students are required to complete 130 hours, consisting of 60 hours of class work and 70 hours of case work. Adjunct Professors Michael Davis, private practice, and John Riemer, staff attorney at the Ramsey County Public Defender's Office, teach the Innocence Clinic.
Small Business/Non-profit Clinic
Students will have the opportunity to provide legal advice to entrepreneurs in developing start up businesses and to individuals working with tax–exempt non–profits. The legal issues involved typically include choice of form of ownership, compliance with federal and state regulatory requirements, contract drafting and reformation, lease requirements, scope of insurance coverage, credit record adjustments, tax exemption procedures, and real and personal property transaction documentation. This clinic does not undertake litigation. Students are required to complete 130 hours, consisting of 60 hours class work and 70 hours of case work. Adjunct Professors Kimberly Lowe and Paul Jones, Fredrikson and Byron law firm, teach the Small Business/Non-profit Clinic.
State Public Defender Clinic
This clinic offers students the opportunity to provide criminal legal representation to low income persons. Each student represents approximately four to six clients in a wide variety of criminal law cases, handling them from start to finish under the supervision of an experienced attorney at the Minnesota State Public Defender’s Office. Students participate in all phases of practice, from client interviewing through any scheduled court hearings, and are exposed to a law firm setting where they do their work. Typical cases include post-conviction motions on issues such as sentencing, restitution, conditional release, guilty plea withdrawal, parole and probation revocation, and end of confinement community notification. There may be the opportunity for appellate advocacy, as well as challenges to underlying convictions for persons facing deportation. Along with hands-on experience, classroom instruction on various aspects of practice is provided in the student's first semester. This course requires travel to one or more of the institutions and works at the Minnesota State Public Defender’s Office which is just a few blocks from Hamline University. Students are required to complete 130 hours, consisting of 60 hours of class work and 70 hours of case work. Adjunct Professors Cathryn Middlebrook, James Peterson, and Richard Schmitz, assistant state public defenders, teach the State Public Defender's Clinic.
Student Director Clinic
Student directors will work in one of the Hamline Clinics and handle their own client caseload, as well as provide supervision to and collaboration with new clinic enrollees. Student directors will not attend regular weekly clinic classes, but are instead expected to devote a minimum of 45 hours per credit to client representation and supervision/collaboration with other clinic students as assigned by the clinic supervisor. Only students who have successfully completed one of the clinics are eligible to enroll as a student director; enrollment is by invitation of the instructor upon advance application. Preference will ordinarily go to students who have not yet been a clinic director. With permission of the supervisor this course can be repeated for credit. Students may enroll for 1, 2, or 3 credits with faculty approval.
Trial Practice Clinic
This clinic offers students the opportunity to represent individuals involved in unemployment compensation administrative trials. Students gain skills in interviewing, counseling, research, investigation, and case management. They also prepare for and conduct one or more trials, gaining experience developing a theory of the case and preparing the direct examinations, cross examinations, closing argument, trial brief, and trial notebook. This course provides and excellent litigation experience in the employment law area. Students are required to complete 130 hours, consisting of 60 hours of class work and 70 hours of case work. Clinical Professor and Clinic Director Angela McCaffrey teaches the Trial Practice Clinic.