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...].
Recent Research & Reports
*UNC Immigration/Human Rights Policy Clinic Releases New Study That Finds Dramatic Problems with the 287(g) Immigration Program.
A federal law granting local police and sheriffs the power to act as immigration officials when faced with dangerous criminals or terrorists has instead created a climate of racial profiling and community insecurity, according to researchers at the UNC School of Law. A team of law students, led by Deborah Weissman, Reef C. Ivey II Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of Clinical Programs at UNC School of Law, and Katherine Parker and Rebecca Headen, lawyers with the ACLU in North Carolina Legal Foundation, released a report on the 287(g) Program in North Carolina titled, "The Policies and Politics of Local Immigration Enforcement Law". The report found that the agencies most closely reviewed have failed to comply with contracts governing the program, and proposes solutions, including greater transparency and a functional system for complaints or appeals. To review this report, please click on the corresponding links below:
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 For Externship and Clincal Programs for the 2009-2010 academic year has ended.
Testimonial for Civil Legal Assistance Clinic
Working in the North Carolina Civil Legal Clinic was one of the best experiences that I had in law school. Law students don't usually get the chance to get hands on legal experience representing actual clients while in law school. Clinic gave me the opportunity to help real clients with a wide variety of legal problems with me acting as their actual lawyer. This was great for a couple of reasons. First, now that I am leaving law school to go practice law, I actually know how to do all of the different legal things that we have all heard about, but rarely had a chance to actually do. Because of my experience in clinic, I know how to conduct a deposition, set a dispute for hearing, file a summary judgment motion, draft a complaint, etc. Second, clinic gave me an opportunity to practice many skills that I will need as a lawyer that they really do not teach in any other class. Clinic gave me substantial client counseling experience working with indigent clients from really different backgrounds from my own. Clinic gave me the opportunity to negotiate cases with real lawyers who represented the other side in the cases that I worked on. These skills are very important for any lawyer involved in litigation, and my opportunity to develop these skills in clinic was invaluable.
I think for many people, law school teaches you the law rather than how to be a lawyer. A lot of my friends that didn't have clinical experience are now feeling very intimidated by the prospect of having to go out into the real world and practice law, since law school has taught them the theoretical side of being a lawyer but not the practical side. With my clinical experience under my belt, I can honestly say that now I can set foot in the real world, knowing not only the law, but also where the courthouse is.
- Michael Bertics, Carolina Law Student