Family and Community
When families and communities seek legal assistance, Minnesota Law students gain the opportunity to work with clients on complex legal issues including custody, parenting, dissolution of marriage, child advocacy, community challenges, health, and other essential issues.
Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid (MMLA) hosts five community-based legal clinics throughout Minneapolis: African Community Services, the Brian Coyle Center, Children’s Hospital, Division of Indian Work, and the Harrison Neighborhood Association. A staff attorney is on site at each clinic, two days a week, meeting with community members and representing them in a variety of civil matters. Clinic attorneys are generalists, practicing family, housing, immigration, benefits, and consumer law. By partnering with community-based organizations, the lawyer client relationship begins from a place of trust and humility.
Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (SMRLS) partners with MMLA to host their Healthcare Legal Partnership (HLP) with Children’s Hospital. Through this HLP, Children’s providers make direct referrals for free legal services through a patient’s medical records. Oftentimes (though not always), the issue directly affects the patient’s health. SMRLS and MMLA take these cases together, according to their respective geographic service areas. MMLA’s Children’s HLP is based in Minneapolis, while SMRLS’s HLP is located in St. Paul.
This clinic offering with the U of M works alongside MMLA’s Community Clinics Program and SMRLS’s Children’s HLP. This clinic hosts seven students, five for each MMLA clinic site, plus two for SMRLS’s HLP. Under the supervision of Clinic Staff Attorneys, students will work out of the clinic sites, conducting intake, assisting with case work, doing outreach, and (if certified to practice) representing clients. They will encounter a wide variety of civil case types, with many possible approaches, from brief services and advice through complex litigation.
The class will last the entire school year. In addition to day-to-day casework, students will partner with Children’s Hospital to work on a larger project focusing on the connect between clients’ rights and community health. Each week, students will join a two-hour class. During the first hour, students will share their experiences and receive feedback. During the second hour, students will receive training on the areas of law they encounter at the clinics.
Students will earn 6 credits, working an average of 10 hours per week at the clinic sites. MMLA’s Community Clinics Supervising Attorney Matthew Hulstein will provide overarching feedback, including hosting the weekly class. Mr. Hulstein will also conduct a mid-point and final evaluation, each semester. The respective Clinic Staff Attorneys will provide day-to-day supervision. Two Student Directors (one at MMLA and the other at SMRLS) will coordinate the work.
Questions can be referred to MMLA’s Clinics Supervising Attorney, Matthew Hulstein: [email protected] / 612-746-3606.
NOTE: This course requires certification pursuant to the student practice rule and is open to JD students only.
Learn more about the Community Legal Partnership for Health Clinic
The Community Mediation Clinic offers 2Ls and 3Ls the opportunity to learn from mediation practitioners and participate as civil mediators in community and court cases, to serve as facilitators in restorative justice conferences and to create and present trainings in community conflict resolution education programs. The U is one of only a handful of the nation’s top law schools presently offering this type of clinical program. Conflict Resolution Center (CRC), one of Minnesota's oldest non-profit mediation organizations, offers a comprehensive mediation clinic. Students who successfully complete the Fall course will be eligible for the Minnesota Rule 114 Roster of Qualified Neutrals and enroll in the Spring clinic.
This course features classroom instruction and interactive exercises. It emphasizes the facilitative model of mediation while providing a survey of other mediation styles and models. Topics covered include: conflict theory, styles of conflict resolution, statutes and rules governing mediation, ethical considerations, cultural considerations in mediation and the applicability of facilitative mediation in housing, family, and harassment courts, schools, businesses, and employment work. Classroom time is split between lecture, discussion and interactive role plays and exercises with coach/instructor feedback.
During the Spring semester, students spend 4-6 hours per week on site at the Conflict Resolution Center in Minneapolis. Students choose their own mediation related legal research project which they work on throughout the semester. Students observe and then participate in CRC community and court mediations, restorative justice conferences and community outreach programs. Students will mediate or observe an average of 6 cases during the spring. Additionally, students journal their experiences role-playing, observing and mediating.
Additional Commitments:
- Brief weekly status meetings with the student director are required during the first semester.
- Observe and/or co-mediate cases in Hennepin County Housing and Harassment Courts, Anoka
County Conciliation Court, Ramsey County Conciliation and Housing Court, and at CRC.
What to expect when working on cases and with clients: CRC’s mediation clients are primarily low income individuals. Students’ interaction with clients varies with the observation and mediation opportunities they participate in. CRC manages client intake procedures for mediations and restorative justice conferences. During observations, students’ interaction with clients is limited. When students co-mediate cases, facilitate restorative justice conferences, and participate in case intake and development, they work directly with clients.
This clinic is grounded in the development of practical skills necessary to effectively develop and move family law cases from initial client interview to Judgment and Decree.
Of the twelve classes in fall semester, two classes consist of simulated learning and the other ten consist of lecture with in-class exercises, such as, calculating child support, answering paternity hypotheticals, and a class on professional responsibility. The two simulations include: client interview for a dissolution with children (which prepares students for their first client file); and a default hearing. The simulations are grounded in one fictional family law case file.
There is no class in spring semester, but student attorneys’ dockets increase to three cases and student attorneys are required to attend weekly meetings with their case team to discuss case planning, client counseling, review documents, and prepare for court appearances. Court preparation often requires time, in addition to weekly meetings, for mooting the appearance.
The Family Law Clinic may or may not offer students an opportunity to participate in trial. To obtain trial advocacy skills applicable in any litigation setting, students are advised but not required to enroll in Evidence and Trial Practice.
Additional Commitments:
- Weekly status meetings
- Attend Anoka County Family Law Clinic on two Friday afternoons throughout the academic year.
What to expect when working on cases and with clients:
- The student attorney is the primary lawyer in the client’s eyes. This means that if you are not ready for the responsibility of practicing law, you should not take this clinic.
- Every new case begins with factual and legal analysis set forth in written memoranda. Expect feedback on writing substance and style.
The Indian Child Welfare Act Clinic (the “ICWA Clinic”) is a full academic year, four credit program beginning in the fall semester. The casework focuses on litigation involving the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and Tribal Code.
During the fall semester, class sessions will focus on the historical context, present day application and future implications of ICWA. This will include a focus on understanding ICWA in the broader context of Indian Law. Classes will include guest lecturers, who are leaders in the American Indian Community. The class will include guided discussion and analysis of the historical context and role of courts in the lives of American Indian families. The class will provide a context to consider the effectiveness and equity of the child protection system in the lives of American Indian families today. Students will learn Juvenile Court and Tribal Court procedure and advocacy skills to provide direct representation to families. Classes will not meet in the spring semester.
The Indian Child Welfare Act Law Center works to strengthen preserve and reunited Indian families consistent with the mandates and spirit of the Indian Child Welfare Act. The ICWA
Law Center is a non-profit, American Indian legal services organization committed to providing the highest quality of legal representation to Indian families involving in child custody
proceedings implicating ICWA. The ICWA Law Center has represented over 5,000 American Indian families in child protection proceedings since 1993. ICWA Clinic Students will advocate on behalf of ICWA Law Center clients.
ICWA Clinic Students will present in court in at least 10 hearings involving either the Indian Child Welfare Act or Tribal Code. Shannon Smith and Andrea Braun will supervise students in their casework. In addition to presenting at 10 hearings, Students will provide case support in 2 cases from the beginning of the fall semester through the spring semester or until the case is closed. This may include experiences such as client meetings, preparing motions and trial binders, drafting legal memorandum and presenting in court.
Additional Commitments: During the Spring Semester, students will participate in 3 Roundtables. The Roundtables will be held at the ICWA Law Center during lunch.
What to expect when working on cases and with clients: To ensure a fulfilling experience in the ICWA Clinic, students must be willing to make a substantial time commitment beyond the classroom. This may require students to schedule classes in a way that allows for appearances in court and client contact.