Real clients. Real experience. Real law.
Under the supervision of professors, students work in 17 clinics with clients who are mothers, fathers, immigrants, leaders of nonprofit organizations, and small businesses. Some clients are elderly. Some are unemployed. Some are accused of crimes. Some want to make the world a better place. All are real people with real legal problems, and our students drive their representation. They gain valuable real-world experience and make a difference in our community by performing legal work for their clients.
Mitchell Hamline houses one of the first clinical programs to be established at any U.S. law school, and the program has been among the top-ranked in the nation for more than a decade.
In clinics, our students
- Advocate for persons accused of crimes at bail hearings, plea hearings, and trials
- Investigate prisoners’ claims of wrongful conviction and actual innocence
- Represent clients who have been referred by their medical care providers for help with legal issues relating to their health care
- Work with clients who have experienced discrimination in the workplace to reach settlements with their employers
- Represent incarcerated persons in civil matters
- Provide legal services and assistance to people as they leave prison
- Draft contracts for nonprofit organizations
- Represent parents and relatives in child welfare proceedings in district court and on appeal
- Draft code and legislative policy documents for tribal governments
- File patent or trademark applications
- Represent asylum seekers, refugees, victims of domestic domestic abuse, and victims of violent crimes in obtaining legal status in the United States
- Form business entities for new small enterprises
Scotty Ducharme ’19 tells how his family’s experience with a Legal Aid attorney years earlier inspired him to come to Mitchell Hamline and eventually work in Child Protection Clinic.