[aka Michigan Clinical Law Program]
The Michigan Clinical Law Program (MCLP) is a 7-credit litigation clinic that gives students the chance to practice law in a variety of issue areas affecting low-income clients. Students must enroll in the 4-credit clinic and the 3-credit seminar, taken concurrently. The clinic covers many areas of the law. The civil case-load changes term to term, but may include landlord-tenant, consumer, family law, public benefits, employment discrimination, asylum and refugee, contracts, torts, and prisoners' civil rights cases. We try to keep a wide mix of work, from simple one-issue cases to class actions raising issues of first impression. On the criminal side, students handle misdemeanor cases for their short-term files, and do (mostly post-conviction) felony cases for their more complex files. Students do all of the work for their clients (under faculty supervision), including interviewing, counseling, legal research, discovery, negotiation, motion practice, bench and jury trials, and appeals. Students have "first-chair" responsibility for their cases and primary responsibility for their clients. MCLP students handle cases in the state district, circuit, and probate courts, as well as the federal district courts, state and federal administrative agencies, and appeals to all levels of both court systems. The seminar and field-work are graded. The MCLP meets the NY bar pro bono requirement. A more detailed description can be found at: https://www.law.umich.edu/clinical/generalclinic/Pages/default.aspx
The Clinic seminar fulfills the Law School's professional responsibility requirement for graduation, but does not fulfill the New York State Bar ethics requirement.