Civil Practice Clinic

The past two semesters I've had the chance to be in a clinical course that gets you actual cases and the opportunity to do real legal stuff. I got to become a Certified Legal Intern which means that I've taken more than 45 credits and Professional Responsibility and have a supervising attorney watching what I do. This basically lets me be a real attorney as long as I have a supervising attorney signing off on things.

Prof. Hagan was my supervising attorney and she was fantastic. She did a good job of letting you have complete control. Even when I didn't know what to do, she would force me to figure out what to do. Really good at knowing exactly what to say. She also taught us basic skills that every attorney needs to know (i.e. how to be a lawyer).

We have this really cool workspace in the Law School that is basically its own separate law practice.

The cases we take are pro bono. That means that we don't charge for our services and we help those individuals who can't afford to pay for legal services. It is very rewarding and I learned a lot in the process. My busiest case was a landlord/tenant case where the landlord didn't give back the security deposit. It was interesting because it was an appeal of small claims decision. To make a long story short, after a three year legal battle I was able to get my client her security deposit back. It was really rewarding. I got to attend a hearing, write a motion for summary judgment and deal with an unresponsive attorney. Stuff that happens on a regular basis in the real legal word. If you ever go to law school, make sure you take a clinic.