Gittis Center for Clinical Legal Studies

Director's Welcome

Welcome to Penn Law's nationally acclaimed Clinical Programs. I invite you to experience the excitement and fulfillment that comes from building relationships with diverse clients, interacting with professionals from other disciplines, engaging in legal advocacy, and using your talent and creativity to make a real difference in the world.

What can students in the Penn Law clinics do? Imagine

• ...battling in court to reverse a wrongful eviction and winning the right of a blind tenant to return home to the specially-equipped apartment she desperately needs.
  
  
• ...being the coordinating lawyer on a business transaction involving corporate structuring, real estate acquisition, multi-staged financing, and licensing, so that a new local restaurant can help train future restaurateurs.
  
  
• ...becoming skilled at mediating conflicts ranging from employment discrimination claims to international child custody disputes-and then successfully doing so in actual cases as a court- or agency-approved mediator.
  
  
• ...helping a client win a grant of asylum to protect her daughter from the same horrific abuse she suffered in her home country.
  
  
• ...giving voice to the rights and needs of vulnerable children at risk as a court appointed Child Advocate, and being able to tell your teenaged client living in a group home that through your advocacy he will return home to rebuild his relationship with his mother and sister.
  
  
• ...working on federal or state legislation pending before legislative committees, and assisting legislators and staff on emerging public policy issues of national importance.
  
  

These are some of the things that students have accomplished in their clinical courses.  I hope you will become part of Penn Law's Clinical Programs and will get to experience what many students report was their best experience in Law School.