Directory
Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law
Chapman University
Law School Pro Bono Programs
Contact Information
Carolyn Young Larmore
Director of Externship Program
P: (714) 628-2651
E-mail
Category Type
Formal Voluntary Pro Bono Program Characterized by a Referral System with Coordinator
Description of Programs
Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law, in partnership with the Public Interest Law Foundation and Externship Program, has created the "Commitment to Service" award to encourage and recognize the public interest work of Fowler Law students. Students who complete at least 50 hours of pro bono work upon graduation will receive an award acknowledging their service. The program is administered by the Director of Externships, and information and forms are available at http://www.chapman.edu/law/externships/pro-bono-program.aspx.
Location of Programs
With the externship program
Staffing/Management/Oversight
The Director of Externships administers the Commitment to Service award program, maintaining pro bono opportunity listings and other program forms, and verifying completed award applications.
Funding
Administrative support is provided for faculty pro bono projects as in-kind assistance.
Student Run Pro Bono Groups/Specialized Law Education Projects
None
Faculty and Administrative Pro Bono
In 1997, Chapman adopted a mandatory pro bono policy for full-time faculty. Pro Bono is defined broadly as "uncompensated legal or law-related service to people or groups that tend to be underrepresented due to inability to pay, minority status, unpopularity of position or the widely diffused public benefits of their cause." While the policy encourages law-related work, it does not necessarily limit the work narrowly to legal representation. Therefore, "non-legal service may qualify if it's a substantial response to a legal problem." However, "service solely within the Law School and University does not satisfy the service obligation of each faculty member." No set number of hours is required. Pro Bono service is not required every year, taking into consideration periods of heavy commitment to other matters, but faculty must fulfill all expectations over a several year period. Pro bono service is a factor in rank and tenure decisions.
Awards/Recognition
Chapman's Fowler School of Law holds a reception and banquet in the week before the graduation ceremony. Graduating students and their families, faculty and administration attend, and awards for various accomplishments such as valedictorian and law review membership are distributed. The Commitment to Service awards for pro bono work are announced at this event, and certificates are presented to students.
Community Service
None
Law School Public Interest Programs
Contact Information
Laurie Ellen Park
Assistant Director of Career Services
P: (714) 628-2550
E-mail
Certificate/Curriculum Programs
None
Public Interest Centers
None
Public Interest Clinics
Alona Cortese Elder Law Center - Founded in 2000, the Alona Cortese Elder Law Center provides free legal services to low income seniors throughout the County of Orange. The center has both a classroom and clinical component, allowing students to learn key aspects of elder law while obtaining hands-on experience representing real clients. The center works closely with local legal aid organizations and pro-bono attorneys to maximize services provided to seniors. Enrolled students help clients with numerous legal issues including claims of elder abuse, will drafting, advance health care directives, representation at administrative hearings, Medicare, Social Security, guardianship and conservatorship.
Bette and Wylie Aitken Family Violence Clinic - The Bette and Wylie Aitken Family Violence Clinic was created to address the unique challenges faced by survivors of domestic violence. Located at the secure Orange County Family Justice Center, the clinic is directed by Fowler Law professor Marisa Cianciarulo, a veteran immigration lawyer and legal clinician. Underwritten through a generous gift from Bette and Wylie Aitken, the clinic offers free assistance in immigration, human trafficking and protection order matters for clients who meet income eligibility requirements.
Constitutional Jurisprudence Clinic - the Constitutional Jurisprudence Clinic has for the past decade provided students with the opportunity to learn about the original understanding of the Constitution, and to put those lessons into practice by crafting arguments to the United States Supreme Court. The clinic provides students with an opportunity to conduct research, draft discovery requests, prepare draft summary judgment motions and appellate briefs, attend hearings, and even prepare briefs for filing with the Supreme Court of the United States in such landmark cases as Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (the Ohio school vouchers case) and Grutter v. Bollinger (the Michigan affirmative action cases). Through its affiliation with the Claremont Institute's Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, the clinic has offered students the unique opportunity to participate in high profile cases and to understand how the Constitution was intended to protect individual liberty.
Entertainment Law Clinic - The Entertainment Law Clinic provides students with a unique opportunity to work directly with low budget independent filmmakers and to serve as production legal counsel for a feature length motion picture. Filmmakers who have used the services offered by the Entertainment Law Clinic have won numerous awards and honors, including the Newport Beach Film Festival Audience Award for Best U.S. Film, the Netflix Find Your Voice Film Competition, and have premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival. The names of our clinic students appear in the on-screen credits for each film. Under the supervision of the faculty, participating students set up corporations or LLCs, file for copyrights, and draft all production-related contracts and documents including crew, actors, and locations agreements for real clients.
Mediation Clinic - The Mediation Clinic allows students to develop and use mediation skills through regular and frequent practice with actual clients under the supervision of Professor David Dowling and experienced mediators in the Superior Court. The clinic provides the students with hands on experience with real litigants in a variety of different cases. The clinic mediates 700 real cases annually. While working in the Mediation Clinic, students have an opportunity to mediate many different types of cases with actual clients such as, Civil Harassment Restraining Orders, Debt Collections, Unlawful Detainer, Small Claims Trial De Novo and Limited Civil.
Tax Law Clinic - The Tax Law Clinic is the oldest clinical program at Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law, offering both trial and appellate tax clinic opportunities to our students. Chapman is currently one of only three law schools in California - and a very small percentage of law schools nationwide - to be awarded a federal grant to operate a Low Income Taxpayer Clinic ("LITC"). The law school has been a recipient of a LITC grant award in each year since the program's inception. In the trial level tax clinic, law students have the chance to handle cases in many different stages of controversy including case that are in the U.S. Tax Court. If settlement efforts fail, the student may have the opportunity to take the case to trial. In 2008, the law school launched the Appellate Tax Advocacy Clinic course. This course lets students participate in docketed appellate tax cases conducted under the auspices of The Center for Fair Administration of Taxation. Here, students do not represent taxpayers before the IRS, but rather they participate in drafting amicus curiae ("friend of the court") briefs in significant matters that impact federal, state or local tax law.
Externships/Internships
The Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law Externship Program gives students the rewarding opportunity of attaining real-world experience by working for judges, government agencies, corporations, and public interest organizations, and more. Students develop the practical skills, poise and confidence necessary to be effective practitioners in the courtroom, law office or corporate legal department. Externships also provide insight into professional responsibility and the operation of the legal system while enhancing the legal resume and providing important networking opportunities.
Classes with a Public Service Component
On occasion, students have been granted academic credit to assist professors engage in public interest research or to represent clients. This has included drafting estate plans and wills for tax clients, and researching legal issues regarding economic development and business opportunities for low income clients.
Public Interest Journals
None
Public Interest Career Support Center
Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law has a designated Public Interest Career Counselor who counsels students regarding careers in public interest and public service and provides information and programming to encourage all students to explore public interest careers and to incorporate pro bono work as a part of the law school experience. Fowler Law also has two other full-time career counselors qualified to discuss public interest resources with students.
A wide variety of public interest and public sector employers participate in Fowler Law's Fall and Spring On-Campus Interview and Resume Collection Programs, and students are also apprised throughout the year of other public interest job opportunities and pro bono projects. In addition, the Career Services Office subscribes to PSJD.org, one of the largest clearinghouses for public interest jobs, which provides students and alumni with free access to thousands of public interest job opportunities, as well as access to an online library of educational and career-building resources for those interested in pursuing a career in public service. The Public Interest Counselor also coordinates with Fowler Law's Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF), the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, and Orange County's Public Law Center to plan opportunities for students to help provide legal assistance to underserved members of the community.
Every fall, the Career Services Office sponsors a group of students to participate in the Equal Justice Works Conference and Job Fair held in Washington, D.C. The Public Interest Counselor attends the conference with the students to help them make the most of the public interest resources and opportunities offered at the conference and job fair. On request, the Career Services Office also offers some additional funding to defray travel expenses and registration fees for students participating in other public interest job fairs.
Public Interest events annually sponsored or co-sponsored by the Chapman Law Career Services Office:
- Public Interest Panel
- Public Interest Summer Funding & Fellowship Presentation and Panel
- Public Interest / Public Sector Career Day (Southern California Law School Consortium-sponsored event)
- Legal Aid Society of Orange County - Family Law Blitz week (students work as volunteers at a week-long family law clinic)
- Various clinics and MCLE trainings offered by the Public Law Center
Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAP)
None
Post-Graduate Fellowships/Awards
Law School Funded:
None
Graduate Student Funded:
None
Other Funding Sources:
None
Term Time Fellowships/Scholarships
Law School Funded:
None
Graduate Student Funded:
None
Other Funding Sources:
Summer Fellowships
Law School Funded:
None
Graduate Student Funded:
None
Other Funding Sources:
Grant funding for students working in unpaid public interest positions over the summer is provided by the Fowler School of Law student-run Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF). PILF conducts fundraising, particularly through an annual silent auction, to support the program. Funding varies by year and applications are due by the beginning of April. Fowler Law's Career Services Office also encourages students to apply to the many public interest scholarship opportunities that the Financial Aid Office publishes.
Extracurricular and Co-Curricular Programs
- Annual Public Interest Career Panel
- Periodic Speakers on Public Interest Issues (school and student sponsored)
Student Public Interest Groups
Public Interest Law Foundation - The Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF) provides grants to law students who wish to work at summer public interest jobs that offer little or no pay. Many public interest law employers desperately need student legal help but are unable to afford to pay for the help they need. PILF provides financial support through grants to these student employees so that they can get the experience they need, and the employers can continue to provide the public with much needed legal support.
August 6, 2018