Courses

Students will participate throughout the year in advising on, developing, and litigating actual housing cases in cooperation with the Legal Aid Justice Center. The caseload includes trials, administrative proceedings, and interaction with low-income clients. Students handle eviction and voucher termination cases, abatement of substandard building conditions, and other enforcement of residents' rights, although specific assignments vary according to the cases available during the year. The course also incorporates classroom instruction during the fall semester in the substantive and procedural aspects of landlord-tenant law and litigation skills. Under the supervision of an attorney, students perform most lawyer functions associated with their cases, including client and witness interviews, factual development, legal research, preparation of pleadings, and negotiation. Additionally, clinic students will use a range of strategies used by Legal Aid Justice Center attorneys to identify, investigate, and attack systemic injustices, encouraging holistic and community-partnered approaches to lawyering. Third-year students who have their Third Year Practice Certification are eligible to appear and argue in court. The necessary course work for the Certification can be completed in the 2L year or finished in the fall semester of 3L. Students who do not qualify for a Third Year Practice Certification, including 2Ls, may conduct negotiations, assist with factual and legal case development, sit second chair, and, in most years, argue an administrative hearing.