Wed Jun 19 2013   
Immigration Law Clinic
 

Our Goals

The primary goals of the Clinic are:

 

  1. to provide law students with a high quality legal education.
  2. to serve the community by providing high quality legal services to indigent refugees and immigrants who would otherwise lack access to counsel.

 

In order to ensure a high quality legal education, we seek to:

 

  1. provide students with PRIMARY responsibility in making case-related decisions, conducting the necessary legal and factual research for their assigned case(s), and carrying out other decisions in the case;

  2. help students to become familiar with the doctrines, institutions, procedures, conflicts, customs, and ethical problems unique to the practice of immigration law in a way that will not only inform future work in the immigration field but will also provide tools and insights for approaching any area of legal practice effectively and with a critical perspective;

  3. improve students' problem-solving skills by emphasizing a model of systematic decision-making based on deliberate planning (rather than on working from hunches); identification of all possible options and assessment of the relative advantages and risks of each; appreciation of the effects of time pressures, interpersonal factors, and emotions on decision-making; constant re-evaluation of decisions as facts change; involvement of the client in the decision-making process; and after-the-fact self-evaluation ("debriefing");

  4. promote cross-cultural awareness, an appreciation of the way in which cultural differences may affect attorney/client interactions and case development, and an understanding of how to identify and help your clients overcome language, cultural, and racial barriers;
  5. encourage responsible handling and thorough exploration of ethical issues;
  6. encourage professional creativity;
  7. improve traditional skills such as interviewing, case planning, legal research and writing, witness examination, and oral argument;
  8. help students to improve their ability to successfully collaborate with colleagues;
  9. assist students in pursuing their personal goals for the course.

 

 

In order to serve the community by providing high quality legal services to indigent immigrants, we:

  1. conduct outreach and provide individual follow-up interviews to unrepresented, indigent people with cases pending before the local immigration court; to low-wage immigrant workers; and to other immigrants;
  2. provide limited legal assistance (e.g. pro se motions, referrals, applications) to unrepresented respondents, low wage immigrant workers; and people with various immigration issues;
  3. work in partnership with the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project to identify detainees particularly in need of pro bono representation;
  4. closely supervise student work, require drafts of all written work and run-throughs of witness examinations and oral arguments;
  5. limit the number of student participants in the Clinic; and
  6. limit the number of individual removal cases handled by each student (usually assigning two students to cover one case jointly).


Last Updated: 03/22/2011