Texas A&M Legal Clinics give you the opportunity to put the lessons and skills you learn in class to work on behalf of actual clients. Clinical work provides experience in a variety of practice areas, including family law, tax, intellectual property, and business law. Clinic clients include companies, entrepreneurs, nonprofit organizations, government entities, families, and individuals.
Clinic courses and fieldwork give you experience with a variety of legal issues and lawyering models along with opportunities to develop a range of essential skills, including:
Client intake, interviewing, and counseling clients
Legal research; developing and organizing effective presentations
Oral and written communication skills, both in and out of court
Negotiation and alternative dispute resolution
Community education and involvement in various forms of advocacy through community organizing, news media, and legislative or regulatory bodies
Collaboration with teammates and other community members
Our goal is providing students with learning experiences that parallel the best law firms, government agencies, or in-house environments. Your client work will be supervised and written work will be reviewed by one or more practicing professors with experience in the relevant area of law.
You will be introduced to and work with the same substantive materials and practice management platforms these attorneys use daily, develop the oral and written skills needed for effective client work, collaborate with your colleagues on tougher issues, and enjoy multiple opportunities for feedback and networking along the way.
In the Civil Rights Clinic you’ll work with local community members and organizations on advocacy and litigation to vindicate their civil rights. The clinic supports local organizations on issues most important to the community and provides opportunities for students to engage in litigation and community advocacy work, including legislative reform efforts, media advocacy, and strategic planning.
By providing an opportunity to engage in community-driven advocacy, the Civil Rights Clinic aims to develop creative, adaptive, and thoughtful lawyers who are confident in their ability to take on new issues and challenges in their future careers.
The Community Development Clinic is a transactional real estate, nonprofit, and public advocacy clinic that works on a range of legal issues related to promoting community development through social entrepreneurship, affordable housing, and community advocacy. The clinic works with individuals and nonprofits in underserved communities to counsel them on their legal rights and duties.
Students in the clinic will have the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the role of lawyers in facilitating opportunity and sustainability for populations of modest means.
By working with nonprofits that serve underserved populations, the Community Development Clinic undertakes legal matters that address issues that relate to:
Affordable housing
Access to legal services
Nonprofit creation and sustainability
Social entrepreneurship
Students in the Entrepreneurship Law Clinic help clients choose, form, and operate their businesses. Your work may involve sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, or LLCs, with needs ranging from formation to effective operation. Our clients come from a wide range of industries, from restaurants and breweries to software and medical device companies. We try to match students with clients from an industry the student is interested in.
Service work in the ELC typically includes:
Providing advice regarding choice of entity and structuring considerations
Preparing entity formation documents
Preparing organizational governance documents such as articles of organization for an LLC or bylaws and a shareholder agreement for a corporation;
Preparing a memorandum to clients regarding the maintenance and operation of their new entities
Preparing various contracts, such as confidentiality agreements, non-disclosure agreements, and employment or independent contractor agreements
Managing client files throughout using law practice management software of the sort common to law firms large and small
The Environmental & Natural Resources Systems Clinic enables students to blend their substantive classroom training in various natural resource-related legal areas with the development of practical skills and professional identity. Clinic students represent and work with various entities to address local, state, and federal concerns related to the use, conservation, management, and protection of land, water, air, the environment, habitats, species, and other natural resources. Past clients have included Trinity River Authority, Texas Target Communities, Texas Water Foundation, and Tarrant Regional Water District.
The Family & Veterans Advocacy Clinic provides legal assistance to low-income individuals in the areas of family law and veterans issues. Students handle cases related to divorces, protective orders, child custody, termination of parental rights, adoptions, and an array of legal issues related to veterans.
Family & Veterans Advocacy Clinic focuses on providing services in the following areas of law:
Family law. Advocating for indigent clients needing a divorce, child custody, child support, visitation and/or protective orders in family violence situations.
Children’s issues. Representing the caregivers of children who are at risk of abuse or neglect or who have been abused or neglected.
Simple wills. Drafting wills, medical powers of attorney, general powers of attorney, and other documents for clients.
Veteran issues. Not only representing veterans in the above areas of law, but also veterans who are seeking VA benefits and needing legal assistance in other related issues that affect their lives.
The Immigrant Rights Clinic engages law students in direct representation of immigrants before the Immigration Courts, Board of Immigration Appeals, U.S. District Courts, and U.S. Courts of Appeals. Our representation focuses on deportation defense, federal litigation on immigration detention, and affirmative filings for survivors of crimes and abuse.
Clients include asylum-seekers fleeing persecution in their home countries, permanent residents facing deportation due to a criminal conviction, unaccompanied children who have been abused, neglected, or abandoned by a parent, and undocumented individuals with substantial ties to the United States. Our clinic recognizes the importance of providing trauma-informed services in these cases and values interdisciplinary collaboration with social workers, psychologists, and health care professionals.
In addition to providing individual representation, you have the opportunity to undertake policy and advocacy projects around immigrant rights at the local, state, and national levels. Such projects may include drafting legislation, writing reports, preparing training materials, collaborating with community organizations in developing strategies for a particular campaign, amicus briefing, or participating in impact litigation. These projects are designed to help you explore various ways to engage in social justice work and develop transferable skills that are applicable to a wide range of careers post-graduation.
Wrongful convictions happen. Currently, there are more than 150,000 people in the Texas prison system. Even assuming a modest rate of 1 percent wrongful convictions, approximately 1,500 people are currently behind bars who don’t belong there. Working to rectify those injustices and prevent further wrongful convictions helps assure the integrity of our criminal legal system. If you chose the field of law to be a voice for the innocent, here is your opportunity to explore this rewarding field of legal work and gain valuable experience in the process.
In collaboration with The Innocence Project of Texas, the clinic investigates the cases of defendants who claim actual innocence, even after all appeals have failed. The Innocence Project of Texas (IPTX) is an organization dedicated to the mission of securing the release of people who are wrongly convicted in the state of Texas and educating the public about the causes and effects of wrongful convictions. Although details vary from case to case, you will generally work on factual investigations about the original trials.
The Medical Legal Partnership (MLP) was developed to help address legal needs that have the potential to impact a child’s health and access to medical care. Studies suggest that medical-legal partnerships have helped patients and their families save on their medical care costs, recover public benefits, and reduce their stress.
The Medical Legal Partnership has a few opportunities each semester for continuing clinic students to work on cases referred to our clinical program from our collaboration with Cook Children’s Hospital Medical Center. There may be limited opportunities for summer internships and pro bono projects that will not require prior clinic enrollment.
Students in the Patent Clinic help inventors prepare, file, and prosecute applications for patent protection in the United States Patent & Trademark Office. From knock-out searches to office action responses, Patent Clinic students work with actual clients on real-world inventions, helping turn ideas into realities. As a clinic student, you manage all aspects of your client matters, with help when you need it from experienced supervising attorneys. In addition, Patent Clinic students with technical backgrounds may qualify to work directly with patent examiners.
Student work in the Patent Clinic typically includes:
Counseling on patent issues
Limited-scope patentability/novelty searches
Determining the application type
Drafting the descriptions, claims, and abstracts
Working with illustrators to create drawings
Responding to office actions
Converting provisional applications into non-provisional applications
In the Probate & Estate Planning Clinic, you will learn the basics of drafting simple estate plans, and handling probate and guardianship matters. Estate planning encompasses a wide variety of subjects, from planning for the most modest estates to drafting complex tax-planning trusts, as well as helping individuals with extraordinary needs plan for their loved one’s futures.
The clinic limits its work on trusts and provides primarily the following documents for clients:
Last will and testament
Statutory durable power of attorney
Medical power of attorney
Directive to physicians and family
HIPAA release
Transfer on death deeds
Small-estate affidavits
Guardianships
The Tax Dispute Resolution Clinic will give you invaluable experience in negotiating on behalf of your client and the specialized skills of interacting with an administrative agency, something that is increasingly important for all lawyers in the modern regulatory state. You will also develop skills in researching a complex body of statutory and regulatory law and in interpreting government communications to diagnose the client’s problem.
The clinic functions as a law office. You will work directly with clients and have primary responsibility for your assigned cases. You will have special authorization to negotiate directly with IRS personnel in various offices (audit, collections, appeals, etc.). If you have a case in Tax Court, you will handle pre-trial matters, including negotiations with opposing counsel, and you will be able to participate in hearings or a trial, with permission by the judge.
Some of the ways in which our students help taxpayers include:
Representation during IRS audits
Challenging an audit determination through the internal IRS appeals process
Challenging an audit determination in the U.S. Tax Court
Negotiating payment alternatives for taxes owed
Students in the Trademark & Copyright Clinic help creative entrepreneurs with a variety of trademark and copyright needs, from preparing, filing, and prosecuting applications for federal trademark and copyright registration to drafting licensing, assignment, and industry-specific agreements. We serve a wide range of clients, from artists, musicians, and filmmakers to breweries, restaurants, and software developers.
Student work in the Trademark & Copyright Clinic typically includes:
Limited-scope searches for trademark availability
Evaluating the use of creative works as infringing or fair
Drafting trademark and copyright opinion letters
Drafting contracts involving trademarks and copyrights
Preparing and filing applications to register rights
Responding to registration refusals by government agencies
