CHAMPs Clinic Director
Emily Suski
Associate Dean for Clinics and Externships
Learn more about Emily
The CHAMPS Clinic provides students with the opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary learning in the context of live-client legal cases. Students take legal cases on behalf of low-income children and families referred from Prisma Health. These cases address the social determinants of clients’ health and include SSI, Medicaid, housing conditions, SNAP, and end of life planning matters. Law students work collaboratively on their legal cases with doctors, social workers, and other health professionals. Students also have opportunities to go to Prisma Children’s Hospital to learn from doctors how to understand clients’ patient records, attend patient rounds, discharge planning, and ethics conferences. In addition to case work, the course includes seminar component during which students will learn the doctrine, theory, lawyering skills, and policy relevant to their case work.
Through the clinic, I was able to interview and advocate for client’s needs by engaging in interdisciplinary work alongside doctors, teachers, and social work students, researching resources applicable to my client’s issues, problem solving with my peers, and ultimately corroborating facts to best support my client’s argument and achieve their goals. CHAMPs was an incredibly rewarding experience allowing me to practice advocacy skills, while providing valuable services to the community and impacting the lives of underrepresented individuals.
It would be difficult to overstate the impact the CHAMPS clinic had on both my professional and personal development. This program offered me and my classmates the opportunity to learn both substantive law and practical skills in an interactive environment. Additionally, I was able to meaningfully serve the community and feel that my work was helping to affect positive change in our clients’ lives.
