STUDENTS AND LAW SCHOOLS

The American Bar Association has established a goal for law students to complete 50 hours of pro bono service prior to graduation.

 

Students at the John Marshall Law School in Atlanta, Georgia, have developed legal education videos based on legal aid office informational brochures. Viewers can watch videos on topics such as: Breaking Free from Domestic Violence, What You Need to Know about Garnishments and Bankruptcies, Unemployment Insurance Benefits - Common Questions, and Spanish and English versions of Overpayments and Collections - Social Security and SSI Benefits

 

An innovative program at Arizona State University’s Law School provides individuals of modest means access to justice while also creating much-needed jobs for recent law school graduates. The program has approximately thirty recent law graduates working under attorneys at a nonprofit law firm created by the University. The firm provides reduced-rate legal services services. However, the proposed rate of $125 per hour is controversial, as some have questioned whether services at this rate will help solve the access to justice problem for people of all incomes.

 

Colorado’s two law schools, the University of Colorado Law School and the University of Denver, Strum College of Law, provide students the opportunity to provide free legal services through a number of different clinical programs.  These programs include at CU a Civil Practice Clinic, a Family Law Clinic, and an American Indian Law Clinic, among others, and at DU a Civil Litigation Clinic and a Civil Rights Clinic, among others.

 

 

RESOURCES

ABA Takes Step Toward Adopting 50 Hour Aspirational Goal for Pro Bono Services by Law Students, Nat’l Center for Access to Just. Blog (Mar. 18, 2014). http://ncforaj.org/2014/03/18/aba-takes-step-toward-adopting-50-hour-aspirational-goal-for-pro-bono-service-by-law-students/. (Last visited September 19, 2014).

 

State Bar of Ga. Pro Bono Project, Law Students Contribute to Online Access to Justice in Georgia, GeorgiaLegalAid.org. http://www.georgialegalaid.org/resource/law-students-contribute-to-online-access-to-j. (Last visited September 19, 2014).

 

Ethan Bronner, To Place Graduates, Law Schools Are Opening Firms, N.Y. Times, Mar. 8, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/education/law-schools-look-to-medical-education-model.html. (Last visited September 19, 2014).

 

Colorado Law, Clinical Education. Available at http://www.colorado.edu/law/academics/clinics.  (Last visited October 8, 2014)

 

Denver University, Strum College of Law, Law School Clinical Programs. Available at http://www.law.du.edu/index.php/law-school-clinical-program/clinical-programs. (Last visited October 8, 2014).