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Week of November 28, 2016

LAW OFFICES
SPRING 2017

Work on actual cases and gain valuable experience that will help build your resume, make you more marketable, and most importantly provide you with skills that are necessary in legal practice! By participating in a legal clinical program, you'll learn the day-to-day responsibilities of lawyering under close supervision of an experienced practicing attorney.

While the deadline has passed, we are still taking applications and can be found in Suite 600 reception area, outside of the 3rd floor cafeteria and online (http://www.kentlaw.iit.edu/academics/jd-program/practical-skills-training/legal-clinics).

Please visit our website for more details about each clinical opportunity.

 

NEW CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

For the first time, students can opt to enroll in the new Joint LADR/Labor and Employment Law Certificate Program! Applications will be made available shortly.


ACCESS2PRACTICE
SPRING 2017
LEGAL EXTERNSHIP PROGRAM

Why Extern?

Chicago-Kent has long recognized that classes and textbooks alone are not sufficient to complete the education of our students and their transformation into lawyers. Students also need practical experience in the real world to acquire legal skills not accessible in the traditional classroom and to gain insight into the strategic and ethical dimensions of the legal profession.

Some students gain experience when they are hired as part-time clerks. But most students don't have access to paid or volunteer positions in a legal setting of their choice and/or one that teaches them the skills they want to acquire.

LEP presents a unique and important opportunity to gain exposure to an area of law you are interested in and helps you significantly broaden your practical employment opportunities.

What is LEP?

Access2Practice (A2P) Legal Externship is a 4-credit-hour Pass/Fail program which enables Kent 2Ls and 3Ls to gain supervision/mentoring in a wide variety of legal areas – both civil and criminal.

LEP externships are offered in the Fall and Spring semesters and in the Summer session and consist of two separate components: fieldwork and class.

Externs must work 16 hours a week during the Fall/Spring semesters for a minimum total of 224 hours.


In addition, externs attend a series of classes that meet on designated Wednesdays from 4:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Classes focus on different legal areas and the often complex realities at the core of law practice.

Where Can Students Extern?

Students interested in civil law may extern in a wide variety of places. For example, some have externed at the City of Chicago Corporation Counsel's Office, Office of the Illinois Attorney General, Illinois Commerce Commission, Immigration Court of the U.S. Department of Justice, Internal Revenue Service, and U.S. and Illimois Environmental Protection Agencies.

Students interested in criminal law have externed at the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Office of the Federal Defender, and at the offices of the State's Attorney and Public Defender in Cook County as well as the surrounding counties.

In addition, in Fall and Spring semesters, there are a small number of private law firms and in-house corporate legal departments which have been formally screened and approved for LEP placements.

How to Apply:

The Information and Application packets for the Spring 2017 LEP are available online or in hard copy on the table by the third-floor elevators, in the Career Services Office, and in Room 600 Law Offices reception area. If you would like more information, please check the Externship web page.

 

JUDICIAL EXTERNSHIP PROGRAM

The deadline for the Judicial Externship Program has passed but you can still participate if you secure your own externship with a judge. There is a separate application and that will be posted later this month.

If you have any questions about the Program or the application itself, please contact Professor Vivien Gross (vgross@kentlaw.iit.edu).

 

FLEISCHMAN AWARD

Former criminal clinic students Lydia Ness and Dalia Labrador receive 2016 Fleischman Family Awards for Excellence in Criminal Clinic. Read more.

LAW OFFICES NEWSLETTER

View the latest Law Offices newsletter to find out what is currently happening and hear from students who talk about their clinic experiences.

INTENSIVE CLINIC

Intensive clinic is a twelve credit, one semester course in which the students will receive an enhanced, closely supervised and graded clinical experience and, in addition, satisfy their senior seminar paper requirement. Intensive Clinic has the potential to be the optimal means for law students to transition from law school to the practice of law in that it provides a natural progression from theory (doctrinal classes) to simulations to clinic to Intensive Clinic, where students engage in sophisticated lawyering activities on a full-time basis for an entire semester, with a safety net in place. The program will be available for a select number of senior law students. Each student enrolled in Intensive Clinic will receive ten graded clinical education credits and a separate grade of two credits for writing a paper that will satisfy the Senior Seminar paper requirement under the close supervision of the clinical faculty member who selected the student.

Areas of Law: Plaintiffs Employment Law, Civil Litigation, Vaccine Injury Litigation, Criminal Law, Entrepreneurial Law, Family Law and Tax Law.

To Apply:

Students will apply to Intensive Clinic via a written submission detailing their qualifications and their reasons for seeking admission. This submission will be the basis for discussion during a subsequent individual interview with each applicant. Please direct all written submissions to Tracy Kish at tkish@kentlaw.iit.edu.

LITIGATION AND ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (LADR)

The due date has passed for the LADR certificate program but we can still accept applications. Applications can be found online and can be turned in to the receptionist in the Law Offices, Suite 600.

CRIMINAL LITIGATION CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

The due date has passed for the Criminal Ltigation Certificate Program but we can still accept applications. Applications can be found online and can be turned in to the receptionist in the Law Offices, Suite 600.


Student Argues Before Judge

Kudos to Law Offices student Tracy Harkins, supervised by Professor Richard Kling, who argued in front of a 7th Circuit Judges Kanne, Hamilton and Sykes in Federal Court on Wednesday, October 7. The oral argument was based on the appeal of the district court's denial of a motion to suppress evidence. Tracy argued that the finding of reasonable suspicion, in support of a "Terry" stop, at the district court level was erroneous, on the basis that the facts the district court found supported reasonable suspicion were not articulable and reliable enough to confer such suspicion.

In The News

Clinical Professor of Law Pamela Kentra, supervisor of the Mediation/Alternative Dispute Resolution Clinic, explains a Seventh Circuit decision that could chip away at the private arbitration system in Crain's Chicago Business.


Clinical Professor of Law Richard Kling, supervisor of the Criminal Clinic, is interviewed by CBS 2 Chicago about the special prosecutor appointed in the Laquan McDonald murder case.

Chicago-Kent College Clinical Professor of Law Richard Kling is interviewed in the Chicago Sun-Times about former Governor Rod Blagojevich’s resentencing hearing. Read Chicago-Kent's Richard Kling's comments in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Center for Open Government Director Clint Krislov spoke to Investigators’ Notebook about his client’s taxpayer action to enforce school district anti-nepotism policies. Read Clint Krislov's comments in the Investigators' Notebook, the blog of the Better Government Association's Investigative Unit.

The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin published an article focusing on the legal writing and clinical education programs.
 

Clinical Professor Ed Kraus spoke with Peoria's WEEK-TV about the needs of diabetic children in schools and the necessity of accommodation from and education of school staff, for a story about a local couple whose 10-year old son has struggled to perform needed care on the bus: http://www.cinewsnow.com/news/local/Mom-says-son-denied-to-properly-treat-diabetes-is-life-or-death-issue-200679431.html
 

 

For a complete description of all clinical programs, please visit the Law Offices' Home Page at http://www.kentlaw.iit.edu/legal-clinics

For a description of all externship programs, please visit the Externship home page at http://www.kentlaw.iit.edu/externships.

 

 

 

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