Clinical Programs
At the UNC School of Law, clinical legal educational provides students the opportunity to learn legal theory and legal practice while providing much needed legal assistance to under-represented individuals and organizations. Students represent clients with a wide range of legal problems and handle litigation, transactional, and policy matters from beginning to end. The clinical offerings are sufficiently broad to allow students to work in a variety of legal areas and enhance a number of skills: civil rights, consumer, criminal defense, community development, domestic violence, housing, human rights, family, immigration, and policy work with legislators and NGOs [more about clinical programs...].
To find out how we get our cases, please select a clinic above.
For more information about the School of Law's clinical programs, contact Deborah Weissman, professor of law and director of clinical programs.
Registration Forms For Externship and Clincal Programs for the 2008-2009 Academic Year:
Testimonial for Immigration/Human Rights Policy Clinic
As a student in the UNC Human Rights and Policy Clinic, I participated in a project to assist victims of human trafficking in North Carolina . While there are federal statutes already in place to prosecute traffickers and to help victims, there are additional steps that a state must take to ensure that victims receive the benefits of these laws. The purpose of our Policy Clinic project was to create a protocol to aid in the identification of trafficked persons, coordinate available resources within the state and deliver these resources to victims. In other words, we strove to make a real-life connection between the intention behind the existing federal law and ground level implementation.
The Policy Clinic is a unique clinical experience; there are no direct clients or courtroom experience. Instead, I interviewed attorneys locally and nationally, researched protocols of other states, attended state task force meetings, and met with a state legislator while working on this project. It was an invaluable experience to learn what other states are doing and it was an exhilarating feeling to meet other people passionate about the same issues. The experience trained me to think in innovative and creative ways, as well as providing me with an expanded base of contacts in this community and sharpening my research skills. Most importantly, I gained an essential skill as attorney – I helped to transform the law from mere words into a living, breathing tool for positive societal change.
- Hannah Little, Carolina Law Student