PROGRAM OVERVIEW

In the Battered Women’s Rights Clinic (BWRC), legal interns represent clients who are experiencing intimate partner violence and assist them in creating safer environments for themselves and their children. In an interdisciplinary program with social work professionals, legal interns learn the skills, law and theory necessary to work in ways that empower clients and provide excellent representation. Legal interns work in the courts and other forums on immigration, custody, visitation, support, orders of protection and other family law issues. We also work with community groups to advocate legal and social change to end violence against women.

Highlights of Battered Women's Rights Clinic

• Collaborating with social work interns for interdisciplinary study and practice
• Working with community organizations to provide culturally sensitive representation and to assist communities in stopping violence against women
• Litigating in N.Y. Family Court to obtain custody, visitation, support and orders of protection
• Litigating in N.Y. Supreme Court to obtain divorce and other divorce related remedies
• Appearing before USCIS and Immigration Courts to obtain adjustment of status through use of Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) remedies

TYPICAL STUDENT PRACTICE

All legal interns represent multiple clients in family court obtaining orders of protection, uncontested divorces, custody/visitation and support. Legal interns gain experience in courtroom advocacy on behalf of clients through trials and other hearing work. In their representation of clients, legal interns do significant interviewing and counseling with clients, helping them to resolve complex life issues.

We place legal interns who have an interest in prosecuting domestic violence with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Domestic Violence Unit for one semester. This experience is integrated into the clinic and enables all students to explore more fully criminal and civil responses to violence against women.

Research and writing are an integral part of the work in this clinic. Legal interns draft legal documents and pleadings in family court proceedings and matrimonial actions, including lengthy affidavits, affirmations, petitions, complaints, and answers. Interns write memoranda of law on issues arising from the case representation and simulation material.

In addition to the individual representation, legal interns also participate in project work that is designed to address issues of domestic violence. Past projects have included:

• Legislative advocacy on issues affecting battered women
• Community education to shelters, community-based groups and high schools
• Pro se divorce clinic in conjunction with a community organization
• Peer-to-peer education with organizers to prepare survivors to be DV advocates

COLLABORATIVE, INTERDISCIPLINARY & COMMUNITY PRACTICE

The clinic has an interdisciplinary focus (link to interdisciplinary page) that allows legal interns to work and study with social work students to learn how to work with other professionals in providing comprehensive services to clients. Law students, social work graduate students from Hunter College School of Social Work and a faculty member with a Master’s Degree in Social Work team up to explore the similarities and differences in the ways that the professions identify and solve problems. This exploration enables students in each profession to learn about their own professional standards, assumptions and skill set. Students learn when referral to the other profession will enable better problem solving for clients. The lawyer’s counseling and inter-relational skills improve as a result of the collaboration with social workers. Frequently, social work students have provided counseling and supportive services to our clients and assisted clients to be better able to participate in the litigation.

The clinic works intensely with community-based women’s organizations to address issues of violence. We are a legal resource to these organizations, providing advice and representation to their clients. We consult the organizations on both social work and legal issues connecting the organizations to other lawyers in the community. We have done program development and planning and case support on counseling and social service issues as well as legal issues. The organizations provide a connection to community-based, cultural and language competent services for our clients. Students work with these organizations and a social work intern on issues involving law and organizing. Students also provide community education with these projects.

CLASSROOM COMPONENT

Legal interns enrolled in the clinic participate in a 3-hour seminar that meets twice a week to teach the lawyering skills, law and theory needed to represent clients in the clinic as well as other practices after graduation. To teach lawyering skills, we use reflection on experience, simulation, role play, modeling and discussion. We teach substantive law in the areas of family, domestic relations and immigration law. We study theoretical material about the causes of battering and engage in systematic analysis of how and whether the legal system addresses the needs of battered women. While both the substantive law and skills materials are taught within the context of representing battered women, students learn law and skills that are applicable to all family law and other practices. We also introduce cross-cultural analysis of issues into the seminar and encourage legal interns to think about these issues during supervision meetings.

CLINIC GRADUATES

The complex interviewing and counseling work, as well as courtroom advocacy in the clinic, prepares our graduates for practice in many settings. Because of our learning and practice focus, students are especially well prepared for family law practices and for practices addressing issues of violence against women, including working in prosecutors’ offices. Our graduates are also successfully engaged in other practice areas including criminal defense, policy advocacy for individuals with HIV, elder law and poverty law advocacy. Graduates practice in a variety of practice settings including work in solo and small firm practice, legal services, child welfare organizations, battered women's and immigrants' rights organizations and government offices. A more in-depth look at our graduates’ work is available.

SOCIAL JUSTICE MISSION

Our clinic is designed to graduate lawyers with professional values and skills that encourage client empowerment. We believe in situating our work for individuals and broader projects in ways that connect us to other organizations advocating on behalf of battered women. We work with community groups to enable them to become more knowledgeable and better-resourced community advocates. Finally, we practice within the legal system in ways that we hope make the system more responsive to the needs of battered women.