Clients are seen by appointment only. The students must allocate their time between these various clients and their other classes, and therefore, the Clinic does not provide a rush service. For practical purposes, the student is responsible for all aspects of representing their clients, including scheduling meetings, drafting legal documents, phone consultation, file maintenance and keeping clients abreast of their work and progress. Because the clinic is a free service, and the only one of it s kind in the D.C. area, its services are in high demand and resources only allow us to handle a set number of cases each semester. We choose which clients we can help according to a range of factors which include the variety in our case load, the number of clients we already represent and the complexity of the client s case.
Preference is given to clients who have developed a written business plan.
If we are unable to help a client in a given semester, we may be able to place the client on a wait list so that they may be assisted the following semester or refer the client to another legal resource. The Clinic does not handle litigation, draft business plans, engage in financial negotiations, develop loan packages, prepare tax returns or engage in complex business transactions. Clients are expected to seek the services of an accountant or tax advisor. Whether or not we can accept a case depends on a variety of factors such as the complexity of the case, the size and variety in our case load, and whether the client has a business plan. We reserve the right to end our relationship with the client if he or she is not complying with our requests for information or neglects to call when they cannot attend a scheduled meeting.