link to Mitchell home pagewww.wmitchell.edu

Client Representation Clinics

Professor JuergensAnn Juergens

Co-Director of Clinic Program

Professor KnappPeter B. Knapp

Co-Director of Clinic Program

Jean BackesJean Backes

Administrative Coordinator, Clinics and Externships

Clinics: Reaching out into the community

William Mitchell’s nationally ranked clinical programs, one of the first established at a U.S. law school, are an excellent opportunity for students who want to obtain the knowledge, skill, and gratification of working with actual clients. Each case is unique and may require many hours. We are committed to public service and our programs are essential to the William Mitchell community and beyond. 

Business Law Clinic

Students work with practicing business and corporate lawyers to provide legal advice to eligible small business entrepreneurs. Students may have the opportunity to work on a variety of business law matters, including trademarks, contract drafting, corporate dissolution, and nonprofit incorporation.

Civil Advocacy Clinic

Students take full responsibility for representing real clients against real opponents. Students interview and counsel clients, direct discovery and fact investigation, negotiate settlements, prepare trial memos and motions, and conduct district court trials and administrative hearings. Cases cover a variety of subject areas.  

Community Development Clinic

Students work with individuals, nonprofits, or community groups on issues involving neighborhood revitalization, fair housing, affordable housing, or community economic development. The work may be transactional, legislative, litigation, or educational.

The Community Development Clinic is funded in part by the Otto Bremer Foundation.

Criminal Appeals Clinic

Students prepare an appellate brief on behalf of a criminal defendant under the supervision of a state public defender. Students also participate in a mock appellate argument before a three-judge panel.

Immigration Law Clinic

Students represent low-income clients in administrative proceedings before the Immigration and Naturalization Service and federal court. Cases concern the immigration status of aliens. Students interview and counsel clients, research laws and regulations, write briefs, prepare for hearings, and act as trial counsel at evidentiary hearings.

Independent Clinic

Students may earn credit by participating in lawyering experiences outside the formal clinical courses offered. To gain credit, students must present a detailed educational plan containing educational objectives, a description of the field work, and a proposed method of evaluation.

Intellectual Property Clinic

Nationally and internationally recognized faculty members bridge the gap between legal theory and practice, providing students opportunities to develop practical intellectual property law skills in a variety of specialized areas.

Law and Psychiatry Clinic

A joint academic project between William Mitchell and the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, this clinic provides psychiatric evaluations in forensic settings. Law students observe evaluations and participate in “case conferences” in which the psychiatric findings and applicable legal standards are discussed.

Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners (LAMP) Clinic

Students provide civil representation to low-income persons incarcerated in Minnesota, representing clients from interview through any trial. Cases include domestic relations, imprisonment-related matters (institutional grievances, parole, and detainers), and the full range of other civil problems, including debtor-creditor, wills, contracts, torts, and civil rights issues.

LAMP/The Reentry Clinic

Students provide legal services and assistance to women as they leave the state women’s prison in Shakopee, Minnesota.  An extension of William Mitchell’s LAMP Clinic, this clinic provides a holistic model of representation.

Legal Planning Clinic for Tax-Exempt Organizations and Low Income Clients (formerly Tax Planning Clinic)

Students work with practicing tax attorneys representing eligible individuals, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations on tax planning and related matters. In the course of representation, students interview and counsel clients, conduct negotiations, research tax law and related issues, and draft ruling requests, organizational documents, and other tax-related documents.

Misdemeanor Clinic

Students prosecute misdemeanor cases and are involved in numerous courtroom appearances on behalf of the prosecution in all phases of the misdemeanor case. Each student, under the direct supervision of a practicing city attorney, observes and conducts the charging of cases, arraignments, pretrial conferences, court trials, and, where possible, a jury trial.

Real clients, real experience

Since it began in 1973, our clinical program has enabled more than 7,000 students to serve more than 18,000 clients. 
In clinics, our students:

All Clinic students are certified to practice under the Student Practice Rules of the Minnesota Supreme Court. 

The experience students gain from our programs will help develop professional judgment, build confidence, and hone advocacy and counseling skills.
 
Our working law office is equipped with study areas, computers, conference rooms, printers, and staff.  Our clinic instructors provide exceptional leadership and guidance and are enthusiastically involved with each student.

All clinics have an hour commitment based on credit enrollment and all require prerequisite courses. 

A  Practical Start

The foundation for Mitchell’s clinical program began in 1921 when students volunteered their skills for Legal Aid. Working with a group of activist students in 1973, Professor Roger Haydock, a former Legal Aid attorney, formalized the program, staffing it with full-time faculty members, and then providing student participants with credit for their efforts.  Dean Doug Heidenreich hired Rosalie Wahl, now a retired Minnesota Supreme Court justice, to run the program along with Haydock.

It has consistently been ranked among the Top 30 clinical programs in the nation.

Our faculty

William Mitchell was one of the first law schools to devote full-time, tenured faculty to its clinical program. Co-directors Professors Peter B. Knapp and Ann Juergens supervise four to six full-time faculty, nine supervising adjuncts, and close to 20 field supervisors.

 

“Possibly the most valuable experience I had in my clinics was my interaction with clients. Clients change everything. You forget when you’re immersed in your thousand-page textbooks that each of the cases involves real people—people who may have inconvenient schedules, unreasonable demands, and unshakable opinions about the case.You forget that factual information doesn’t come in neat little packages from articulate speakers who know what the law considers relevant.

And you forget that what is for you an intriguing intellectual problem may actually be an emotional minefield for those involved. Clients will forcefully remind you of these things, in a way that might not always be enjoyable, but that will certainly be educational.”

Joy Reopelle Anderson ’07
Associate, Gray Plant Mooty, Minneapolis