Classroom discussions take on a new dimension for many law students as they work with clients and learn the ropes of the legal system through hands-on experience in Georgia Law's 10 established criminal and civil service learning programs. Practice areas address: criminal and juvenile law, indigent legal assistance, environmental and land use practice, agency and governmental representation, and private nonprofit service. Students develop invaluable practical skills such as interviewing, case appraisal, case planning and negotiation, dispute resolution and litigation advocacy.

Criminal Programs

Russell C. Gabriel, Director of Criminal Defense Clinic

Prosecutorial Clinic
The Prosecutorial Clinic integrates classroom instruction with an externship in a real prosecutor office. Students receive three consecutive semesters of classroom instruction beginning in the spring semester of their second year. During their third year, students perform an externship in one of several public prosecutor offices located in Northeast Georgia. During this externship, students have the opportunity to observe all phases of a criminal prosecution. They research various questions of law and draft legal memoranda and charging documents. And, under Georgia's Third Year Practice Act, students are authorized to directly participate in conducting preliminary hearings, motion hearings, arraignments, juvenile adjudications, probation revocations, grand jury proceedings and even jury trials.

Capital Assistance Project
Initiated in 1998 at the suggestion of the Supreme Court of Georgia, students work at agencies tasked with defending individuals charged with or convicted of capital crimes. Students undertake valuable research and writing projects to assist agency attorneys with these cases.

Civil Programs

Civil Externship Clinic
The Civil Externship Clinic places students with supervisors in judicial, governmental agency and private nonprofit positions. Work includes both litigation and transactional practice. Students learn the fundamentals of lawyering and practical judgment by watching skilled lawyers and by practicing these skills under supervision.

Alexander W. Scherr, Associate Professor and Director of Civil Clinics 

Environmental Practicum
Through the Environmental Practicum, a joint course for law and ecology students, participants work to protect one of the nation's hot spots of diversity, the Upper Etowah River Basin. Students consult with area planners and developers to devise sustainable solutions to ecological concerns and have recently drafted legislation, later signed into Georgia law, to protect river corridors and farmland.

Laurie Fowler, Director of Environmental Practicum

Family Violence Clinic
The Family Violence Clinic trains law students to help abused spouses and children in two counties obtain civil protective orders. Law students respond to approximately 275 inquiries of domestic violence each year, allowing them to work both as lay advocates and as practitioners under Georgia's Third Year Practice Act.

Susan Schaffer, Managing Attorney, Family Violence Clinic

Land Use Clinic
Created in the fall of 2002, the Land Use Clinic is pioneering growth management in Georgia by drafting model legislation to protect greenspace, promote alternative transportation and preserve farmland. Land Use Clinic students work with specific clients to protect natural resources and address other pressing growth and development issues as well as to draft legislative policies to promote quality growth.

Public Interest Practicum
The Public Interest Practicum, created in 1992, provides essential service as an adviser and ombudsman for the indigent, unrepresented and homeless population in the Athens area. Participants give legal information and social agency referrals to clients at homeless shelters and soup kitchens on matters such as housing, child custody, consumer debt, benefits and health care. They also educate school children about constitutional rights and the court system, provide social service and legal referrals to residents in Athens' impoverished areas, assist women in jail with child-care issues, help those with serious illnesses and provide outreach on legal issues for grandparents who are rearing their grandchildren. 

Alexander W. Scherr, Associate Professor and Director of Civil Clinics

Fellowships

Public Interest Fellowship
Georgia Law is pleased to announce its first fellowship targeted to providing better legal services for our community. Side benefits include creating a new long-term program addressing a void in civil services for indigent Georgians, developing the skills and talents of practitioners and enriching the educational experience of School of Law students.