DePaul College of Law Experiential Learning brochure

D E PAUL COLLEGE OF LAW EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

Through DePaul College of Law’s Experiential Learning Program, students

“learn by doing,” applying what they learn in the classroom to real legal problems. Grounded in our mission to provide a community-engaged education to train purpose-driven lawyers, our Experiential Learning Program allows students to use their substantive knowledge to address a variety of legal issues in the Chicago community under the supervision of experienced lawyers and law faculty.

The Experiential Learning Program is comprised of seven components that provide a broad spectrum of practical experiences aligned with our Programs of Excellence:

• Legal Writing

• Clinical Program

• Externship Program

• Third Year in Practice (3YP)

• Professional Skills Courses

• Practicums

• Student Competitions and Journals

Together, these components allow students to learn the law in context, preparing them for legal practice and helping them to further their professional goals.

LEGAL WRITING PROGRAM

Our Legal Analysis, Research & Communication (LARC) Program is a four-course, required sequence that begins with a rigorous three-semester progression of LARC courses and culminates in one of our advanced upper-level legal writing courses. The writing curriculum introduces students to every facet of the legal reasoning process through research exercises and written assignments, and our first-year LARC courses have dedicated teaching assistants, which means more personalized attention.

In the first year, all students complete the same assignments, but the factual contexts are set in six specialty areas that correspond with students’ assigned LARC sections:

• Business Law

• Family Law

• Health Law

• Intellectual Property Law

• Public Interest Law

• Litigation

Presented through a series of increasingly complex written assignments with progressively advanced research, this required program is designed to provide students with the tools to hone their foundational analytical skills and expression of ideas.

CLINICAL PROGRAM

The Clinical Program helps students sharpen their lawyering skills through direct client representation under the supervision of experienced faculty members. The program is made up of seven clinics, and each provides a classroom component focused on the clinic’s substantive area of law, while also teaching important practical skills. Through our Clinical Program, students gain legal practice experience in business law, health law, intellectual property and information technology, public interest, family law, international human rights, as well as in civil and criminal litigation.

ASYLUM & IMMIGRATION LAW

Clinic students represent victims of crime and domestic violence seeking immigration benefits before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and U.S. consulates abroad, as well as representing applicants for naturalization. The clinic partners with nonprofits that serve immigrants throughout the state with the goal of improving access to information and representation for low-income immigrants and refugees. Students contribute to this advocacy community through research, training, developing and sharing resources and materials to enhance the scope and quality of services, while addressing matters, including asylum and other humanitarian benefits, family reunification, naturalization and deportation defense.

CLINICAL PROGRAM

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BUSINESS LAW

Clinic students represent corporations and entrepreneurs in non-litigation transactional matters. These entities may include start-ups, existing mid-sized businesses, and entrepreneurs throughout Chicago and from DePaul’s Driehaus College of Business Coleman Entrepreneurship Center. Students draft and negotiate contracts between businesses, advise clients on corporate governance issues, and assist clients on intellectual property and employment law issues, all while helping entrepreneurs and small businesses flourish. In partnership with DePaul’s Driehaus College of Business and Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media, business and technology graduate students intern alongside law students, creating a vibrant incubator-type setting for clinic clients and providing law students with a collaborative practice experience in business and entrepreneurship law, as well as financial and technology consulting.

CIVIL LITIGATION & HEALTH LAW

Clinic students represent clients while conducting civil litigation and administrative hearings in various legal matters, including eviction, employment and consumer law, and breaches of contract. Students also work on health law matters, such as representing patients in disputes with insurance companies and representing clients in access to benefits matters. Students interview clients and witnesses; draft pleadings, discovery requests, discovery responses and dispositive motions; and engage in settlement negotiations, trial work and, if necessary, appellate practice. Through this clinic, students gain knowledge and skills that they can use in any litigation environment.

CRIMINAL APPEALS

Clinic students represent clients convicted of felony or misdemeanor offenses in appeals pending before the Illinois Appellate Court. Working under the supervision of attorneys from the Office of the State Appellate Defender, students review the trial records, confer with clients, research the law to provide support for their theories, and draft and file briefs with the appellate court. Students also gain insight into trial practice when they review and analyze the procedures, motions and evidentiary rulings that took place in the trial court. The clinic’s classroom component includes lectures on appellate procedure and roundtable discussions on students’ progress throughout the semester.

CROAK COMMUNITY LEGAL CLINIC

Clinic students learn about issues of access to justice and provide legal workshops and presentations on specified topics to DePaul University students and the broader Chicago community in both civil and criminal law. Students work in teams to develop and present “Know-Your-Rights” workshops. Immediately after these presentations, students—under the supervision of an experienced attorney—provide limited scope representation to the attendees on the topic covered at the event. This clinic provides experiential learning opportunities for students interested in community organizing, community education and community empowerment.

FAMILY LAW

In this field clinic, students represent real clients in cases involving family law disputes under the supervision of an experienced attorney at Chicago Volunteer Legal Services. The clinic is designed to give students the opportunity to handle a variety of family law cases. Students first work with clients who have issues involving marriage, divorce, invalidity of marriage and legal separation. Later, they assist clients who have issues involving parentage and clients seeking adoption. Students are involved in interviewing and counseling clients, developing case plans and strategies, investigating witnesses and facts, preparing letters and legal documents, negotiating, going to court and otherwise helping clients solve family law disputes.

TECHNOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW

In the Technology & Intellectual Property Law (TIP ®) Field Clinic, students work off-site with law firms and partner organizations specifically chosen for their ability to expose students to challenging technology, intellectual property and other related legal issues. The TIP Clinic also partners with DePaul’s Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media (CDM). Clinic students provide limited scope legal guidance to select CDM students who encounter intellectual property legal issues as part of developing their creative works, while CDM students gain the benefit of free legal support to help them develop and achieve their creative goals. TIP Clinic clients have included entrepreneurs, musicians, artists, authors and inventors who need assistance in protecting their creations and businesses.

EXTERNSHIP PROGRAM

DePaul College of Law’s Externship Program offers over 180 externship opportunities each year, allowing students to gain valuable legal experience in their preferred practice areas. Students can work on-site with a wide range of government agencies, members of the judiciary, nonprofit organizations, as well as for-profit institutions such as private law firms and corporate legal departments. In an externship, students engage in the legal work typically encountered by attorneys, and externship sites have included:

Business Law

• Accenture

• Internal Revenue Service, Office of Chief Counsel

Family Law

• Center for Disability and Elder Law

• Cook County Public Guardian

Health Law

• American Dental Association

• American Medical Association

Immigration Law and Human Rights Law

• Chicago Family & Immigration Services

• Chicago Legal Clinic, Inc.

Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law

• Arch & Lake, LLP

• Quest Software

Public Interest Law and Public Service

• Ascend Justice

• Illinois Department of Children and Family Services

Student externs simultaneously enroll in the companion Externship Seminar where they have the opportunity to link their field work to topics in the law through case rounds, facilitated discussions and directed readings. Students also explore ethical issues that may arise and learn about the practice of law.

THIRD YEAR IN PRACTICE (3YP) PROGRAM

Our Third Year in Practice (3YP) Program allows a select number of students to spend most of their final year of law school engaged in an intensive practice-based experience tailored to their practice interests. This unique experience employs a combination of select courses and field placements, tailored to students’ professional interests, supported by a focused seminar and mentorship to create a foundation of practical skills that serve to transform law students into experienced and confident attorneys.

PRACTICUMS

Domestic Violence Practicum

Students examine the criminal system’s response to domestic violence, focusing on the transformation of laws and institutions to address problems historically conceptualized as “private.” The course includes regularly scheduled participation in the Domestic Violence Courthouse Project, where students help pro se litigants seeking to file emergency orders of protection.

International Human Rights Law

Practicum

Students experience the complex and varied approaches to human rights legal advocacy in an international setting. Students work closely with grassroots human rights organizations, international non-governmental organizations, United Nations human rights experts and relevant treaty bodies.

PROFESSIONAL SKILLS COURSES

The College of Law offers a wide variety of professional skills courses that simulate legal practice through skillsbased offerings taught by experienced practitioners and law school faculty. Courses include, among others:

• Business Planning

• Commercial Arbitration

• Legal Drafting

• Litigation Strategy

• Mediation

• Negotiations

• Trial Advocacy I & II Litigation Laboratory (“Lit Lab”) is a unique professional skills course where practitioners work collaboratively with students to analyze, critique and develop their live, ongoing cases. Students serve as mock jurors, help prepare witnesses, critique appellate arguments, or suggest ways to improve jury instructions or closing arguments. Students later receive feedback from the attorneys on how the cases were resolved.

STUDENT COMPETITIONS

DePaul has a tradition of graduating exceptional courtroom advocates. Students can gain experience in both appellate and trial advocacy through classroom training and can expand those skills through competitions.

MOOT COURT SOCIETY

Students practice appellate advocacy in moot court competitions across the country. In addition, the Moot Court Society sponsors the Honorable William J. Bauer Moot Court Competition, an annual intramural appellate competition in which student teams analyze and brief a hypothetical appellate problem and argue the case before practicing attorneys and judges. Participating students are enrolled in a class specifically designed to polish their brief writing and oral argument skills.

NATIONAL TRIAL TEAM

Students work collaboratively on mock trial competitions against students from other law schools across the country. For each competition, trial team members develop the trial theory and techniques used to try a case to a jury from start to finish, culminating with the students demonstrating their skills in a national mock trial competition. Participating students are enrolled in a class specifically designed to hone their courtroom skills.

Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative (PBCSI)

DePaul College of Law’s Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative (PBCSI) aligns with the college’s strong tradition of service to others and enhancing access to the legal system for the most vulnerable in our community. PBCSI facilitates and encourages student volunteerism with one of PBCSI’s partners or any other non-profit organization whose mission is to assist disadvantaged individuals or groups. In addition to 1L Service Day, students participate in a wide variety of service opportunities throughout the year, including:

• Preparing advanced directives for low-income LGBTQ seniors

• Providing legal help to low-income individuals without attorneys through Illinois Free Legal Answers

• Drafting legal petitions and providing limited-scope consultations for expunging and sealing criminal records

• Performing legal research on police misconduct litigation

• Working with clients over the phone to help them apply for public benefits

• Serving as legal observers during racial justice protests

• Assisting voters through election protection hotlines