Clinical Programs
Community-based service learning has a long tradition at DePaul University, and the College of Law exemplifies this practice through its clinical programs. Under faculty supervision and guidance, students sharpen their skills and knowledge while engaging in legal practice outside the formal classroom setting. They earn academic credit while concentrating on the problems faced by clients in six distinct areas: Asylum/Immigration, Criminal Appeals, Death Penalty, Technology/Intellectual Property, Civil Rights and Family Law. DePaul's legal clinics allow students to contribute to the community beyond the University by fulfilling fundamental societal needs. Such experiences help students to better understand the type of legal work they want to pursue after graduation and provide them with a strong sense of professional accomplishment.
Asylum/Immigration
DePaul's Asylum/Immigration Clinic features two educational components: asylum training and representation and a technical legal assistance program. Through the technical legal assistance component, students collaborate with community-based immigration service organizations in the Chicago metropolitan area to address legal concerns. Through the asylum component, they represent asylum applicants before the Asylum Office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service or in hearings before immigration judges. Additionally, they counsel clients, interview and prepare expert witnesses, and secure objective evidence of applicants' cases through country condition reports and other human rights reports. Past clients have fled persecution from China, El Salvador, Kosovo, Nigeria, Somalia, and Uganda.
Civil Rights
During this year-long clinic, second and third year law students will focus on civil rights cases under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 involving police misconduct. Students will become intimately aware of the legal and factual issues that arise in cases involving excessive force, false arrest, illegal search and malicious prosecution by law enforcement officials. Students will receive practical training and get hands on litigation experience working on the Clinic's pending civil rights cases. Students will have the opportunity to interview plaintiffs and witnesses; defend plaintiffs and witnesses at their depositions; draft complaints, legal motions, and discovery requests; appear in court; and in some cases try the case in court.
Criminal Appeals
This clinic provides students with the opportunity to learn appellate practice, assist indigent criminal defendants, and experience the appellate system in the real world. Students perfect an appeal by reviewing the record, researching the issues, preparing the brief, and presenting the oral argument, when appropriate. They visit their client in prison and conduct all correspondence with the client and trial counsel. Recent victories by DePaul student attorneys have included a reversal of a conviction of vehicular invasion, a reversal of a conviction for possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute with sentence reduced to one year on the remaining count, and a post-conviction petition granted with a sentence reduction from 70 to 18 years. The Cook County Board of Commissioners honored DePaul's program for helping to ease the backlog of cases pending in the Office of the State Appellate Defender.
Death Penalty
During this yearlong clinic, students study the complexities of this increasingly controversial form of punishment. They work on trial and post-conviction capital cases and examine the impact of capital punishment on society. The clinic has an active practice because professors represent clients in several capital cases. Second- and third-year law students have the opportunity to work on discrete aspects of these cases. Their legal work includes locating and interviewing witnesses, uncovering legal records, writing motions, and handling other critical components of these cases. In 2003, clinic students helped prepare court documents for a death row inmate's appeal and clemency hearings that ultimately led to his pardon by then Illinois Governor George Ryan.
Family Law
The Family Law Clinic at DePaul University College of Law gives third year law students the opportunity to represent persons in divorce and domestic violence cases. Clients are referred to the clinic by the Chicago Legal Aid Bureau. Adjunct Instructor and family law attorney, Susan C. Haddad, assists the students in representing their clients. The cases, readings, and clinic assignments are designed to give students an overview of Illinois family law and its practice, as well as an appreciation of how a lawyer's actions and judgment affect the well-being of each member of a client's family, not only during the course of representation but also for years to come.
Technology/Intellectual Property
Students fulfill the clinic's mission of "Protecting the Creative Works of Creative MindsŪ" by advising artists, authors, musicians, inventors and small business owners. Among other tasks, students prepare and prosecute trademark applications and copyright registrations, evaluate claims of copyright and trademark infringement, draft license and confidentiality agreements, and review recording and publishing contracts. The clinic also has assisted clients in defending actions to cancel or oppose their trademark registrations. While the clinic does not file patent applications, students helped novice inventors understand the steps necessary to protect their inventions. Recently, students have advised Ralph Metcalfe Jr. with issues associated with The Metcalfe Project, a compilation of the memorabilia, writings and speeches of his late father, former Congressman and Olympian Ralph Metcalfe.
TIP Clinic®
Contact
Andrea D. Lyon
Associate Dean for Clinical Programs;
Clinical Associate Professor of Law;
Director, Center for Justice in Capital Cases;
Supervisor, Death Penalty Legal Clinic
312.362.8402
alyon1@depaul.edu
Mary Hornschemeier Bandstra
Coordinator312.362.5837mbandstr@depaul.edu