You may have read recently
about four American soldiers ambushed and killed in the West African Republic
of Niger. I know Niger well, having spent several years of my adult life
working and living there.
What could the ambush in
Niger possibly have to do with clinical legal education? The answer is: the
need for alternative universe thinking.
In clinical teaching, we
often challenge our students to consider things from the point of view of the
client. In many cases, that client may exist in a “universe” very different
from that of the student. To take a simple example, if a client skips an
important meeting with the student, it might not be because the client does not
care; it might be because the client works at a minimum wage job that provides
her with little scheduling flexibility and no extra income to cover the costs
of childcare and transportation.
Tom Kelley in Niger
Read More... (Alternative Universe Thinking in Niger with Professor Tom Kelley)
Posted by Thomas A. Kelley III (Tom) on Wed. November 1, 2017 3:59 PM
Categories: Clinical Faculty Initiatives, Community Development Law Clinic
Based on her scholarship and publications on school criminalization on September 19, 2017, Professor Barbara Fedders, Supervisor of the Youth Justice Clinic, spoke with an audience of educators,
advocates, parents, and students as part of the Campaign for Racial Equity in
our Schools "Conversations on Equity" series.
Barbara Fedders
Read More... (Professor Fedders - Guest Speaker for Panel on "Conversations on Equity")
Posted by Barbara A. Fedders on Wed. November 1, 2017 3:33 PM
Categories: Clinical Faculty Initiatives, Scholarship, Youth Justice Clinic
Through her long-standing
partnership with the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic and Sexual
Violence, Professor Beth Posner served as faculty for a training titled: “A Coordinated
Response: Legal System Advocacy for LGBTQ Victims of Intimate Partner
Violence.” This training was funded by the U.S. Department of Justice and
designed by the ABA Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence for a
multidisciplinary audience of civil attorneys, prosecutors, and legal
advocates, providing the opportunity to enhance their skills and knowledge on
the complex issues that may arise when working with LGBT+ victims and survivors
of domestic violence.
Read More... (Domestic and Sexual Violence Training)
Posted by Beth S. Posner on Thu. October 5, 2017 1:00 PM
Categories: Clinical Faculty Initiatives, Domestic Violence Clinic
Austin Backus 3L and Emon Northe 3L
On Friday, September 15, 2017 Carolina Law students in the
Veterans Legal Assistance Project joined more than 80 other service providers
at the Bull City Stand Down in Durham, N.C. VLAP students distributed
information and counseled less-than-honorably-discharged veterans about how to
apply to upgrade their discharge characterization.
The VLAP students had a chance to put into practice what
they learned earlier this month at the Clinic Intensive Session about the
effects of a less-than-fully honorable discharge from the military, sometimes
called “bad paper.” Bad paper is a barrier to a wide array of benefits offered
by the Department of Veterans Affairs: education, health care, disability
compensation, home loans, and more. In addition, bad paper can be an obstacle
to civilian employment.
Read More... (Veterans Legal Assistance Project)
Posted by Jessica Marsden on Thu. September 21, 2017 1:50 PM
Categories: Veterans Legal Assistance Project
At
this time each year, my Community Development Law (“CDL”) Clinic students
receive their first client assignments – all community based nonprofit organizations
– and begin planning initial interviews with the organizations’ stakeholders.
As a teacher, I take great satisfaction in watching, and to a certain extent
guiding, as the CDL students become comfortable with interviewing and
counseling clients.
Tom Kelley
Read More... (Community Development Law "CDL" Clinic)
Posted by Thomas A. Kelley III (Tom) on Thu. September 7, 2017 1:54 PM
Categories: Community Development Law Clinic
Chris Bagley, CFT Clinic student
Chris Bagley, who was supervised by Prof. Carlene McNulty, shares the following on his experiences in the CFT Clinic this year:
After two years of reading cases and statutory supplements, writing complaints, memos, briefs, and other papers, and compiling, distilling, and rewriting outlines, I was finally going to have “my” day in court.
As a participant in UNC Law’s Consumer Financial Transactions Clinic, I was at Durham County Superior Court with my client for his foreclosure hearing. I had gotten the case in the third week of the semester. Two weeks and a crash-course later, I put on my best suit and felt ready to explain why the opposing party, a large national lender and servicer, was not legally entitled to put my client out on the street.
Read More... (Consumer Financial Transactions Clinic: Case Work Developments)
Posted by Carlene M. McNulty on Thu. March 31, 2016 12:46 PM
Categories: Consumer Financial Transactions Clinic