In keeping with Vermont Law School s dedication to experiential learning, the South Royalton Legal Clinic offers second and third year J.D. students the unique opportunity to represent clients in actual civil cases. Student clinicians provide help for persons otherwise unable to afford counsel in areas such as family law, juvenile law and children s rights, Social Security, welfare and unemployment compensation, civil rights and civil liberties, landlord-tenant relations, consumer protection, contracts, wills, and federally subsidized health care and housing. Student practice rules in Vermont s state and federal courts allow students to file pleadings, conduct discovery, and make supervised court appearances both in evidentiary hearings and appeals.
Students also conduct evidentiary hearings in a variety of administrative proceedings.
Under the guidance of three experienced, full-time attorneys, clinic participants learn to integrate their knowledge of civil procedure and substantive law with practice skills. These include interviewing, counseling and negotiation, case and statutory analysis, research and writing, case preparation, discovery, and trial practice. The clinic student quickly becomes aware of the importance of overview, organization, independent and critical thought, and benefits from experiencing the interaction between development of evidence and development of applicable legal theories. Student associates have consistently praised the clinical experience as allowing them to learn, for the first time, how to develop a real case from the outset. Clinic students have been involved in numerous Vermont Supreme Court and U.S. District Court cases which have set precedent or clarified important points of law.