General Public Practice Law

With guidance and supervision, students will represent clients in various cases, which may include family law, children’s rights, consumer law, tribal law, prisoners’ rights, public entitlements, housing, estate planning, surrogate decision making, and health care. In addition to working on cases, students will meet two hours per week to learn and reflect on ethical issues, procedural law, substantive law, and skills.

All students will interview and counsel clients, research the legal basis for clients’ claims, investigate the factual basis for clients’ claims, develop a theory of each case, develop a strategic approach to each case, manage case information, and write advice letters to their clients.

Depending on specific case posture, students may draft legal documents, represent their clients in administrative hearings, engage in written discovery, conduct depositions, appear in court for uncontested and contested motion hearings, negotiate with opposing attorneys or parties, represent their clients in mediation or arbitration, prepare for trial, represent their clients at trial, write appellate briefs, or make appellate arguments. Please note that representing clients in court requires limited admission to the Washington State Bar Association under the student practice rule. The student practice rule requires, among other things, completion of 60 credits of law study.

On completion of the class, students will have demonstrated:

• critical awareness of how poverty affects legal rights and access to justice
• the ability to engage in independent study and systematic inquiry into the rights and remedies implicated in our clients’ situations
• basic understanding of the substantive and procedural law necessary to competently represent their clients
• the ability to critically evaluate case theory and strategy
• the ability to handle uncertainty and ambiguity in relation to their clients’ cases
• the ability to interview and advise clients
• the ability to explain their cases succinctly and persuasively
• the ability to communicate complex and abstract ideas both orally and in writing in a coherent structured fashion in clear and direct English
• the independent learning ability required for continuing academic and professional development
• the ability to assess and reconcile ethical issues

To receive legal assistance from the General Practice Law & Indian Law Clinic please complete the fillable application via the button below and email it to lawclinic@gonzaga.edu or call 509-313-5791.