Students help clients obtain legal services and other benefits for which they are eligible and help them assert and defend their legal rights. Students first receive training in the substantive legal areas and then, under supervision of staff attorneys, handle their own client caseloads. The Disability Rights Clinic provides representation in civil rights cases involving disability-based discrimination. Students dedicate between 8 to 16 hours per week of clinical time working at the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, the nation's leading public interest law firm defending the civil rights of disabled persons. The students are exposed to all areas of disability civil rights practice, including litigation, administrative hearings, public policy, and networking activities.
Litigation involves access rights, as well as discrimination in education, employment, and housing.
Clients are provided representation in cases which have systemic remedies and promote disability rights law reform goals. The Domestic Violence Law Clinic provides legal services to victims of domestic violence. Students intern at several domestic violence legal agencies in the greater Bay Area where they interview clients, draft restraining orders, and may attend meetings with their supervising attorneys and with law enforcement, District Attorneys, Family Court Services, judges, legislators, and others. The students are certified and may represent clients at restraining order hearings. The Clinic provides legal assistance to workers who have no other source of legal help.