Faculty Supervisor: Professor Dona Playton
The Family and Child Legal Advocacy Clinic is dedicated to offering law students an
immersive, comprehensive educational experience that emphasizes the importance of
dispute resolution, providing unbundled legal services, and extending crucial legal
information to self-represented litigants. Through direct lawyer-client interactions,
students engage in interviewing, counseling, legal research, discovery, negotiation,
motion practice, trials, and appeals. They tackle a wide array of civil legal issues,
such as divorce, child custody, domestic violence, adoption, and guardian ad litem
appointments. The clinic also enables student attorneys to represent individuals in
cases of child abuse and neglect and termination of parental rights, with a special
focus on facilitating resolutions tailored to families' specific needs.
Under the close mentorship of Professor Dona Playton, students navigate the multifaceted
legal, social, emotional, ethical, and policy challenges inherent in legal practice.
They learn to draft legal documents, maintain client confidentiality, engage in professional
communications, and conduct regular case reviews. The clinic places a strong emphasis
on equipping students with the skills to assist self-represented litigants and to
employ dispute resolution methods effectively, ensuring clients with limited resources
receive competent and considerate legal support.
Students commit to an average of 5-10 hours per week in the office. Their responsibilities
extend to meeting with clients, negotiating settlements, and making court appearances.
Additional time is allocated for legal skills seminars, client screening, and supporting
individuals navigating the legal system independently. The clinic's broad caseload
includes managing divorces, custody battles, and family law negotiations, mediation,
and litigation, preparing students for a diverse range of legal challenges in both
trial and appellate courts.
This hands-on approach, coupled with interdisciplinary collaboration with experts
in social work, psychology, pediatrics, and psychiatry, prepares law students to enter
the legal profession with a strong foundation in lawyering skills and the values essential
for effective, ethical legal practice. Through their work in the clinic, students
are not only trained in traditional lawyering competencies, but also in the innovative
practices of dispute resolution and legal service delivery, making them well-equipped
to serve society's evolving needs.
* All clinics are subject to change in terms of content, caseload, and specific course
focus in any given year.
