Child Advocacy Law Clinic
Juvenile Justice Clinic
& Pediatric Advocacy Clinic
University f Michigan Law School
625 S. State St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1215
Telephone: (734) 763-5000
Website: Clinical Programs (umich.edu)
100% Children’s Law
Each year, the foster-care system cares for approximately 400,000 children. Legal cases involving these children raise complex questions: Should the child have been placed in foster care? What types of services should be put into place to reunify the family? Is the termination of parental rights warranted? Should the child return home to her family or be adopted by relatives or foster parents? These are but a few of the challenging questions faced by students in the Child Advocacy Law Clinic (CALC), a seven-credit clinic open to second- and third-year law students. Students taking this clinic represent children, parents, or the Department of Human Services in court cases that may be located in one of six counties. Each student team has a mix of child welfare cases representing each of the three major roles, so they get to see and understand the lawyer role from different vantage points and with different concerns and interests.
In the Juvenile Justice Clinic (JJC), students represent minors charged with violations of the criminal law and status offenses in Michigan's family courts. Students have first-chair responsibility for the JJC clients and their cases. This responsibility means that students directly engage in, and reflect on, the practice of law while in law school, under the supervision of experienced professors. While primarily a litigation clinic, students may, from time to time, handle appellate matters and may be involved in public policy issues.
The mission of the Pediatric Advocacy Clinic (PAC) is to achieve justice and dignity for all low-income children and their families by integrating high-quality legal advocacy into health care settings. As a medical-legal partnership, we pursue our mission by uniting health care providers, attorneys, and social workers to eliminate the effects of poverty on children's health and well-being