Clinical Education Programs

The School of Law offers many clinical education opportunities, with fifteen clinics that cover a range of legal issues and seven internships in nonprofit organizations, government agencies, domestic and international courts, and the state Legislature.

Clinics

• Actual Innocence Clinic
• Capital Punishment Clinic
• Children's Rights Clinic
• Community Development Clinic
• Criminal Defense Clinic
• Domestic Violence Clinic
• Environmental Clinic
• Housing Clinic
• Immigration Clinic
• Juvenile Justice Clinic
• Mediation Clinic
• Mental Health Clinic
• National Security and Human Rights Clinic
• Supreme Court Clinic
• Transnational Worker Rights Clinic

Internships

• Access to Justice Internship
• International Internship/Clerkship
• Judicial Internship
• Legislative Internship
• Nonprofit/Government Internship
• Prosecution Internship
• United States Attorney Internship

Summary course descriptions are given below; complete information is published at the law school's clinical education Web site.

Actual Innocence Clinic

Students screen and investigate claims by inmates that they are actually innocent of the offenses for which they are incarcerated. While investigating cases, students typically interview witnesses, research cases, review trial transcripts, and visit inmates in prison. The weekly class addresses topics relevant to actual innocence law and procedure.

Capital Punishment Clinic

Students work closely with experienced attorneys in the representation of indigent defendants charged with or convicted of capital offenses. Cases are at the trial, appellate, and postconviction stages of litigation. Students perform tasks integral to effective representation, including visiting clients, interviewing witnesses, conducting field investigations, drafting pleadings, and assisting with preparation for trials, evidentiary hearings, and appellate arguments.

Children's Rights Clinic

Students represent children in Travis County District Court as student attorneys ad litem in cases in which the state seeks custody or termination of parental rights based on allegations of abuse and neglect. Although the supervising attorneys sign pleadings drafted by the student and accompany the student to formal proceedings, the student attorneys sit first chair at hearings, depositions, mediations, and trial appearances, and they research and prepare cases as the primary attorneys.

Community Development Clinic

Students represent nonprofit organizations and individuals involved in community development. Students provide business law services needed to promote sustainable economic development in low-income communities, including job creation, affordable housing, and asset building strategies. Typical cases involve real estate, tax, contract, and corporate law issues. This clinic is a partnership between the law school and Texas Community Building with Attorney Resources (Texas C-BAR), a project of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid.

Criminal Defense Clinic

Students represent indigent defendants charged with misdemeanors in Travis County. Typical offenses include DWI, theft, assault, and drug possession. Students function as first chair attorneys, with the supervising attorney sitting as second chair during court proceedings. Students arrange jail releases, interview clients and witnesses, litigate pretrial issues, negotiate with prosecutors, and try cases to judges and juries. For appeals, students review transcripts, write briefs, and present oral arguments.

Domestic Violence Clinic

Students represent victims of domestic violence with a variety of civil legal problems, including custody, divorce, visitation, housing, consumer issues, public assistance, and procurement of protective orders. Students sit first chair and are responsible for all tasks associated with their cases. They meet with clients, draft pleadings, interview witnesses, draft and respond to discovery, take depositions, negotiate settlements, and conduct trials.

Environmental Clinic

An interdisciplinary group of law students and graduate students in this clinic work with citizens of low-income communities who suffer a disproportionate share of environmental harm and enjoy fewer environmental amenities than their fellow Texans. The clinic works on projects designed to improve environmental quality for these communities. It also assists environmental organizations on issues of state and national importance. Students are responsible for all aspects of client representation, including factual investigation, development of strategy, research and writing, oral advocacy, and client communication.

Housing Clinic

Students represent low-income families with housing-related legal problems. Many clients are single parents, and many are disabled. The primary focus is helping clients avoid homelessness and gain access to affordable housing. Thus clinic work often involves representing clients in threatened evictions, in denials of public housing, subsidized housing, and Section 8 housing, and in other aspects of landlord-tenant law. There are opportunities for real estate–related work on behalf of individuals and community-based nonprofit groups. Students interview clients, investigate cases, research issues, negotiate with opposing parties, draft pleadings and discovery, and represent clients in administrative hearings and in court. Court appearances may be limited, because students are often successful in settling their cases. The clinic is based at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid.

Immigration Clinic

Students represent low-income immigrants before the immigration courts and the Department of Homeland Security in bond and deportation hearings, asylum applications, Violence Against Women Act cases, and applications for discretionary relief. Students interview clients, develop case strategy, prepare witnesses, and present cases before the court or agency.

Juvenile Justice Clinic

Students serve as student attorneys with the Travis County juvenile public defender. Clients are indigent juveniles, aged ten to seventeen, charged with criminal offenses ranging from Class B misdemeanors to first-degree felonies. The clinic provides an opportunity for students to learn juvenile law, interact with clients, advocate in court proceedings, and participate in educating children about the law.

Student attorneys are assigned cases for which they have primary responsibility under the supervision of an experienced attorney in the public defender's office. Students perform all investigation, interviews, discovery, negotiation, and litigation on their cases.

Mediation Clinic

Students mediate disputes between individuals: they interview the disputants, make arrangements for the mediation, and prepare for and conduct mediations. In addition, students observe mediations by professional mediators. Students may also serve as mediators for litigation advocacy classes and for mediation competitions. Most of the cases handled are referred for mediation from small claims courts. The clinic may also accept cases from other courts and from nonprofit entities. Weekly class meetings examine the mediation process in depth, comparing facilitative, evaluative, and transformative approaches to mediation.

Mental Health Clinic

Students represent people confined in mental health facilities at civil commitment hearings before the Travis County Probate Court. The weekly classroom component focuses on the Texas Mental Health Code and applicable case law, instruction in trial advocacy, case review, brief writing, and other aspects of litigation. During a short introductory period, students observe court proceedings at the state hospital and view videos concerning psychiatric diagnosis. Students begin handling cases in February. In addition to providing representation at probable cause and commitment hearings, students may also have the opportunity to pursue a case on appeal.

National Security and Human Rights Clinic

Students address legal issues related to the contemporary and controversial War on Terror. Students work with faculty members on a variety of complex cases and projects, which include representing individuals detained at the United States military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; preparing appellate briefs challenging the legality of the Detainee Treatment Act and the Military Commissions Act; assisting with the representation of "enemy combatants" charged under the Military Commissions Act; and preparing other documents, such as amicus curiae briefs, in cases related to the War on Terror.

Supreme Court Clinic

Students work closely with faculty members on cases before the United States Supreme Court. Students assist in representing clients who are seeking review of lower court decisions or who have cases before the Supreme Court following grants of certiorari. Students conduct in-depth research and draft pleadings such as petitions for certiorari, briefs in opposition, reply briefs, and merits briefs. The weekly classroom component introduces students to Supreme Court procedures and practice.

Transnational Worker Rights Clinic

Students represent low-income immigrant workers in cases to recover unpaid wages; they also engage in advocacy projects asserting the rights of workers here and abroad. Depending on the case, students participate in worker education meetings, interview and advise clients, investigate facts, develop strategy, negotiate with opposing parties, conduct research, prepare legal documents, and represent clients in litigation, administrative actions, and community-based enforcement actions. They may also assist in developing cases for criminal prosecution on wage fraud charges. Students help their clients acquire the knowledge and skills to protect their own employment rights, while grounding their representation efforts in the broader context of transnational and international labor rights advocacy.

The clinic is based at the Central Texas Immigrant Worker Rights Center, a project of the Equal Justice Center. This clinic was established through a grant from the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation, and is part of the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice at the law school.

Access to Justice Internship

The University joins with the Texas Access to Justice Commission and other law schools to offer this internship focused on increasing access to justice. Students receive academic credit for working full-time with nonprofit groups that provide civil legal services to low-income individuals and communities. Each student works under the supervision of an experienced attorney.

International Internship/Clerkship

The law school sponsors a number of international clerkship and fellowship opportunities, including the following. Descriptions are published at the law school's international internships Web site.

• International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia: The Hague, The Netherlands; six-month internship; up to ten semester hours of credit
• International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda: Arusha, Tanzania; twelve-week summer internship, for six hours of credit or a stipend, or semester-long internship, for up to ten hours of credit
• Inter-American Court of Human Rights: San José, Costa Rica; six-month or summer internship; up to ten hours of credit
• European Court of Justice: Luxembourg; four- to six-month internship; six to ten hours of credit
• Latin America Democracy Fellowship: twelve-week summer internship; six hours of credit and airfare, or a stipend

Judicial Internship

Interns work directly with judges and their legal staffs and synthesize their own analytical, research, and writing skills. Interns typically also observe and discuss court proceedings, the role of lawyers, and advocacy skills. Internships are available in Austin at the federal District Court, the federal Bankruptcy Court, the Supreme Court of Texas, the State Court of Criminal Appeals, the Third Court of Appeals, the Travis County Probate Court, and the State Office of Administrative Hearings. With the instructor's approval, summer-session students may receive credit for internships at state appellate courts or federal courts outside Austin. Students must be selected by a sponsoring court before registration is permitted.

Legislative Internship

The Texas Legislature will be in session in spring 2009. Interns study the legislative process by working on legal issues under the supervision of experienced attorneys in offices connected to the Legislature. Students may be placed in the office of the lieutenant governor, a senator, a representative, a committee, or a legislative agency. The internship course is not intended for students employed in connection with the legislative session, nor for students with extensive experience working as law clerks in legislative offices.

Nonprofit/Government Internship

Interns work under the supervision of experienced attorneys in nonprofit or government agencies, gaining experience that the students reflect upon in class. The course addresses topics relevant to lawyering and the legal profession, including ethics, advocacy skills, access to justice, and the lawyer's role. The instructor consults with each student to develop an appropriate field placement. Past placement agencies have included Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Women's Advocacy Project, the Office of the Governor, the Texas Civil Rights Project, and the Texas Secretary of State.

Prosecution Internship

This course seeks to educate students on the substantive law and legal issues commonly encountered in criminal prosecution and to familiarize them with the unique duties and responsibilities of a criminal prosecutor as both an advocate and a minister of justice. Each student is assigned to a trial court in the Travis County district attorney's office and is supervised by prosecutors assigned to the court. Students experience all aspects of the daily functions of the public prosecutor. Some students may participate actively in courtroom proceedings.

United States Attorney Internship

Students may earn up to four semester hours of credit on the pass/fail basis for a two-semester internship with the United States Attorney's Office in Austin. The internship requires a commitment to work ten hours a week for two consecutive semesters.

Center for Public Policy Dispute Resolution

Since 1993, the Center for Public Policy Dispute Resolution has advanced the appropriate use of alternative dispute resolution processes (ADR) by Texas governmental entities and provided ADR education and research to the University community and the citizens of Texas. Law students play a major role in the center's work through internships.

To accomplish its mission, the center staff provides advice and ADR services to government entities and administers a statewide clearinghouse for information about ADR methods and public policy dispute resolution.

In its consultative capacity, the center helps government clients design, implement, administer, and evaluate ADR processes. Clients include Texas state agencies, state courts, local and regional governments, and the University community. As a result of the center's work, ADR processes such as mediation, arbitration, collaborative problem solving, and negotiated rule making are increasingly used to help disputants reach satisfactory results without litigation or administrative hearings.

The center also serves as a resource for information about ADR. Members of the center's Fellows Program, attorneys, ADR practitioners, public policy leaders, and academics provide research and technical assistance. Throughout the year, the center also provides training seminars taught by experts in the field of alternative dispute resolution.

The center administers the University's portfolio program in dispute resolution to both law and graduate students. This interdisciplinary program synthesizes theory with the practical application of ADR. Information about portfolio programs is given in the section "Graduate Portfolio Programs."

The center staff teaches a law school seminar each year and maintains roundtable quarterly meetings of thirty state agency representatives for ADR training.

The University of Texas Law School Foundation

The University of Texas Law School Foundation was established in 1952 by Charles I. Francis, Sylvan Lang, Angus G. Wynne, Hines Baker, Dan Moody, Robert E. Hardwicke, and Hugh Lamar Stone. They foresaw that private support would be needed to supplement state funding if the law school were to achieve its potential. The foundation's objective is to establish or assist in establishing chairs, professorships, and scholarships. The scholarship endowment is now approximately $53 million; it provided more than $1.9 million in financial aid for 2007–2008. Over the years, the foundation's role and significance have grown as its assets have increased. Today, the foundation maintains half of the endowments and privately sponsored funds that support the law school. The other half is maintained by The University of Texas System on behalf of the law school. The law school's endowment is one of the largest in the nation.

Officers and trustees of the foundation are

• Robert C. Grable, President
• Jon P. Newton, Vice President
• Linda L. Addison, Trustee Emeritus
• Morris Atlas, Senior Trustee
• F. Scott Baldwin Sr., Trustee Emeritus
• E. William Barnett, Life Member
• Frederick M. Baron, Trustee Emeritus
• David J. Beck, Life Member
• John B. Beckworth
• Rubén R. Cárdenas, Trustee Emeritus
• John R. Castle, Trustee Emeritus
• George C. Chapman, Trustee Emeritus
• Joseph A. Cialone II
• Nina Cortell, Ex Officio Trustee
• Hector De Leon
• Sylvia A. de Leon
• Joseph C. Dilg, Trustee Emeritus
• J. Chrys Dougherty III, Senior Trustee
• Rodney G. Ellis
• John L. Estes, Senior Trustee
• H. Lee Godfrey
• Bryan L. Goolsby, Ex Officio Trustee
• Michelle P. Goolsby
• Paul W. Hobby
• Kay Bailey Hutchison
• Joseph D. Jamail Jr., Life Member
• Franklin Jones Jr., Senior Trustee
• Dee J. Kelly Sr., Senior Trustee
• Ron Kirk
• Catherine Lamboley
• Duke R. Ligon
• Thomas G. Loeffler, Trustee Emeritus
• Joe R. Long
• Gilbert I. Low, Trustee Emeritus
• Wales H. Madden Jr., Senior Trustee
• J. Mark McLaughlin, Senior Trustee
• John T. Montford
• Mike A. Meyers
• Steven B. Pfeiffer
• Tom B. Ramey Jr., Senior Trustee
• Shannon H. Ratliff
• Harry M. Reasoner, Life Member
• C. Kenneth Roberts, Life Member
• Eduardo R. Rodriguez
• J. Burleson Smith, Senior Trustee
• Stephen L. Tatum
• Larry E. Temple, Trustee Emeritus
• Del Williams

The University of Texas Law Alumni Association

Founded in 1939, The University of Texas Law Alumni Association operates under the nonprofit status of the Law School Foundation. The primary purposes of the association are to raise funds for the law school, to strengthen the relationship between the school and its alumni, and to assist the dean, the faculty, and the staff in their efforts to make the School of Law the best public law school in the nation.

Endowments

The University and the Law School Foundation have adopted as one of their major objectives the development of endowment funds to be used to attract and retain eminent scholars and teachers for the law school. The income from these funds is used to supplement the salaries of distinguished professors and to provide research assistance and other logistical support. Faculty members who hold endowed positions are identified in chapter 6.