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Civil Rights Clinic
To Clinical Professors Jon Bauer and Paul Chill '85,there is nothing like the real thing. "In a sense, a legal clinic is a law firm," says Professor Bauer, director of the Law School's Civil Clinic. "Our clinic students routinely conduct trials in court, in front of regulatory agencies and anywhere else you'd expect to find a lawyer arguing a case involving housing and employment discrimination, parental rights and unemployment benefits."
"Ninety-nine percent of the Clinic's graduates will tell you there is no better way to learn than to have your own clients with real problems," adds Professor Chill.
Deirdre Devaney'98-a former clinic student who worked with Chill on a wrongful termination case involving American Disabilities Act issues-enthusiastically agrees.
"The Civil Rights Clinic was the best preparation I bad for practicing law, hands down," says Devaney, now an associate with Robinson & Cole. "In the ADA case, I handled the opening statement, as well as a good share of the directs, redirects and crosses. In practice, I probably won't get to try a case for another three years."
As the trial was winding down, Devaney received a letter from her opposing counsel, Hugh E Keefe '67, one of Connecticut's most prominent trial attorneys. "I've been trying all kinds of cases ... for more than 30 years......," Keefe noted. "I have seldom met a more prepared, poised and worthy adversary than you... Paul should be robustly proud of his product..."
While clinics provide real trial experience, Jon Bauer is quick to point out the program's extensive pre-trial training requirements, including exercises addressing interviewing, counseling, negotiation, case planning, witness examination and argumentation. Clinic students also participate in a full-day mock jury trial presided over by practicing judges and attorneys. "We have the luxury of having students focus intensively on a limited number of cases, unlike most practicing attorneys," says Bauer. "As a result, our students are extremely well prepared at trial time."
In addition to preparing students for trial work, Professor Bauer sees the Clinics playing an increasingly important role in teaching legal ethics. "We think clinics are a far more efficient and effective setting to teach ethics than the classroom. Students facing ethics issues in real cases have to ask themselves very difficult questions like, 'How far can I go toward influencing the testimony of a witness?' We spend a lot of time unpackaging these difficult issues in order to determine the tight thing to do."Currently, 30 students are involved in the Law School's full-year civil and criminal clinics. "Based on the level of interest we could easily handle more students," says Bauer.
Mock Trial Experience
Advanced Civil Rights Program
Faculty