Appalachian School of Law
Appalachian School of Law
P.O Box 2825
Grundy, VA 24614
www.asl.edu
Law School Pro Bono Programs
Contact Information
Jina M. Sauls Director of Community Service
jsauls@asl.edu
(276) 935-4349 ext. 1228
Category Type
Community Service Graduation Requirement. All students are required to complete 25 hours of community service work per semester. Students may perform law-related pro bono work as part of their community service requirement.
Description of Program
ASL's mission is to develop professionals who will serve as community leaders and community advocates. ASL provides a unique opportunity for mandatory community service that students may complete in a variety of ways. No classes are scheduled on Monday afternoons, so that the entire faculty and student body is free to perform community service during that time.
At the beginning of each academic year, a community service fair is held at the law school; local groups and organizations attend this fair and provide information to the students about opportunities available from their organization. Students are required to attend this fair and an orientation meeting. Written descriptions of community service opportunities also are distributed to the students. Students also may request approval of alternative projects in the local community or their home communities. The program is promoted to prospective students through our catalog and website. See http://www.asl.edu/misc info/commserv.htm. Each community service project is supervised by a faculty member.
Ms. O'Quin and the faculty supervisors annually review each placement site prior to the start of the academic year to insure quality placements.
Location of Program
The community service program is administered by the Office of the Special Assistant to the President for Community and Alumni Development.
Staffing/Management/Oversight
Alicia O'Quin, Special Assistant to the President for Community and Alumni Development, spends one quarter of her time on the community service program.
Funding
The community service program is funded as part of the law school's annual operating budget. The budget includes salary for the administrator plus $7000 for miscellaneous expenses associated with operating the program. Funds may be used to assist faculty pro bono projects.
Student Run Pro Bono Groups/Specialized Law Education Projects
A weekly conflict resolution program in the Buchanan County elementary schools, using the curriculum designed by Streetlaw, Inc. Peer mediation is a large part of the conflict resolution program. The program provides training in the skills necessary for children and adults to resolve interpersonal conflicts peacefully, without having to have someone else decide the outcome of the conflict. Law students selected for the program receive 14 hours formal training in conflict resolution and teaching skills.
Town of Grundy Buchanan County Project. Law students work on projects of interest to the local government. Past projects have included analysis of the economic impact of the Law School; review of the Army Corps of Engineers Proposal for Grundy Non-Structural Flood Control Project; research on the path of the proposed bike trail to determine property acquisition and/or easements for the ISTEA grant; assistance with national media coverage; and review of Industrial Development Authority contracts.
Appalachian Agency for Senior Citizens. Law students have assisted in the development of a Legal Services Resource Guide for older adults and their family members with valuable information about legal issues that affect personal autonomy.
Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) program through which students work as child advocates in the Virginia and Kentucky legal systems. The students receive guardian ad litem (GAL) training.
Students may submit a proposal for approval of a project to Ms. O'Quin.
Faculty and Administrative Pro Bono
ASL's Faculty Personnel Policies provide that faculty evaluation and promotion shall include review of "the faculty member's service to the School, the legal profession, and the community at large. This shall include the level of participation in the School's community service program as well as other service activities." The criteria used in tenure decisions include "dedicated service to the School, the profession, and the community at large."
The pro bono projects, like all community service projects, each have a faculty supervisor. All faculty members participate in supervising community service projects.
Awards/Recognition
The Community Service Award for the Appalachian School of Law is awarded annually to a law student who accomplishes more than 50 hours of service in an academic year, demonstrates a desire to accomplish the goals of an assigned and/or alternate project, performs duties with an energetic, positive, and heartfelt attitude, and provides feedback about ways to improve services. The award is named "The Little Red Wagon" award. The name derives from a donation to the Law school of a handmade red wagon by an elderly, poverty-stricken gentleman. The gentleman heard about the Law School's community service program and asked that we distribute the wagon to a "deserving child" because he "heard we gave a lot back to the community." The gentleman exemplified the attributes that a volunteer needs: one who gives form the heart.
Each spring ASL holds an awards banquet. Awards have been presented to students who have especially distinguished themselves in the community service program.
Upon graduation, a notation is made on the student's transcript as to whether or not the student has completed the community service requirement.
Community Service
County Mapping Project. Buchanan County is working to create a computerized mapping system showing by GIS coordinates the location of all county roads and all county water, sewer, and natural gas lines. There currently are over 2,000 unmapped parcels of land in the county. Law students are taught to examine and use public land records in order to determine the ownership, location, and description of the unmapped parcels. Students work with the County Treasurer's office, the Commissioner of Revenue's office, and the Clerk of the County Court's deed records and abstracts. Students also may be asked to contact oil and gas companies which own unmapped land to secure plats from private surveys. Students learn to research deeds and abstract property.
The Buchanan County Humane Society. The goals of this program are to initiate an aggressive and active spaying/neutering campaign to reduce the overall number of unwanted animals in the County, to facilitate improvement of the conditions at the County Animal Shelter, to make the Animal Shelter more accessible, to increase the number of shelter animals adopted annually, and to provide vital animal education to the community.
Home repairs and improvements for low-income residents through Buchanan Neighbors United, a grassroots community organization. Work usually is performed between March and November with volunteers who come from other regions of the country and participate in cultural exchange activities during their one- or two-week stay in Grundy.
Assisted Family Crisis Support Services (FCSS). There are two programs: a 24-hour toll free crisis line for information and referral and the HOPE (House Offered to People in Emergency) House, which provides services and emergency shelter to survivors of domestic violence and their children.
Other significant projects include tutoring in the public schools and at the local Teen Center, a youth mentoring program, blood drives, and teaching Junior Achievement classes to elementary and middle school children. Students and faculty may create (and have created) alternative service projects as well.
Law School Public Interest Programs
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Contact Information
Paul E. LundAssociate Professor of Law
plund@asl.edu
Certificate/Curriculum Programs
None.
Public Interest Centers
None.
Public Interest Clinics
During the 2001-02 academic year, ASL offered a three credit hour interviewing, counseling, and advising course, taught by Hugh O'Donnell, the Director of Client- Centered Legal Services of Southwest Virginia. Students worked on client matters under the supervision of Mr. O'Donnell.
Externships/Internships
All students at ASL complete a six week, three credit hour, externship during the summer after their first year of law school. Students work a total of approximately 225 hours in a judge's chambers, public law office, or public interest organization under the direct supervision of a licensed attorney. Each student is assigned a faculty coordinator, and the faculty conducts an orientation and a debriefing session before and after the externships.
Externship placements for students have included federal magistrate, district court, and circuit judges; state Supreme Court justices in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina; state trial judges in Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky; U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency; Virginia Attorney General's Office; Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky Legal Services offices; Tennessee District Attorneys; Virginia Commonwealth Attorneys; West Virginia District Attorneys; North Carolina District Attorneys; Kentucky County Attorneys; Georgia District Attorney; South Carolina Solicitor's Office; and the Air Force Legal Office.
Extern student experiences typically include a combination of the following: observe court proceedings, research legal issues, perform factual investigations, draft pleadings and legal memoranda, draft judicial opinions, update law libraries, and assist with trial strategy and problem solving.
Classes with a Public Service Component
A number of our Practicum courses, offered to third-year students, have included service components. For example, students have had the opportunity to take part in service components in Professor Sandra McGlothins's Family Law & Mediation course and in Professor Wendy Davis's Real Estate Transactions course.
Public Interest Journals
In the summer of 2002, ASL published the first issue of the Appalachian Journal of Law. The Journal's mission statement focuses, in part, on scholarship related to community service.
Public Interest Career Assistance
ASL's Career Services Director, Rose Hurley ( rhurley@asl.edu), maintains an active listing of public interest career opportunities.
Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAP)
Post-Graduate Fellowships/Awards
Law School Funded:
Graduate Student Funded:
Other Funding Sources:
Term Time Fellowships/Scholarships
Law School Funded:
Yes
Graduate Student Funded:
Other Funding Sources:
Americorps Educational Award and Federal Work Study program.
Within the next year, ASL plans to become the first law school to participate in the Bonner Fellows program. This program, founded by the Bonner Foundation of Princeton, New Jersey, currently is in place at undergraduate colleges and universities throughout the country. Students who participate in this program must complete 900 hours of public interest work in two-year period. Students who successfully complete the program receive an Americorps Educational Award as well as Federal Work Study compensation.
Summer Fellowships
Law School Funded:
All students who complete ASL's Externship program receive a scholarship to cover the tuition cost for the Externship.
Graduate Student Funded:
Other Funding Sources:
Extracurricular and Co-Curricular Programs
ASL's Introduction to Law course features a number of speakers from public interest organizations; all new law students participate in this course. ASL also sponsors a series of occasional luncheon speakers addressing various areas of public interests work. For example, Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama spoke at ASL during the Fall of 2001.
Student Public Interest Groups
ASL is a member of Equal Justice Works.
