Directory
Quinnipiac University School of Law
Quinnipiac University
Law School Pro Bono Programs
Contact Information
Sherilyn Scully
Assistant Dean of Student Affairs
[email protected]
(203) 582-3220
Category Type
Description of Programs
Location of Programs
Staffing/Management/Oversight
Funding
Student Run Pro Bono Groups/Specialized Law Education Projects
Constitutional Law Society – Students participate in law education program in a community middle school.
Family Law Society – Students partake in a law education mock trial for grade school children to illustrate problem solving through the court system.
Public Interest Law Project – Fundraising auction to fund students to work on pro bono projects throughout the summer
VITA – Students provide assistance to low income tax payers filing returns.
Faculty and Administrative Pro Bono
Awards/Recognition
PILP recognition reception
Sappern recognition reception
Graduation awards reception for community service awards
Community Service
There is a mandatory requirement that each student organization perform at least one community service project per academic year. Ongoing projects include:
- Public Interest Law Project
- VITA Program
- Law Students Legal Action Fellowship
- Sappern Fellowship
- Glickstein Fellowship
Law School Public Interest Programs
Contact Information
Deborah L. Daddio
Director of Career Services
[email protected]
(203) 582-3267
Career Services Office
Doretta D. Sweeney
Associate Director of Career Services
[email protected]
(203)582-3218
Career Services Office
Certificate/Curriculum Programs
Public Interest Centers
Public Interest Clinics
Civil Clinic – Students in the in-house Civil Clinic provide free legal services to low- and moderate-income clients in a variety of subject matters. Cases include consumer and foreclosure matters, family disputes, landlord/tenant cases, will contests, immigration, and education cases. The clinic provides services at the administrative, trial, and appellate levels. Students have also conducted outreach sessions in the community, and have handled disciplinary matters against lawyers who have been grieved.
Defense Appellate Clinic – Students in the two-semester Defense Appellate Clinic represent on appeal indigent persons who have been convicted of crimes. They work under the supervision of an attorney/visiting clinical instructor from the state's Office of the Public Defender.
Health Law Clinic – The Health Law Clinic provides free legal services to persons with legal problems related to their health status or condition. Most clients have a disability, and many are seeking government benefits. Some cases involve litigation to establish the rights of clients, such as due process rights in conservatorship cases. The Clinic has handled cases at all levels, including administrative hearings, trial and appeals.
Prosecution Appellate Clinic – Students in this year-long program represent the state in criminal appeals. They work under the supervision of an attorney/visiting clinical instructor from the Appellate Bureau of the Chief State's Attorney's Office.
Tax Clinic – The Tax Clinic provides free legal services to low-income taxpayers. The Clinic also engages in outreach and tax education in the community, particularly for those for whom English is not their first language. Tax controversy cases include innocent spouse matters, offers in compromise, earned income credit cases, and other disputes with the IRS. The Clinic handles matters at both the administrative and court levels.
Externships/Internships
Taking advantage of Connecticut's liberal student practice rules, Quinnipiac's externship programs, like the Law School's in-house clinics, provide an important bridge between theory and practice for upper-level students. Working under the supervision of experienced lawyers, judges, and mediators in a network of over three-hundred participating placements in offices and courthouses throughout the state, in New York, and in neighboring New England states, QUSL externs apply the lessons they have learned in the classroom to actual legal problems, and in doing so, begin to understand how legal doctrine operates in the real world. Through their work with both their field supervisors and the faculty supervisors who arrange their placements and teach the seminar components of the externship courses, students also develop the kinds of mentoring relationships that will be critical to their professional development, both during and after law school. Most importantly, they develop and refine the lawyering skills and professional values necessary for the competent and ethical representation of clients.
The Law School's curriculum currently includes nine field placement programs, eight of which place students in public interest/public sector practice settings: the Criminal Justice Externship, the Family and Juvenile Law Externship, the Judicial Externship, the Legal Services Externship, the Legislative Externship, the Mediation Externship, the Public Interest Externship, and our externship sequel, Field Placement II. Through participation in these programs, students can explore one or more of the practice settings that may await them after graduation.
Detailed information about the programs is available at https://www.qu.edu/schools/law/academic-resources/clinics-and-externships
Classes with a Public Service Component
Poverty Law
Public Interest Journals
PI Career Support Center
Promote and publicize grant and fellowship opportunities through Career Services Office newsletters and postings; Organize, support and promote student and attorney led panel discussions on public service careers, featuring state attorneys general,public defenders, and prosecutors; Coordinate and publicize Information Sessions with attorneys working for federal and state governmental agencies and military; Actively manage and expand Sappern Fellowship program providing students with the opportunity to assist individuals in the local family court with temporary restraining orders and pro se divorces; Support and encourage attendance at annual NYU Public Interest Legal Career Fair
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:
Graduate Student Funded
Other Funding Sources:
Summer Fellowships
Law School Funded:
Graduate Student Funded:
Other Funding Sources:
Public Interest Law Project (PILP) Student organized fund raiser to provide funds for summer public interest work positions.
Extracurricular and Co-Curricular Programs
Public Interest Law Project – Annual auction run by the PILP student group to fund summer public interest employment of students.
VITA Program – Student volunteer service project that helps low income tax payers file returns.
Law Students' Legal Action Fellowship – Annual event which provides grants to students for public service projects.
Thurgood Marshall Award Reception – Annual event that recognizes community service and diversity initiatives
Baldwin Award Reception – Annual event that recognizes community leader for public service
Student Public Interest Groups
Animal Law Society
Fundraiser for CT Humane Society Black Law Students Association
Thurgood Marshall Awards, Law education project in community middle school
Brehon Society
Constitutional Law Society
Democratic Law Society
Environmental Law Society
Family & Juvenile Law Society
Family Law Society
International Law Society
Law & Medicine Society
Legal Times/ATLA
Phi Alpha Delta
Probate Law Journal
Public Interest Law Project
SBA
Society for Dispute Resolution
Tax Law Society
Women's Law Society
2/16/2021