
Gittis Center for Clinical Legal StudiesCivil Practice ClinicStudents are certified by state and federal courts to represent indigent clients in a broad range of civil litigation where they interview clients, draft legal pleadings, engage in client counseling and negotiation with opposing parties, and serve as trial counsel in court and administrative proceedings. Entrepreneurship Legal ClinicStudents provide direct representation to entrepreneurs, businesses, and social entrepreneurs from underserved communities on matters such as business structuring, contract drafting and review, intellectual property, managing employees, negotiating, asset acquisitions and dispositions, business strategy, and regulatory requirements. Mediation ClinicStudents learn about conflict resolution, creative problem solving, and mediation theory, and then serve as court- or agency-approved mediators in a broad range of court, agency, neighborhood, and campus disputes. Legislative ClinicStudents study legislative process, statutory drafting, and legislative advocacy, and then work on pending legislation and public policy issues in legislative placements at the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and the Pennsylvania state legislature. Inter-Disciplinary Child Advocacy ClinicStudents team with medical, nursing, and social policy and practice students to represent vulnerable children in court hearings, participate in developing a plan to serve the child’s best interest, and work with parents, counsel, and relevant agencies to ensure that their clients obtain the services that they need. Transnational ClinicStudents work with clients across cultures, languages, borders and legal systems in asylum and other immigration cases. Students also engage in human rights advocacy through litigation, legislative and policy initiatives, community organizing and other written and visual legal advocacy tools. Criminal Defense ClinicStudents get firsthand criminal defense experience trying misdemeanor and felony cases in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and the Philadelphia Municipal Court under the supervision of experienced attorneys from the Defender Association of Philadelphia, one of the nation’s leading public defender organizations. Lawyering in the Public InterestStudents examine common lawyering themes that confront public interest and pro bono lawyers and participate in simulated exercises taken from actual practice that are specially designed to place students in governance roles of public interest legal advocacy organizations. Clinical Externships at Diverse Practice SettingsDrawing upon Philadelphia’s vibrant legal community and award winning public interest organizations, students gain academic credit while providing direct legal representation at distinguished organizations, such as the Capital Habeas Unit of the Defender Association of Philadelphia (death penalty representation), the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office (criminal prosecution), Community Legal Services and Philadelphia Legal Assistance (legal aid to the poor), and the Women’s Law Project (gender equality advocacy). |
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