Civil Advocacy Clinic
Core Course Requirements for the College of Law Civil Advocacy Clinic
Class Attendance.
The American Bar Association, the College of Law and I require regular and punctual class attendance. At the beginning of each class meeting, I will circulate an attendance sheet for you to sign. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have signed the sheet. I WILL WITHDRAW YOU FROM THIS COURSE IF YOU ARE ABSENT FOR MORE THAN FOURCLASSES. NOTE: IT IS AN HONOR CODE VIOLATION FOR A STUDENT TO MISREPRESENT THE STUDENT’S ATTENDANCE OR THE ATTENDANCE OF ANOTHER STUDENT.
Case Conferences.
Periodic case conferences are scheduled throughout the semester. Attendance is mandatory. Students should be prepared to make a thorough presentation of their pending cases at each case conference.
Office Hours.
Students are required to complete 6 hours (for 4 credit hours) of scheduled office hours per week during the course of the semester. Office hours need not be kept when the law school is not in session. Attendance is mandatory, except in the case of emergency or unavoidable absence. Whenever possible, absences should be arranged in advance of scheduled office hours. The purpose of keeping regularly scheduled office hours is to insure that students are available at definite times to respond to inquiries from clients, court personnel, opposing counsel and clinical faculty. The demands of a particular caseload will likely require that students spend more than six hours per week on their clinic work. Students may spend as much time on their cases outside of the clinic as is necessary to competently discharge their duties to their clients. Students need only report to the clinic, however, during their scheduled office hours.
Initial Case Briefs.
During the first two weeks of class, students are required to prepare an Initial Case Brief for each case assigned to them. Guidelines for initial case briefs are contained in the clinic packet.
Weekly Status Conferences.
Students are required to meet with their instructor at least once a week during the course of the semester to discuss the status of their pending cases. Students are responsible for scheduling (and setting the agendas for) weekly status conferences in advance.
Case Management.
Students are required to competently manage every aspect of their casework. To that end, students are required, among other things, to schedule all meetings; obtain all necessary consents and releases; develop and implement written action plans; conduct background investigations; gather relevant facts; conduct appropriate legal research; develop, test and implement viable legal theories; draft appropriate correspondence, pleadings, motions, legal memoranda and discovery; file all necessary court papers; serve all required subpoenas; appear at all scheduled pretrials, hearings and trials; keep clients abreast of the status of their cases; document all case activities; prepare case summary sheets; and maintain complete and organized case files.
Case Action Sheets.
Students are required to keep current and accurate track of their time on case action sheets. Case action sheets should appear on the inside left hand cover of each client file. They should contain a detailed description of all services rendered to the client and a record of all time spent on each case.
Live Court Observations.
Students are strongly encouraged, but not required, to attend at least one live court proceeding over the course of the semester. Students may wish to observe a proceeding in any local court, including the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas, the Toledo Municipal Court, the 6 th District Court of Appeals, or the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Western Division.
Journals.
Journal entries are designed to assist students to reflect upon their clinical experience.
Clinic Portfolios.
Students are required to maintain a portfolio of all of their written work, including drafts, completed during the semester. Clinic portfolios must be maintained separately from individual case files. Clinic portfolios will be reviewed periodically by the clinical faculty and evaluated at the end of the semester. Students are eligible to receive one upper level writing unit (either practical or research) depending on the extent of their writing and the quality of their work.
Case Summation Memos.
Students are required to prepare and submit a written case summation for each case that has not been concluded by the end of the semester. Guidelines for case summation memos are contained in the clinic packet.
End of Semester Conference.
Students are required to schedule an end of the semester conference with the clinical faculty. The purpose of the conference is for students to critique their overall clinical experience.