LAW 0785:
Community Lawyering Clinic: Temple Legal Aid Office
Spring 2025 • Section S21
Course offerings for are still tentative. The information below is subject to change.
Course Description
Through community lawyering projects, this internal clinic at Temple's Legal Aid Office allows you to develop the legal skills you will need to represent clients in many areas of practice. As a legal intern, you will be placed in the primary lawyer role under the direct supervision of the professor who will supervise each aspect of the work you do. It is designed to be diagnostic€”you will practice skills you need to lawyer and reflect with the professor at every step on how to practice well. Some skills you will develop include interviewing and counselling, goal defining with clients, legal analysis, legal research and writing, and oral advocacy. You will handle some litigation type matters, like administrative hearings before Administrative Law Judges to help people get disability benefits, and transactional ones, like drafting powers of attorney and wills. The present client base has a health law focus and includes people with physical disabilities and those with severe illnesses, like HIV and cancer. Many of the community sites focus on delivering medical and social services to people with these disabilities and illnesses.In the semesters where Law 1041 Poverty Law is also taught, students will be invited to attend selected classes to share how the work they are doing in the Clinic sheds light on the way we discuss poverty law issues. Poverty Law students may also suggest projects for this Clinic that can be adopted in the current or future semesters. You may co-register for both classes during the semesters they are both offered to get both a theoretical description of poverty law issues through Law 1041 while you are practically experiencing the way law impacts on the poor.In all semesters, this clinical can be combined with Law 795 Advanced Clinical Intensive: Community Lawyering Temple Legal Aid Office for a total of 6 credit hours. One can also sign up for Law 795 in a subsequent semester.You do not need not be certified to practice under Rules 321 and 322 of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. If you qualify for certification, however, you may be able to take on court assignments requiring certification. Most assignments, like doing administrative hearings, do not require such certification.
Schedule
| Day/Time | Location |
|---|---|
| T 10:00-11:50 AM | TBA |
Additional Time Requirements
Along with the above class time, there will be an additional 8 -10 hours a week. Over the course of the semester, each student should log a total of 112-140 hours of practice or work time, not including the classroom component.
Registration Info
Registration Notes
Average 10-12 hrs/wk including seminar. Additional hours for case preparation and appearances as needed. The Advanced Clinic combined with the regular clinic would be a total of 7 credits, if you register for both.
Recommendations
If you want to be able to make appearances where Certification is required, you will need to have taken: Law 540 Evidence (Grade of C or better), Law 460 Trial Advocacy I or Law 558 Introduction to Trial AdvocacyBook List/Materials
Materials To Be Announced