CLINIC COURSE DESCRIPTIONS & REGISTRATION

A limited number of students who have already completed a semester in the clinical program may continue with their studies in an advanced setting. Admission and credit amount are determined prior to registration at the discretion of the faculty, in consultation with the Academic Dean. Credits will be based upon the student?s expected time commitment, with the ratio of 1 credit to approximately 4-5 hours work per week in the clinic. Course credit for the Advanced Advocacy Clinic can range from 2-4 credits. Students must receive written permission from the Director of the Clinical Program to register for this course.

NOTE: The law school’s academic rules preclude you from participating in any clinic (including Advanced Advocacy Clinic) if you are enrolled in an Externship for that semester.

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: Anton Robinson

Credit Hours: 3 (per semester, total of 6 for the academic year)
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: Students must submit written advanced application and complete the registration form used for all clinics.

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 represent low-income domestic violence survivor clients in Philadelphia, Delaware and Montgomery counties in a range of civil disputes, under attorney supervision. In the process, students will obtain practical experience, learn basic advocacy skills, gain confidence in their own abilities and make a real impact on the lives of their clients. While providing legal representation to clients as part of our own law firm, students will examine the role and professional responsibilities of all lawyers through first hand experience.

Each student will represent two or more clients with legal problems in different substantive areas, including, but not limited to the following: family law (parents and other parties in Protection From Abuse custody, support, paternity); housing (homeowners and tenants of private, public and subsidized housing in preventing evictions and in enforcing their right to decent, safe and sanitary housing); government benefits (including individuals seeking to obtain or retain Social Security, disability benefits and Unemployment Compensation) and representing individuals who have been wrongly accused of child abuse or neglect. Students may also represent clients in employment related matters, consumer claims and civil rights matters. Students will participate in classes twice per week, which will include readings and discussion of basic lawyering skills and professional issues, and participation in simulated exercises and role plays, conducted both in and out of class.

Significant class time is dedicated to discussion of students' cases in a collegial setting. These discussions provide an opportunity for students to collaborate in exploring issues of strategy and professional ethics. In addition to the time requirement for the classes and simulations, students should expect to spend an average of FOURTEEN HOURS PER WEEK on their cases.

Faculty: 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 14 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 immigrants' rights clinic. CARES Students represent immigrants in their legal proceedings and advocate on issues impacting immigrant communities. Working in teams, CARES students represent clients in asylum and related claims before the Immigration Courts and administrative agencies. Students assume primary responsibility for the representation of their clients and develop a wide range of advocacy skills during their semester in CARES. Depending on the status of their clients' legal proceedings, students may engage in client counseling, legal and factual research, witness preparation, and various types of written and oral advocacy on behalf of their refugee client(s). CARES students may also engage in advocacy efforts to educate and empower immigrant communities and to address systemic injustices in the immigration system.

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: Daniel Cortes

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 Clinic Registration site, including completing the advanced 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 lawyer 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. 

Faculty: 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. Students must also complete an advanced application specifically for this clinic, in addition to completing the registration form for all clinics.

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 farmworkers and their families and provides legal support for organizations seeking racial and economic justice for immigrant workers Students in the Farmworker Legal Aid Clinic will engage in many types of legal work, as dynamic and effective legal advocacy should be multi-modal. Our direct services offer client-centered legal representation to individuals and their families living in remote areas of Pennsylvania.

We have represented agricultural workers in a range of civil matters, including wage theft, dangerous working conditions, and unemployment as well as custody and divorce. We also represent workers and their families in deportation defense matters, which have included visas for victims of trafficking and other serious crimes, litigation of racial profiling and other constitutional violations and immigration proceedings for unaccompanied children.

Most student teams will work with Spanish-speaking clients through interpreters and travel to meet with clients in their communities. In addition to direct representation, our clinic partners with organizations seeking to empower immigrant workers. Our previous projects have ranged from research and project development for a farmworker organization seeking to open a credit union to media outreach and policy advocacy on behalf of a coalition seeking to shut down an immigrant detention center. We seek projects that will be driven by the needs of immigrant community members and that will strengthen the leadership skills and enhance the resources available to those communities.

Students will be responsible for all aspects of their direct representation and project-based advocacy, including: client interviewing and counseling, fact investigation, legal research, resolution of ethical issues, case theory development, negotiation with opposing parties, and trial advocacy. Our cases are litigated in a variety of fora and, in addition to providing motions, brief writing and oral advocacy experience, some cases require students to identify and work with expert witnesses. Students will have ample opportunity to develop the necessary skills by participating in orientation sessions, twice-weekly seminar classes, supervision sessions, simulation exercises, mock hearings, and individual evaluation meetings. Students can expect to spend 15 hours per week on their clinic coursework, total time Commitment of 24-28 hours per week. 

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

The Federal Tax Clinic represents low-income taxpayers in controversies with the IRS, both administratively and in federal court. Students will work in teams to represent taxpayers in examinations, administrative appeals, collection matters and cases before the United States Tax Court. In the past, students' representation has resulted in substantial taxpayer benefits, including taxpayer receipt of many thousands of dollars of tax refunds in work incentives administered through the IRS, relief from joint and several liability for victims of domestic abuse, and significant reductions in the amount of taxes due through negotiated compromises of liabilities based upon taxpayer hardship.

Because there are very few opportunities for free or low cost legal representation in federal tax matters, the work of students in the Villanova Federal Tax Clinic has often been the key difference for taxpayers attempting to prove the correctness of the amount of tax reported on their return or their eligibility for refundable credits. The efforts of the Federal Tax Clinic can have a significant impact on a taxpayer's financial condition. The seminar component of the Federal Tax Clinic includes substantive review of issues common to the low income taxpayer community. Therefore, students do not need to have experience with tax law to enroll in this Clinic. Students will also be given the tools needed to problem solve on behalf of the client. The skills learned in this Clinic, as in any other Clinic, transcend the substantive law and will benefit the student no matter what area of practice is chosen 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.

The Intellectual Property (IP) Law Clinic at Villanova Law is uniquely taught from a governmental perspective and a commercial viewpoint, requiring students to establish and integrate intellectual property and entrepreneurial strategies. It is the only IP Clinic in the United States currently taught by a former United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) supervisory patent examiner. The transactional IP Clinic educates Villanova Law students about the intellectual property protection process and serves as a valuable community resource for legal representation.

With the costs of preparing and filing patent applications rising significantly each year, there are limited resources for individuals and small businesses seeking to advance economically by protecting their respective intellectual property. Revolutionary ideas and improvements are generated each year in engineering, nursing and business school classrooms; however, lack of access, education, guidance and financial resources prevents these conceptions from gaining societal or economic success. Villanova Law’s IP Clinic helps the next generation of inventors and entrepreneurs advance their technological, entrepreneurial and medical innovations.

Students working in the IP Clinic represent clients with a focus on the preliminary legal research in the patent and trademark prosecution process before filing applications with the USPTO. This includes prior art patentability and trademark clearance searches based on the client inventive concepts and proposed brand names, respectively, as well as freedom-to-operate analyses of client goods and services to establish risk assessments of potential infringement of the intellectual property rights of others.

Faculty:  Waseem Moorad

Credit Hours:  Six 

The Intellectual Property Law Clinic satisfies 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 15 hours per week on their cases.

Semesters Offered:  Fall and Spring

Application Process: Students must submit an advanced application and complete the registration form for all clinics.

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

In the Interdisciplinary Health Law Clinic, law students (and in the spring semester) graduate nursing students address problems at the intersection of law and medicine. Law students will represent low-income clients in a range of matters that can include appeals of disputes with insurers over denials of service, addressing the need for surrogate decision making including guardianship, advocating claims for disability benefits, and obtaining health insurance. Cases present students with the challenge of obtaining and applying medical facts and opinions to legal standards in a persuasive way. Classes offer students the opportunity to develop and hone professional skills as well as compare and contrast the roles, norms, techniques, challenges, and ethical responsibilities of different professions. In addition to class preparation and participation, law students should expect to spend an average of fourteen hours per week on their cases.

Faculty:  

Caroline Wick, Assistant 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 class preparation and participation, law students should expect to spend an average of fourteen 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