Law Offices:
News & announcements for the week of
October 15, 2001

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APPLICATIONS FOR IN-HOUSE CLINICS - SPRING 2002
ARE NOW AVAILABLE

Students who would like to learn how to practice law under the supervision of a faculty attorney while they are in law school should apply for admission to one of the in-house clinical education programs administered by the LAW OFFICES, the Law School's teaching law firm.

Students may enroll in one of the Law Offices programs after they have completed the equivalent to their first year of law school (30 credits). To be considered for a place, ALL students must complete and return a completed Law Offices application. Applications are now available for the Spring 2002 semester and must be turned in to the Law Offices receptionist in Suite 600 by 12:00 NOON on TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2001 (due date).

Students who have previously taken or who are currently taking Law Offices (continuing Law Offices students), and who submit their applications by the due date will be given preference in their same clinic if availability permits. The next priority will be given to the first ten students on each first choice waiting list for the Fall 2001 semester who did not turn down a place for Fall 2001 semester, if one was offered to them, and who submit their Spring application by the due date. All other students who submit their applications by the due date will be selected pursuant to the Law Offices lottery.

The Law Offices lottery applies to the following seven in-house clinical programs-(1)- Employment Discrimination/Civil Rights with some General Practice Clinic, (2)-Criminal Defense Clinic, (3)-First Defense Legal Aid Clinic (FDLA), (4)-Health Law Clinic, (5)-Information Technology & Entrepreneurship Clinic (ITEC), (6)-Mediation & Other ADR Procedures Clinic, and (7)-Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (Personal Income Tax is a prerequisite and Tax Procedure is strongly encouraged).

The Law Offices offers an eighth in-house clinical program entitled Interviewing and Counseling - Advice Desk - in which students may enroll without going through the lottery.

In six of the seven in-house programs subject to the lottery - all but FDLA - students are given the option of enrolling for three or four credits. Students who enroll for four credits put in a minimum of sixteen hours per week, and students who enroll for three credits put in a minimum of twelve hours per week during the fourteen-week semester. Students in FDLA enroll for two credits and put in a minimum of eight hours per week. Students in Interviewing and Counseling-Advice Desk also enroll for two credits.

For more information, you may talk with the clinical professors who supervise the various practice groups -- Professors Gonzalez (Room 629) and Leader (625) for Employment Discrimination Clinic; Professors Kling (625) and Thomas (609) for Criminal Defense; Professor Kraus (627) for Health Law Clinic; Professor Kentra (611) for Mediation & other ADR Procedures Clinic; Professor Williams (room 621) for ITEC; Professor Decatorsmith (625) for Low Income Taxpayer Clinic; Professor Walz (FDLA) who is off campus and may be reached at (773) 826-6550; Professors Kraus (627) and Kentra (611) for Advice Desk; and Professor Laser, the Director of Clinical Programs (631) is also available to answer your questions about all of the clinic programs.



LEGAL EXTERNSHIP PROGRAM
SPRING 2002


THIRD YEAR STUDENTS ONLY:

Do you wish to develop your legal skills, gain practical legal experience in a specialized area of law with a corporation, firm or government agency, and make yourself more marketable to prospective employers upon graduation? If so, consider applying to the Legal Externship Program for Spring 2002 Semester.

The Legal Externship Program is a 4-credit hour non-graded program. The program is open to students in their last two semesters of law school. The student selects the area of law in which he/she wishes to extern.

For the fieldwork component, students extern in a private or public, civil or criminal practice and must work a minimum of 16 hours a week at his/her designated placement. Externs interested in civil law may select to work under the supervision of general counsel in major corporations or under the supervision of designated teaching lawyers in well-known firms or specific government agencies. Externs may specialize in such diverse legal areas as tax, commodities, securities, corporate, health care, medical malpractice, general corporate law, etc. Those interested in criminal law may select to work with the States Attorney's Office, Public Defender's Office, or the U.S. Attorney's Office. Many externships enable an extern to obtain a 711 student practice license and appear in court.

Information about the program and an accompanying application form are available in the Law Offices reception area and in the Careers Services office. Applications must be turned in to Room 612 by 12:00 P.M. on Friday, November 9th.

All applicants must have scheduled and completed an interview with Professor Gross prior to turning in their applications.

If you are interested in learning more about externship opportunities or in applying to the program, please see Professor Vivien Gross in Room 617.

 

FIRST DEFENSE LEGAL AID

First Defense Legal Aid (FDLA), the only program of its kind in the country, fills the gap in Illinois' public defender system by providing 24-hour free legal representation to adults and children in police custody or under police investigation. FDLA provides a unique "frontline" criminal defense experience for students, enabling them to see: how evidence is collected and created; the tactics of the Chicago Police Department when trying to extract a confession or question witnesses; the role that the Cook County State's Attorney's Felony Review Team plays during the beginning stages of a criminal investigation; and the utter vulnerability of children and adults when under intensive and sometimes abusive interrogation. In addition to this stationhouse representation, FDLA also works toward the permanent improvement of our criminal justice system by educating the public, organizing community residents to combat police misconduct, by engaging in legislative and community advocacy, investigating patterns of misconduct by the Chicago Police, taking select criminal defense cases to trial, and initiating 42 U.S.C. §1983 litigation to improve the policies and procedures of the Chicago Police as they relate to the treatment of persons in police custody.

Students participating in the FDLA class must be eligible for a Illinois Supreme Court Rule 711 license. Students representing FDLA clients at Chicago Police Stations will gain unique insight into the criminal justice system at its earliest stage and be able to:

1. View and Document Line-Ups, DNA testing, and Halt Lie Detector Tests.
2. Assert a Client's 5th Amendment Right to Remain Silent and 6th Amendment Right to Counsel.
3. Gather Information from the Police on the Progress of the Investigation.
4. Document Police Brutality and other Misconduct.
5. Counsel Clients and Provide Information to their Families.
6. Interview Witnesses.
7. Demand a Client's Immediate Release at the Police Station and in Court.

Students will be trained to provide legal representation to adults and children under criminal investigation. In addition to a weekly, one-hour class (Mondays from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.), students will be available to represent persons in custody six hours each week and actually go to the police station to represent them. Students will be provided with pagers and FDLA will reimburse transportation expenses. Three supervising attorneys will be available at all times to assist students and provide support. For more information, contact Kate Walz at (773) 826-6550 or kewalz@aol.com .

 

LOW INCOME TAXPAYERS CLINIC

For information on the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic, please visit the new website: 

                        http://www.kentlaw.edu/academics/clinic/tax/
 
 


LAW OFFICES OF CHICAGO-KENT

The Law Offices of Chicago-Kent offers nine long-standing programs in live-client clinical legal education which accommodate over 150 students in the fall and spring semesters and over 50 students in the summer semester. 

For a complete description of all clinical programs, please visit the Law Offices' Home Page at www.kentlaw.edu/academics/clinic
 
 
 
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