LAW SCHOOL CLINICS

There are a great many law schools in the Chicagoland area where students participate in clinical study programs in order to gain experience before they graduate and take the bar. The clinics are supervised by licensed attorneys, usually members of the law school faculty, who work with the students to ensure they learn their craft while monitoring each case to ensure the clients who come in are well represented. The services provided to qualified clients through these programs are thus almost always free of charge (except for filing fees and other costs the client may have to pay for). This can involve a range of services, from individual meetings to go over legal questions and strategies to representation through the course of an entire legal proceeding.

Northern Illinois University College of Law maintains a strong clinic program to provide hands-on learning opportunities for law students to advocate on behalf of real clients under the supervision of clinical faculty who are experienced lawyers. Through the clinic's commitment to social justice and providing free legal services, the students' advocacy and hard work serve to dramatically improve the circumstances of people in need.

NIU's College of Law (which is in DeKalb and thus within an hour's drive of the DuPage County Judicial Center) thus provides a much-needed free service to clients of the clinic, allowing students to serve communities in the area while learning from engaged professors in a clinical setting. The programs they offer include a Business Law Innovation Clinic, Civil Justice Clinic, Criminal Defense Clinic, and Health Advocacy Clinic. For more information, CLICK HERE.

Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Linking classroom study with hands-on experience, and inspired by the Jesuit philosophy that promotes service to others, Loyola's six clinics encourage students to contribute to society while gaining vital practical experience. Loyola thus maintains a Community Law Center, Legislation and Policy Clinic, Federal Tax Clinic, Business Law Clinic, and a Health Justice Project to provide legal services to those in need. The school also houses the CIVITAS Child Law Clinic which provides children with legal representation in cases primarily involving child protection and high-conflict child custody disputes (other areas of practice include education, immigration, delinquency, and international child abduction). For more information, CLICK HERE.

DePaul University College of Law maintains a number of In-House Clinics within the law school to allow for students to gain real-life experience providing legal services to actual clients facing current legal issues. DePaul currently offers clinical programs in the following practice areas: Asylum & Immigration, Business Law, Civil Litigation and Health Law, Civil Rights, Criminal Appeals, Family Law and Intellectual Property. DePaul also maintains the Croak Community Legal Clinic, through which students provide limited-scope representation to people in need, under the supervision of the National Center for Access to Justice. For more information, CLICK HERE.

UIC Law maintains a Community Legal Clinic program which is essentially a large in-house law office (inside of the law school) made up of different subject-matter areas of clinic activity. In the clinics, students work on real-life cases and projects, in the role of attorney, under the close supervision of a faculty member, clinic supervisor, or other licensed attorney. The programs offered by UIC Law include a Veterans Legal Clinic, IP Patent and Trademark Clinics, Pro Bono Litigation Clinic, International Human Rights Clinic, Fair Housing Legal Support Clinic, and Community Enterprise and Solidarity-Economy Clinic. For more information, CLICK HERE.

Chicago Kent College of Law. Most of Chicago-Kent's clinic programs are housed within the C-K Law Group, an actual in-house law firm staffed not simply by academics, but by practicing attorneys, so some of the services provided there are fee-for-service (you will want to check in to see whether your matter qualifies for pro bono or reduced price assistance). Practice areas include: Criminal Defense Litigation, Civil Litigation, Employment Benefits, Family Law, Immigration Law, Tax Law, and Workplace Discrimination. Chicago-Kent is also the home of the Patent Hub, Illinois' only pro bono hub for low-income inventors to receive free legal counsel from licensed patent attorneys. For more information, CLICK HERE.

Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. Whether advocating on urgent environmental issues or working to overturn wrongful convictions, working with clients who are budding entrepreneurs or children lost in the legal system, Bluhm Legal Clinic students personally investigate cases, conduct research, participate in hearings, engage in discovery, take depositions, and work side-by-side with clients and mentors. The programs offered within the Bluhm Center include the Bartlit Center for Trial Advocacy, Carter G. Phillips Center for Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy, Center for Externships, Center for International Human Rights, Center on Negotiation, Mediation, and Restorative Justice, Center on Wrongful Convictions, Children and Family Justice Center, Civil Litigation Center, Donald Pritzker Entrepreneurship Center, Environmental Advocacy Center, Investor Protection Center, and Roderick MacArthur Justice Center. For more information, CLICK HERE.

University of Chicago Law School provides a number of clinic program opportunities for its students and eligible clients. These include the Abrams Environmental Law Clinic, Civil Rights and Police Accountability Clinic, Criminal and Juvenile Justice Clinic, Employment Law Clinic, Federal Criminal Justice Clinic, Housing Initiative Transactional Clinic, Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, Global Human Rights Clinic, Exoneration Project Clinic, Innovation Clinic, Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship, Jenner & Block Supreme Court and Appellate Clinic, Kirkland & Ellis Corporate Lab Clinic Poverty and Housing Law Clinic, and Prosecution and Defense Clinic. Information about all of these programs (including introductory videos) can be found on the clinic program's web page: CLICK HERE.

SIU Simmons Law School primarily serves residents in southern Illinois with legal clinics which offer students the opportunity to work closely with clinical faculty while representing clients in a variety of cases. In the Civil Practice/Elderly Clinic, students provide legal assistance to persons age 60 and older who live in the thirteen southernmost counties of Illinois. Students enrolled in the Juvenile Justice Clinic work with an experienced clinic attorney and perform legal services and duties to minors for whom the clinic attorney has been appointed guardian ad litem. For more on these programs, CLICK HERE.