Some UA students may be unaware of the wide range of legal services provided by the School of Law’s legal clinics here at the Capstone.
The law school’s seven different clinics provide students with practically every type of representation that they could need during their college career. And it is all done free of charge.
Although other schools across the nation have similar programs that assist students with
legal matters, many require students to pay a significant amount if they use the services.
Legal assistance provided by the clinics of the UA School of Law is completely free, thanks to annual funding from the Student Government Association.
According to the School of Law, the first law clinic at the University was started in 1970, but was later terminated when it lost its grant from the state. It was reopened years later when the University found an alternate source of funding.
“The Civil Law Clinic has existed for more than 35 years,” said Anne Hornsby, associate dean for Clinical Programs at the School of Law.
The clinics provide an opportunity for law students to gain experience and grow as lawyers while helping students with legal issues.
“Students from the law school represent our clients in court,” Hornsby said. “Each case is supervised by a staff attorney to make sure it’s done correctly. The law clinics are very unique in that they are an academic program that also extends services to students of the University.”
According to Hornsby, law students provide thousands of hours of legal services to students needing advice about a variety of different legal issues.
“We handle all sorts of civil matters,” she said. “We see a lot of landlord-tenant disputes, automobile issues, identity theft, and other civil cases. We have also set up companies and corporations for students, and helped secure patents and copyrights.”
The clinics also provide some legal assistance for students who are charged with minor criminal offenses.
Although the clinics had humble beginnings with little funding and less-than-adequate office space, they’ve since expanded to a new 11,500 square foot state-of-the-art law office. The new office space is located next to the School of Law and across a parking lot form the Sewell Thomas Stadium, off Bryant Drive.
“Together, the students in the school’s six law clinics provide approximately 15,000 hours of free legal assistance each year to needy individuals and organizations; clinic faculty and staff provide over 10,000 hours of additional assistance,” according to the clinic’s website. “Annually, over 1,500 individuals and organizations are aided by law clinic program students and staff.”
To increase privacy, the law clinic provides private client parking just feet from the clinic’s entrance. According to Hornsby, this allows clients to slip in and out discreetly.
“Lawyer-client confidentiality is very important to us,” she said. “That’s why we are set up in this location. We want our clients to be able to discreetly come to our offices and receive the legal assistance they need while keeping the matter private.”
Although the law clinics are not usually in full operation during the summer, the need for legal assistance after the deadly tornados earlier this year caused the clinics to stay open throughout the summer.
“After the April 27 tornadoes, we opened an emergency law clinic to provide services over the summer to victims of the storm,” she said. “The program was called the Tornado Relief Assistance Program, or TRAP.”
Students in need of legal assistance should call (205) 348-4960 and make an appointment, Hornsby said. On the first visit, a pair of law students interviews each client. That information will be used to determine if the clinics can help the client with their legal issues.
“I think it’s important for people to realize that this really is a law firm and when they come to us, their problems are being taken seriously,” Hornsby said.
