Under Maryland Rule 19-220, University of Baltimore clinic students represent clients with the supervision of our world-class clinical faculty. When you enroll in the clinical program, you'll learn to be a lawyer in a way you couldn't through classroom work alone. You will meet with clients, research their cases, advocate on their behalf and plan how best to meet their legal needs.
The Bob Parsons Veterans Advocacy Clinic students help veterans obtain benefits and assist them with other service-related
legal needs. You will develop essential lawyering skills through direct representation,
community outreach projects and legislative advocacy.
Recent accomplishments: Student-attorneys continued to advocate for more Veterans
Treatment Courts in Maryland. Additionally, students represented veterans in VA benefits
appeals, focusing on veterans with mental health issues. In one case, a veteran with
severe depression was discharged after attempting suicide. Student-attorneys drafted
a petition to upgrade her discharge from General to Honorable, which the Navy granted,
making her eligible for educational benefits.
Bronfein Family Law Clinic students learn multidimensional lawyering through litigation, legislative advocacy
and community-based projects. You will represent clients in court seeking civil-protection
orders in cases of domestic violence and family law orders, including divorce, child
custody, child adoption, child support and name changes.
Recent accomplishments: Clinic student-attorneys represented low-income clients in
civil domestic violence cases and in complex divorce, child-custody, child-support
and paternity cases as well as in Special Immigrant Juvenile Status cases. The student-attorneys
conducted trials and hearings, drafted motions and complaints, and conducted innumerable
interviews and legal counseling sessions. Working with the Reproductive Justice Inside
coalition, they researched and wrote a model policy on reproductive health care and
menstrual products for Maryland’s correctional facilities.
The Community Development Clinic provides a wide variety of transactional legal services to and advocacy for historically
underserved communities in Baltimore. You will provide legal representation to community
associations, nonprofit organizations and small-business owners on matters including
business formation, operations and financing, land use and real estate acquisition.
Recent accomplishments: Student-attorneys assisted an urban farming nonprofit in revising
its bylaws and establishing employment policies, advised an educational entrepreneur
about small business formation options, and helped a disaster relief organization
comply with benefit organization laws. To create systemic change, student-attorneys
provided legal and policy support to community residents affected by Baltimore’s water
crisis; this effort led to legislation adjusting water fees for the poor. Student-attorneys
prepared and presented “know your rights” materials to community organizations and
provided pro bono legal advice to prevent tax sales in collaboration with local legal
aid organizations.
The Criminal Practice Clinic places you in a state’s attorney’s or public defender’s office. Under the supervision
of an assistant state’s attorney or an assistant public defender, you will prosecute
or defend people charged with crimes.
Recent accomplishments: Student-attorneys interviewed witnesses, investigated charges,
negotiated pleas and argued motions in court for cases that involved drug possession,
drunken driving, domestic violence and disorderly conduct, among other crimes.
Immigrant Rights Clinic student-attorneys represent low-income immigrants in Immigration Court, in Maryland
Circuit Court and before the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and
Immigration Services. Caseloads are as diverse as the clinic’s clients. During your
clinical experience, you will touch on many areas of immigration practice—asylum law,
family reunification, detention, naturalization and more—while representing clients
from all over the world.
Recent accomplishments: Clinic student-attorneys represented asylum-seekers from Central
America who had fled gang violence, domestic violence, or a combination of both. Some
clients were families who had been separated and detained at the border. Other clients
came from East Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Student-attorneys interviewed
clients and witnesses; counseled clients on everything from case strategies to collateral
issues; gathered evidence to prove their clients’ claims; addressed family members’
immigration options; and argued the cases in legal briefs at the asylum office and
in court.
Stephen Gaines, J.D. '20
Students in the Immigrant Rights Clinic help Latinx immigrants as part of an outreach program at Johns Hopkins Hospital called Centro SOL. The clinic’s student-attorneys offer free legal advice to patients who visit the Hopkins clinic for health care. While they wait for their appointments, the students interview them about their immigration history and later counsel them on their options.Innocence Project Clinic students learn client-centered lawyering, primarily through investigation and litigation.
You will represent clients claiming factual innocence and will be involved in client,
witness, fact and paper investigation; draft motions and briefs; and negotiate and
argue in trial courts throughout Maryland.
Recent accomplishments: Clinic student-attorneys investigated more than 20 cases of
factual innocence, filed multiple DNA testing petitions in Maryland Circuit Courts
and presented two cases of factual innocence to the Baltimore City State’s Attorney
Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU). In December 2018 and again in May 2019, the clinic,
in connection with the CIU, secured the exoneration of clients who had spent 27 and
24 years, respectively, in prison for crimes they did not commit.
Alfred Chestnut greets his mother, Sarah Chestnut, after his release from prison.
Student-attorneys played a role in three recent exonerations of wrongfully convicted men. In December 2018, after extensive investigation by clinic faculty and students, Clarence Shipley Jr., of Baltimore was exonerated of all charges after serving 27 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. He had been falsely implicated by a jailhouse informant. Shipley’s alibi and witness identifications of a different suspect were not thoroughly investigated by police at the time. In the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic, student-attorneys represent taxpayers in federal tax disputes. Cases involve administrative
controversies before the IRS and the state comptroller’s office, as well as litigation
in federal courts. You will be responsible for all aspects of representing clients,
including interviewing and counseling clients, developing case strategy, engaging
in fact investigation and discovery, drafting documents, negotiating with adversaries
and conducting hearings and trials. You may also appear at the U.S. Tax Court in Baltimore
to assist unrepresented taxpayers.
Recent accomplishments: The clinic’s student-attorneys filed its first three tax-refund
suits in U.S. District Court, obtaining concessions from the U.S. Department of Justice
in two of the three. The clinic’s student-attorneys also litigated more than 12 cases
in U.S. Tax Court, obtaining favorable settlements or concessions in most, and successfully
negotiated offers to compromise with the IRS on the tax liabilities of numerous low-income
clients facing medical issues, financial problems and other serious life events.
As a student in the Mediation Clinic for Families, you will represent clients in the mediation process, co-mediate family law disputes
and engage in projects designed to improve the practice of family mediation. Student
mediators and attorneys often appear in cases before the Family Division of the Baltimore
City Circuit Court, but they also may be involved in mediation in other contexts,
such as cases in the Maryland Court of Special Appeals and in international abduction
mediations under the Hague Convention. In addition, students may represent clients
in collaborative divorces.
Recent accomplishments: Clinic student-attorneys represented clients in mediation
and mediated family disputes in the Circuit Court of Baltimore City. Student-attorneys
also made presentations about mediation and conflict resolution as part of the Center
for Urban Families’ STRIVE Future Leaders Program, which focuses on enhancing career
readiness for Baltimore youth.
Students enrolled in the Mental Health Law Clinic will represent and advise children and adults facing involuntary psychiatric civil
commitment within the Sheppard Pratt Health System. Administrative hearings are conducted
each week and student-attorneys handle cases including the initial interviews of clients,
witnesses and experts. Students also conduct case preparation and investigation. They
research procedural errors, prepare memoranda and argue motions before administrative
law judges. They examine witnesses and advocate for the rights of individual clients.
Students also participate in research and preparation of pleadings and memoranda seeking
habeas relief and judicial review.
Recent accomplishments: Students met with many adults and children, advising them
of the right to postpone cases or admit themselves voluntarily, or to prepare for
representation at commitment hearings. Student-attorneys successfully argued for the
release of individuals in cases in which procedural errors occurred and in cases on
which the merits were at issue. They extensively researched various issues, contacted
witnesses and prepared arguments to present to the administrative law judge.
In the Saul Ewing Civil Advocacy Clinic, you will represent low-income clients in civil litigation. Caseloads are diverse
and cover many areas of civil practice, including housing, employment, consumer rights,
education and public benefits. Under faculty supervision, you will engage in the full
range of activities involved in representing clients in litigation. The clinic also
takes part in law reform projects to enhance civil legal policy and practice affecting
low-income families and children.
Recent accomplishments: Clinic student-attorneys advocated for low-income individuals
facing incorrect debt collection actions, tenants living in substandard conditions,
individuals seeking to expunge criminal records so they can obtain employment, and
elderly individuals defending against unsupported claims from former landlords. They
also aided impoverished parents appealing denials regarding their children’s Social
Security benefits, and seeking to enforce a judgment against an unscrupulous landlord
who moved to a different country.
Prof. Michele Gilman
Venable Professor of LawGilman is director of the Saul Ewing Civil Advocacy Clinic and co-director of the
Center on Applied Feminism. Her scholarship focuses on issues relating to poverty,
privacy, economic inequality and feminist legal theory. She was a faculty fellow at
Data & Society in New York during the 2019-20 academic year, focusing on the intersection
of data privacy law with the concerns of low-income communities.
Gilman joined the UBalt School of Law faculty in 2001. She is involved in numerous
groups working on behalf of low-income Marylanders. She is a member of the Committee
on Litigation and Legal Priorities of the ACLU of Maryland and the Judicial Selection
Committee of the Women’s Law Center. She is the past president of the board of the
Public Justice Center, where she served from 2004-2014, as well as a past member of
the Maryland Bar’s Section Council on Delivery of Legal Services
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Curtis Sittenfeld, best-selling author of several acclaimed novels and a writer and editor for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, and other leading publications, as well as a guest on public radio's This American Life, will discuss her newly released collection of short stories, Show ...
Curtis Sittenfeld, best-selling author of several acclaimed novels and a writer and editor for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, and other leading publications, as well as a guest on public radio's This American Life, will discuss her newly released collection of short stories, Show ...
