Academic

Faculty Blogs: How to Sign Up for the Clinic for Fall 2009

As I discussed at the presentation today, Professor Shelley Santry is the new permanent director of the law clinic. She has 16 years legal experience in the Louisville legal community, as an attorney with Legal Aid, and most recently as an assistant county attorney.

The clinic is located downtown at 416 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd. Students enrolled in the clinic will work on housing referred and domestic violence cases referred to the clinic by Legal Aid. Students that participate will be representing these clients as the primary attorney dealing with the matter, and so this is a great opporunity to get some hands on experience with real clients.

The clinic will consist of a weekly classroom meeting, plus clinic office hours.

The clinic class will be limited to eight students, and registration is only allowed by permission of the director, Shelley Santry. You can only take the clinic if you have completed 60 credit hours by the time you enroll in the clinic (i.e., credits to be earned in the fall will not count). This is a requirement of the Kentucky Bar.

Here's how you apply:

Submit the following 3 documents to me by 4 pm on Monday, April 6 (my office is Room 286):?

1. Statement of Intent of why you wish to participate in the clinic (maximum 1 page, single spaced).?
2. Copy of your resume.?
3. Copy of your transcript.

I will pass your request on to Santry, who will make a decision on who will be in the clinic by 5 pm on Friday, April 10. Late applications will only be considered if space remains after consideration of timely applications.

Some things to keep in mind:

• Housing court cases are heard during the morning, usually between 9 and 10:30 am. Therefore you should not schedule all of your other classes before noon. While we may be able to occasionaly arrange your case load to fit around your schedule to some degree, having extensive morning obligations will not work.
• Family court emergency protective order hearings are usually all day on Mondays. [I will confirm with Professor Santry how this will effect Monday class schedules and update this posting as soon as I know]
• There will be a classroom component which will meet everyweek at the law school. 
• You will have to sign up for offices hours which will require you to be present in the clinic offices downtown.
• The first few weeks of school the classroom component will run more than the allotted time in order to teach you about the basics of working on a housing case or EPOs. Once we know everyone's schedule, Professor Santry will work with everyone to arrange the time for this program.
• You will have to sit in on housing court before the semester begins.

Professor Santry will provide more detail about these items as we get closer to the beginning of the semester.

Please contact me with any questions you may have. If I cannot answer them, I will pass your question along to Professor Santry.

Full post as published by University of Louisville Law Faculty on April 02, 2009 (boomark / email).