CLINIC COURSE DESCRIPTIONS & REGISTRATION

The Caritas Clemency Clinic (CCC) is a two-semester clinic that aims to increase access to justice for indigent incarcerated individuals while building essential lawyering skills in students. Students working with Professor Rogers represent incarcerated individuals seeking release from prison to their families and communities pursuant to the First Step Act. Student-attorneys will engage in client-centered lawyering as they handle all aspects of the client’s case, including client interviews over the phone and at the Bureau of Prison facility where the client is detained, client counseling, collection of documents such as medical records, working with experts, affidavit and motion writing, and a hearing if the Court schedules one.

What is the First Step Act? The First Step Act made important changes to how federal compassionate release works by expanding the compassionate release eligibility criteria and allowing BOP detainees to request compassionate release directly to the court. The criteria for determining whether an incarcerated individual has an “extraordinary and compelling reason” warranting release to his/her/their family includes but is not limited to clients with severe health issues, elderly age and serious deterioration, the death of their child’s caregiver or changes in federal sentencing law and how those changes contrast to the excessive sentence given to your client for the same conduct.

Each student will work with a partner on your client’s case and have shared responsibility for all tasks for that client. You will attend a 2-hour seminar weekly along with weekly supervision meetings with Professor Rogers. The supervision meetings will be scheduled around the student’s other classes. All students will attend a 2-day orientation at the beginning of the fall semester.

The clinic is a 3-credit course, with the expectation of approximately 8-10 hours a week of clinic work. It is important that each student attorney understands that they are making a professional commitment to protect and pursue your client’s interests and thus fieldwork hours will vary week to week.

The overall goals of the course are to:

• Train you to be ethical, zealous practitioners of criminal law post-sentencing.
• Teach you a variety of lawyering and professional skills (such as interviewing, investigating, counseling and motions writing) that will serve you in whatever type of practice you choose to pursue after law school.
• Teach you holistic, client-centered lawyering which strives to treat the client as an individual rather than a case.
• Help you to learn how to work collaboratively with your client, other attorneys (such as local counsel in another jurisdiction), and non-attorneys (such as experts and social workers).
• Teach you how to persuasively write a compelling narrative and argue legal concepts related to a compassionate release motion.
• Teach you how to prepare for and argue a motion in court.
• Have you think critically about the criminal legal system, potential reforms, and the context in which the criminal legal system operates.
• At the end of the semester, each student will have written a compassionate release motion and orally argued the motion (whether in the courtroom or classroom).

Faculty: Amanda K. Rogers, Visiting Assistant Professor

Credit Hours: 3
Caritas Clemency Clinic satisfies practical writing requirement.

Prerequisites: None

Time Commitment: 10-12  hours/week

Semesters Offered: Students must take clinic for fall and spring semesters

Application Process: Written Application available on the Registrar’s website

Extra Classes: There will be a mandatory pre-class orientation (dates to be announced).  

Representing low-income clients in a variety of civil proceedings

In the Civil Justice Clinic, students work as practicing lawyers, representing low-income clients in a range of civil disputes.  While providing legal representation to clients as part of our own “law firm”, students make a real impact on the lives of their clients while also examining the role and professional responsibilities of all lawyers through first-hand experience.  Each student will represent several clients with legal problems in different substantive areas, which may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Family law (parents and other parties in custody matters, support, paternity and related legal issues)
• Housing (tenants of private, public and subsidized housing seeking to preserve their housing by preventing evictions and in enforcing their right to decent, safe and sanitary housing; homeowners seeking to retain their homes in civil forfeiture proceedings)
• Employment (individuals who have been denied their rights by being terminated or refused employment improperly, or by not being properly compensated under state or federal law, and individuals seeking Unemployment Compensation)
• Government benefits (primarily individuals seeking Social Security disability benefits)
• Consumer claims, which may include those dealing with the provision of utilities, and
• Clearing the records of individuals who have been wrongly accused of child abuse or neglect, as these are often barriers to employment.

Faculty:  Visiting Assistant Professor Deeya Haldar 

Credit Hours:  Six 

The Civil Justice Clinic satisfies the practical writing requirement.

Prerequisites:  Evidence.

Second year students cannot take this class in the Fall semester.

Time Commitment:  In addition to the time requirement for the seminar class and simulations, students are expected to spend an average of 15 hours per week on their cases.

Semesters Offered:  Fall and Spring

Application Process:  Lottery, with a preference given to third year students who have not taken a clinical course. Priority may be given to no more than two (2) rising second year students in the Spring semester only.

Extra Classes:  A mandatory, 2-3 day orientation “boot camp” will take place prior to the start of the semester (dates to be announced). If this Orientation cannot be scheduled, there may be additional classes in the first few weeks of the semester.

Representing asylum seekers before Federal Immigration Court and in interviews before Asylum Officers

The Clinic for Asylum, Refugee and Emigrant Services (CARES), is an international human rights and immigration clinic. Students represent refugees who have fled human rights abuses in their home countries and seek religious or political asylum in the United States.  Working in pairs, CARES students are assigned to represent from beginning to end one or more refugees fleeing human rights abuses in a court proceeding before an Immigration Judge.  Every semester the work of CARES students results in saving the lives of their clients and reuniting their clients with family members. 

In the past, CARES has represented and won asylum for refugees from countries such as Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Lebanon, Liberia, Mauritania, Mexico, Nicaragua, Russia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, The Ivory Coast, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.  Global conditions, among other factors, will determine where CARES concentrates its resources.

What is asylum?

Throughout the world today people are suffering from human rights abuses – they live under constant fear of governments that forbid them from exercising rights that we hold dear as fundamental freedoms and persecute them if they try.

Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries Asylum from persecution.

                        - Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 14(I)

Asylum is an immigration status that the U.S. government confers on people who have fled persecution or have a well-founded fear of persecution in their home countries because of who they are (their race or nationality), what they believe (their religion or political opinion) or their social group.

Throughout its history, the United States has been a sanctuary for oppressed people from around the world. The Pilgrims, the Quakers, the Huguenots, the Amish, and countless others came to U.S. shores in centuries past to seek refuge from government oppression. Pennsylvania became a safe haven to many of those victims of government oppression.

Human rights abuses similar to those that caused Pennsylvania's first settlers to flee continue today in many parts of the world. CARES helps the victims of these human rights abuses to obtain asylum protection.

Faculty:   Frances Kreimer     

Credit Hours: Eight 

• CARES satisfies the practical writing requirement.

Prerequisites: None

Time Commitment:  30-35 hours/week

Semesters Offered:  Fall and Spring

Application Process: To apply for CARES, please follow instructions on the Registrar's website, including completing the application listed on that website.

Extra Classes:  During the Orientation Period (usually the first 3 or 4 weeks of the semester), there will be extra classes each week. The classes will be scheduled before the semester begins based on students’ academic class schedules and availability.

Advising for-profit and non-profit enterprises on a diverse array of challenges common to launching, operating and growing sustainable businesses

With supervision from faculty, student attorneys in the Clinic for Entrepreneurship (CFLE) represent community enterprises, new and small businesses, and nonprofits on a diverse array of legal challenges common to launching, operating, and growing sustainable businesses.

Consistent with the mission of Villanova’s Clinical Program, the CFLE represents entrepreneurial clients whose organizational model involves community-driven change, and promotes democratic decision making, sustainability in neighborhoods, and social, economic, and racial equity.

Student attorneys can expect to use a transactional legal acumen to assist clients on entity choice and formation; draft and review contracts on their behalf; structure relationships with stakeholders and workers within an organization; advise on options for worker ownership; navigate land use paradigms; counsel on preliminary considerations regarding the utility of intellectual property protections; and maintain regulatory compliance, among other things.

In addition to client representation, students partner with community organizations and examine how lawyers can support community empowerment through transactional law. The clinic does not litigate on behalf of its clients.

Twice-weekly seminars will expose students to essential concepts, perspectives, and skills that transactional lawyers should understand and possess. Seminars are not designed to teach the substantive law; students will primarily educate themselves about the substantive law in the process of representing their clients (as they would in practice).

All students will be expected to attend pre-class orientation conducted in the week prior to the official commencement of the semester. In addition to seminar, students also attend, weekly hour-long supervisory meetings with clinic faculty throughout the semester. More details are provided during clinic registration.

Faculty: Assistant Professor Komal Vaidya

Credit Hours: Six

Participation in this clinic will satisfy the practical writing requirement

Prerequisites: None

Time Commitment: In addition to the time requirement for the seminar class and simulations, students are expected to spend an average of 14-16 hours per week on their cases.

Semesters Offered: Fall and Spring  

Application Process: Lottery, with a preference given to third year students who have not taken a clinical course and a limited number of seats set aside for students in the Business Law Concentration.

Extra Classes:  There will be a mandatory pre-semester Orientation Period.

Representing low-income workers in a variety of legal matters

The Farmworker Legal Aid Clinic is a community lawyering legal clinic that represents low wage workers and their families, and also provides legal support for organizations working to empower immigrant workers and end systemic injustices impacting these communities.

FLAC engages in traditional litigation cases in addition to other forms of advocacy, including community legal education, policy research and media outreach. Our direct services offer client-centered legal representation to individuals and their families living in remote areas of Pennsylvania. We have represented agricultural workers seeking redress for issues including wage theft, workers compensation, dangerous working conditions, unemployment and retaliatory discharge. We also represent workers and their families in deportation defense matters, which have included asylum, cancellation of removal proceedings, visa applications for immigrant youth and visas for victims of trafficking and other serious crimes.

Most student teams will work with Spanish-speaking clients through interpreters and manage non-traditional offsite client consultation settings.

 Students in the Farmworker Clinic will have the opportunity to:

• Develop foundational lawyering skills, including interviewing, counseling, fact investigation, legal strategizing and oral advocacy
• Take primary responsibility for client work—you are the advocate!
• Create and execute legal research plans tailored to your client’s needs
• Solve problems with creativity and curiosity
• Reflect upon cultural differences and navigate trust-building in relationships with clients and colleagues
• Communicate persuasively in a variety of professional formats, including drafting and submitting legal documents
• Identify and navigate ethical dilemmas with integrity
• Understand and articulate the practice of community lawyering
• Understand and reflect on your own professional identity

Faculty:  Caitlin Barry

Credit Hours:  Six

Farmworker Clinic satisfies practical writing requirement.

Prerequisites:  Completion of three semesters of law school. Second year students cannot take this class in the Fall semester.

Time Commitment:  In addition to the time requirement for the seminar class and simulations, students are expected to spend an average of 15 hours per week on their cases.

Semesters Offered:  Fall and Spring

Application Process: Admission is on a lottery basis through the Registrar’s Office. Preference will be given to third year students who have not taken a clinical course. Priority may be given to two (2) rising second year students in the Spring semester only.

Extra Classes: There will be a  pre-semester Orientation Period.

Four hours are reserved each week for class but will be used as needed, totaling 42 hours of class.

Representing low-income taxpayers in federal tax proceedings

Students in the Federal Tax Clinic represent low-income taxpayers in controversies with the IRS, both before the IRS and in federal court. Students work in teams to represent taxpayers involving examinations, administrative appeals, collection matters and cases before the United States Tax Court and Federal District Courts.  In the past, students’ representation has resulted in substantial taxpayer benefits, including taxpayer receipt of many thousands of dollars of refunds, relief from joint and several liability for innocent spouses, and reduction of tax liabilities through successful negotiated resolutions or compromises of liabilities based upon taxpayer financial hardship. The work of students in the Villanova Federal Tax Clinic has often been the key difference for taxpayers attempting to prove the amount or non-existence of a federal tax liability, or eligibility for refundable credits that can have a significant impact on a taxpayer’s financial condition.

The class work component of the Tax Clinic includes substantive review of issues common to the low-income taxpayer community.  Therefore, you do not need to have experience with tax law to enroll in this Clinic.  You will also be given the tools to problem-solve on behalf of the client.  The skills you will learn in this Clinic, as in any other Clinic, transcend the substantive law and will benefit you no matter what area of practice you choose after law school.

Faculty: Christine Speidel

Credit Hours: Six 

The Tax Clinic satisfies the practical writing requirement.

Prerequisites: None

Time Commitment:  In addition to the time requirement for the seminar and class assignments, students are expected to spend an average of 14-16 hours per week on their cases. 

Semesters Offered:  Fall and Spring

Application Process:  Lottery, with a preference given to third year students who have not previously been enrolled in a clinical course. Priority may be given to two (2) second year students in the Spring semester only. (Second year students cannot take the Tax Clinic for the Fall semester.)

Extra Classes:   There will be a mandatory two-day, all day, Orientation Period scheduled to take place prior to the beginning of the semester.  All students are required to attend at least one Monday morning Tax Court calendar call during the semester.

Representing low-income clients in a variety of health-related matters and fora

In the Interdisciplinary Mental and Physical Health Law Clinic, law students and (in the spring semester only) graduate nursing students work collaboratively in teams, assisting low-income clients to understand and assert their rights within the health care system, and to overcome barriers to accessing necessary treatment. Students will make a real impact on the lives of their clients while learning substantive law and procedure, and sharpening their skills in interviewing, counseling, negotiation, and case presentation. At the same time, they will compare the roles of health care providers and advocates, and the rules that govern their respective practices. Students will work individually or in interdisciplinary teams to represent several clients with legal problems in administrative hearings as well as state and federal court. In past years, students have won numerous services for clients who had been denied wheelchairs, skilled nursing, medicines, and therapies by their health insurers; successfully petitioned the court for guardians for persons unable to make decisions for themselves, and won disability benefits for adults and children with severe disabilities.     

Faculty:  

Michael Campbell, Professor of Law

Professor Elizabeth Blunt, PhD, RN, FNP-BC
Assistant Professor, Villanova University M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing (Spring Semester)

Credit Hours: Six

Interdisciplinary Mental and Physical Health Law Clinic satisfies practical writing requirement.

Prerequisites: Evidence

Time Commitment (Law Students): In addition to the time requirement for the seminar class, students are expected to spend an average of 14-16 hours per week on their cases.

Semesters Offered: Fall and Spring (Graduate nursing students in the Spring only)

Application Process: Lottery, with a preference given to third year students and those who enrolled in the health law concentration