College of Law > Academics > Experiential Learning > Legal Clinics > Clinic Eligibility and Registration

Clinic Eligibility and Registration

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​Welcome to the Clinic Eligibility and Registration page! This site provides students information and materials for the application and registration process for the DePaul Law Legal Clinics, including an FAQ below.

Due to the class size and to avoid class scheduling conflicts, the DePaul Law Legal Clinics have a Priority Application Period. It is highly recommended that students apply during that window so that they will be considered for their preferred legal clinic. In the interim, please review the Experiential Learning Application Calendar at the link below for specific dates.

Experiential Learing Application Calendar and Deadlines

Please click below for information on upcoming deadlines for applying to the Legal Clinics.

Experiential Learning Application Calendar

Application for Legal Clinics

Please see the Experiential Learning Application Calendar above for Fall 2020 Clinic Application Timelines.

Click here for Clinic Application

Important Dates for Fall 2020 Legal Clinics Enrollment

March 2 Marketing Period begins for Legal Clinics. Students should begin looking out for announcements about Fall 2020 Clinic offerings.
March 9 at
10:00 a.m.		 Priority Application Period Begins. The Legal clinic registration opens and the Clinic application will be available.
March 23 at
10:00 a.m.		 Priority Application Period closes. Please note that most of our Legal Clinics are oversubscribed so we encourage you to apply during the Priority Application Period for your best option to be accepted into your preferred legal clinic. For information about applications received after the Priority Application Deadline, please see the FAQs below.
March 24 - Apr 3 Clinic applications review by the Legal Clinics.
April 3 at
5:00 p.m.		 Students will be notified of whether their application has been accepted, waitlisted or denied.
April 6 at
12pm.		 Students must accept or reject Clinic acceptance offers by responding to the offer email.

Clinic Supplemental Material

Below please find information about each of our clinics. Please read these materials carefully, as some include specific requirements. For more information, visit each clinic’s website.

You can download a v​​ersion of the below table here:   DePaul Law Legal Clinics Table - Mar2020.pdf
Legal Clinics # of Credits Time-frame 711 Required Interview Required Accepts JD Evening Students Field clinic/
in-house/
on-site clinic		 Estimated outside-of-class work per week (hours)
Asylum & Refugee
US immigration law and practice, with a particular focus on US asylum		 3 (+6 in spring) Two Semester No Yes Yes In-house 10-15 for 3 credits; 20-25 for 6 credits
Skills Gained: Prepare defenses to deportation or applications for relief including immigration applications and supporting documents; interview and counsel clients; work with experts; research human rights issues and U.S. substantive and procedural law; draft affidavits and legal arguments; and develop trial skills and other public presentation skills.
Business Law Clinic
Transactional, business, corporation, contract drafting, and some IP. No litigation.		 4 (+4 in spring) Two Semester No Yes Only in exceptional circumstances In-house 6-10
Skills Gained: Skills Gained: Client counseling, contract drafting, corporate governance, business law, corporate negotiations, memoranda drafting, legal research on statutes and applicable regulations, intellectual property counseling.
Civil Litigation and Health Law Clinic
Civil litigation in administrative hearings and court, and health law disputes.		 3 One Semester No No Yes In-house 5-10
Skills Gained: Interview clients and witnesses, draft and analyze pleadings, discovery requests, discovery responses, and motions, and will engage in settlement negotiations, and trial work.
Civil Rights Field Clinic
Litigation regarding police or prison misconduct as well other claims involving race, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination.		 4 (+4 in spring) Two Semester Yes No Yes Field Clinic 5-10
Skills Gained: Interview plaintiffs, witnesses and potential new clients; develop the theory of a case; research and draft legal briefs, motions and written discovery; take and defend depositions; find and work with expert witnesses; and attend court appearances, hearings and trial.
Criminal Appeals
Criminal Defense		 3 One Semester No No Yes In-house 5-10
Skills Gained: Review the record from trial; confer with the client; research the law to provide support for their theories; and draft and file a brief.
Croak Community Legal Clinic
The Fall semester will focus on civil law. The Spring semester will focus on criminal justice.		 3 One Semester No No Yes In-house 5-10
Skills Gained: Students will give workshops on various topics to groups of people facing legal issues. Immediately after these presentations, students working under the supervision of an experienced attorney will provide free and confidential advice and limited-scope representation to individuals who attend the workshops.
​Family Law Field Clinic
Family Law including marriage, divorce, invalidity of marriage, legal separation, parentage, and adoption.
4
​Two Semester
No
​No​
​Yes, but only for those available to work during the day.
​Field Clinic
​5 -10  Students will spent 7 hours per week at CVLS (Chicago Volunteer Legal Services)
​Skills Gained: Interviewing and counseling clients, developing case plans and strategies, investigating witnesses and facts, preparing letters and legal documents, negotiating, going to court and otherwise helping clients solve real family law disputes.​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​
Immigration Law
US Immigration Law		 3 One Semester (fall) No Yes Yes In-house 10-15
Skills Gained: Interview clients; assess eligibility for immigration benefits; prepare applications and supporting documents; counsel clients on options; prepare substantive law training for community-based organizations.
Misdemeanor
Criminal Defense
**closing after Spring 2021**
 4​ One Semester (fall) Yes No Yes In-house 5-10
Skills Gained: Client interview; client education and advice at different stages of the case; all aspects of motion and trial preparation; case-specific legal research, investigation techniques and strategies; witness preparation; negotiation with the government; and preparation for a bench or jury trial.
TIP® Field Clinic
Transactional services in the areas of patent, trademark and copyright law, internet, data protection and privacy		 3 (+2 with seminar) One Semester No No Yes Field Clinic 5-10
Skills Gained: Conduct client interviews, research facts and law, counsel clients, draft communications to clients and to third parties, and strategize how to achieve the clients' goals.

FAQ

The Legal Clinics provide an opportunity to gain hands-on lawyering experience. Our clinical faculty are experienced attorneys with expertise in their fields. You will provide legal counsel to real clients who need help with real legal issues.

The Legal Clinics are also a chance to give back to the community and contribute to DePaul’s Vincentian mission. Most of our clients are from the local community and lack access to quality, affordable legal representation.

The vast majority of our clients are indigent individuals and families who cannot afford a private, fee-paid attorney. Most of our clients are referred to our clinics through legal aid agencies, community organizations, or courts that have established partnerships with us.

Second and third year JD students are eligible to enroll, depending on which clinic you are interested in, and if a 711 license is required. Thus, rising 2L and rising 3L students are eligible to apply.

1L students (including Two-Year JD students who are in their first year of studies) are not eligible for clinical courses. MJ students may not take clinical courses.

Some clinics have prerequisites and co-requisites; please check the clinic descriptions for more information.

To apply, you must visit the Legal Clinics website and complete and submit the application form along with your resume. All of our clinics enroll by permission only. Students cannot enroll directly in a Legal Clinic on their own during the registration period, but must apply, be accepted and then the Legal Clinics will enroll you. To be enrolled, you must have sufficient space in your schedule.

Your resume in pdf format should be submitted as part of your application. Include your name e.g. Josh Clark _ Resume.

The Legal Clinics have a Priority Application Period ending with a Priority Application Deadline. Applicants who apply by the Priority Application Deadline will be considered first for open slots. For most of our clinics, all open slots are filled by applications received by the Priority Application Deadline.

If there are open slots available after the Priority Application Deadline, applications received after the Priority Application Deadline will be reviewed and processed in the order of receipt. Since our clinics are generally oversubscribed, we strongly encourage you to apply during the Priority Application Period for your best chance to be accepted into your preferred clinic.

The Priority Application Period and Deadline will be posted on the Legal Clinics website. For your reference, the Priority Application Period and Deadline are generally the 2nd and 3rd week in March for Fall semester registration and the 2nd and 3rd week in October for Spring registration, though that timing might shift by a week or so depending on the specific dates of law school registration.

Spring semester application for Fall enrollment:

Year-long clinics

  • Asylum and Refugee
  • Business Law
  • Civil Rights Field Clinic
  • Family Law Field Clinic

One-semester clinics

  • Civil Litigation and Health Law Clinic
  • Criminal Appeals
  • Croak Community Legal Clinic
  • ImmigrationMisdemeanor
  • TIP® Field Clinic

Fall semester application for Spring enrollment:

One-semester clinics

  • Civil Litigation and Health Law Clinic
  • Criminal Appeals
  • Croak Community Legal Clinic
  • Misdemeanor
  • TIP® Field Clinic

Please note the year-long clinics do not take new applicants for the Spring semester. 

Students applying after the Priority Application Deadline will only be considered for Legal Clinics with slots that remain open after the Priority Application Deadline. Please note that most of our Legal Clinics are oversubscribed so we encourage you to apply during the Priority Application Period for your best option to be accepted into your preferred Legal Clinic.

Please DO NOT email the clinical professor asking for a spot or if they are still taking applications. If you have questions about which clinics have available slots, please either visit our website for updated information or email the legal clinic at depaullegalclinic@depaul.edu  

The legal clinic staff reviews your application and sends it to the professor for review. The professor makes the final determination of which applicants to accept into the clinic. You will be notified of whether your application was accepted, placed on a wait-list or declined. 

Applications received by the Priority Application Deadline will be reviewed first. Those applicants will either be accepted into the clinic, placed on a Wait-List for the clinic the student applied to, or declined. If a student who was accepted into a clinic does not enroll or withdraws from that clinic, students on the Wait-List will be admitted prior to students whose applications were received after the Priority Application Deadline.

Applicants will be notified of their acceptance in accordance with the timeline of the Experiential Learning Application Calendar which is available above or on the Experiential Learning website.

Yes, you can apply to a maximum of two Legal Clinics during the Priority Application Period, but you must list your first and second choice on your application. Students will be considered for their first choice clinic prior to being considered for their second choice clinic. 

Yes, you have three choices: Email us at depaullegalclinic@depaul.edu, call us at 312-362-8294, or visit us at the DePaul Legal Clinics. We are located in the O’Malley building on the 10th floor (please note, our offices are only accessible via the O’Malley elevators). Feel free to stop by and request a tour or contact us for more information!

Students are permitted to apply to more than one clinic, but are only permitted to take one clinic at a time. Students can take no more than 2 clinics in total. Also, please note that the field work component of our Field Clinics are considered non-classroom credits. With the exception of students enrolled in 3YP, the law school caps the credit hours a JD student can earn for non-classroom courses. For information on the policy governing maximum non-classroom credit hours, please see the 'Credit Hour Limitation' in the University Handbook available at the link below. Students are encouraged to meet with the law school's Academic Advisor (see link below) to review the student’s current and anticipated accumulation of non-classroom hours.

University Handbook Credit Hour Limitation

Law School Academic Advisor

Pursuant to Illinois Supreme Court Rule 711, upper-level law students may be certified by the dean of the law school to be eligible to perform specified legal services under the supervision of a licensed attorney. Certain legal clinics require students to have, or be eligible for, a 711 license to enroll in the Clinic. For more information about the requirements for a 711 license, please see the University Academic Catalog and the Student Affairs website using the links below.