Child Advocacy Clinic
What We Do
Part of the St. Vincent de Paul Legal Program, the Child Advocacy Clinic is a five-credit, one-semester, in-house clinical program available to students who have successfully completed their 1L year. The Clinic handles a variety of legal matters relating to children, including Family Court abuse, neglect, custody and guardianship cases; immigration removal proceedings and status applications; foster parent fair hearings, education and disability advocacy; and international child abduction cases under the Hague Convention.
Part of the St. Vincent de Paul Legal Program, the Child Advocacy Clinic is a five-credit, one-semester, in-house clinical program available to students who have successfully completed their 1L year. The Clinic handles a variety of legal matters relating to children, including:
- Family court abuse, neglect, custody and guardianship cases
- Immigration removal proceedings and status applications
- Foster parent fair hearings
- Education and disability advocacy
- International child abduction cases under the Hague Convention
Clinic students learn essential lawyering skills, gain practical legal knowledge, and build professional responsibility while serving needy children throughout the greater New York area. During a typical semester, students will:
- Appear in family court and immigration court hearings and conferences on behalf of children from 0-21 years of age
- Interview clients, witnesses, and family members
- Work with teachers, social services professionals, mental health providers and others ensuring client wellbeing
- Conduct factual investigations
- Visit residential, educational, and/or other client-related sites
- Research and draft legal documents
- Advocate formally and informally for children and their caregivers
- Collaborate with social workers, subject area specialists, and other consultants
- Conduct all aspects of pre-trial, trial, and post-dispositional proceedings in family court
Students work 14 hours a week and attend a weekly, two-hour seminar that includes assignments. The seminar teaches lawyering skills essential to successful and ethical client representation as well as substantive areas of the law through lectures, simulations, class activities, roundtable discussions, and other experiential learning activities.
Contact Us
Child Advocacy Clinic
Clinical Office
St. John’s School of Law, Room 2-26
8000 Utopia Parkway
Queens, NY 11439
[email protected]
Phone: 718-990-6689
Fax: 718-990-1961
Our Clinic
When to Apply
Students apply in the spring to participate in the Child Advocacy Clinic during the following fall semester and apply in the fall to participate in the Clinic during the spring semester.
Attend an Information Session
To learn more about the Clinic and our application process, we recommend that you attend the Clinical Information Session held in April and October.
Application Information
Students apply to the Child Advocacy Clinic by completing and submitting an online application and providing the following materials:
- Cover letter stating interest in the clinic
- Current resume
- Unofficial transcript printed from the Academic Record screen in UIS
Questions?
If you have questions about applying to the Child Advocacy Clinic, please email [email protected]
While there are no pre- or co-requisites for the Child Advocacy Clinic, students may find Family Law, Poverty Law, Evidence, Administrative Law, Immigration Law and Trial Advocacy helpful in handling Clinic cases.
Students must complete pre-semester paperwork and a first assignment before starting in the Clinic. During the semester, they take a weekly, two-hour seminar class and complete reading, writing, and research assignments. Students should also expect to keep at least 14 office hours each week, three of which may be outside of normal business hours. Students keep track of their office hours by submitting bi-weekly time sheets.
To the extent possible, we schedule field trips, court observations, and other off-site obligations—such as client home visits—so they don't conflict with students' schedules. But our young Clinic clients have school and after-school commitments. So, we often have to visit them in the evenings or on weekends. Those visits count as student office hours.
Given these requirements and the need to be flexible in prioritizing Clinic clients (within reason), students should carefully weigh taking on outside employment while participating in the Child Advocacy Clinic.
Jennifer Baum
Professor of Clinical Legal Education
Director, Child Advocacy Clinic