CLINICAL PROGRAMS : FAMILY ADVOCACY CLINIC

Duration: Full-year clinic
Credits: 8 credits (4 credits per semester/letter grade)

Students represent individuals in contested family matters in Suffolk and Middlesex County Probate Courts including divorce, paternity, custody, visitation, child support, guardianship of minors, and other family dissolution cases, and perform all tasks necessary to the representation from client interviews to trial.  Case selection priority is given to clients suffering from the consequences of domestic violence, sexual abuse and sexual assault.  The Clinic works in collaboration with HarborCOV, a domestic violence social service agency, representing HarborCOV clients and offering legal consultation to HarborCOV staff on site at their Chelsea office.  The weekly seminar covers the development of lawyering skills such as interviewing, counseling, case theory development, negotiation, oral advocacy and the application of ethical rules to practice in the complex arena of families in crisis. The goal of the clinic is for students to learn and develop insight into the process of lawyering, using family and poverty law as the paradigm for this learning.  Clinic obligations cannot be confined to particular days and must be met as needed on a per case basis.  Weekly journals encouraging self reflective learning are required. Students must have completed or be concurrently enrolled in Family Law.  Spanish-speaking students are strongly encouraged to apply. 

Questions: Contact Professor Ilene Seidman at