Clinics
Through the law school’s eight in-house clinics, you have the opportunity to practice
law as a student attorney. Clinic students get to interview and counsel clients,
litigate cases, attend nonprofit board meetings, and prepare court pleadings and transactional
documents.
Choose from eight in-house clinics:
Carolina Health Advocacy Medicolegal Partnership (CHAMPS) Clinic
The CHAMPS Clinic is a collaboration of the School of Law, the USC School of Medicine,
Prisma Health, PH-USC Medical Group, and South Carolina Legal Services. CHAMPS offers
law students the opportunity to work on legal cases that impact children’s health.
Students work in collaboration with doctors, social workers, and other health professionals
on their cases.
Criminal Practice Clinic
Through this Clinic, students will represent clients who have been accused of criminal
conduct. Hearings will take place before a jury in the Municipal Court for the City
of Columbia.
Domestic Violence Clinic
The Domestic Violence Clinic affords third-year law students the opportunity to represent
individuals seeking protection from domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking
through emergency civil litigation.
Education Rights Clinic
The Education Rights Clinic allows students to participate in the advocacy of children
and families in the context of educational law.
Environmental Law Clinic
The Environmental Law Clinic allows students to represent organizational clients with
limited resources in need of legal advice to pursue conservation, sustainability,
and community development initiatives.
Juvenile Justice Clinic
Student attorneys in the Juvenile Justice Clinic represent teenagers accused of crimes
and status offenses in Richland and Lexington County Family Court. Student attorneys
interview and counsel clients, investigate and research cases, prepare for trials,
negotiate with solicitors and the Department of Juvenile Justice, and advocate for
clients in and out of court at all stages of a case from intake through disposition.
Nonprofit Organizations Clinic
The Nonprofit Organizations Clinic provides third-year law students the opportunity
to represent charitable nonprofit organizations as Student Attorneys in various transactional
law matters.
Veterans Legal Clinic
The Veterans Legal Clinic is a year-round clinic that serves the legal needs of indigent
veterans and their families, allowing them to continue making a positive impact on
their communities. Services are available to veterans facing issues on credit and
related financial matters, housing issues, government benefits, and family law issues.
Eligibility
All clinics are open to students in the second semester of their second year, as well
as to students in their third year of law school.
Clinic students are permitted to practice law as student attorneys under South Carolina
Appellate Court Rule 401, which allows them to represent indigent clients, and nonprofit
organizations under the law license of the professor supervising the individual clinic.
Faculty Supervision
To improve the quality of educational experience provided, South Carolina Law has
long been committed to a client-contact clinical program taught by experienced, full-time
faculty and located in the law school. Seven members of the full-time faculty and
one part-time faculty member devote a substantial portion of their teaching energies
to in-house clinical legal education.
The client-contact clinical courses are six credits and are structured with both practical
and classroom components to provide students not only with an opportunity to gain
skills but with an opportunity for reflection upon their performances and the lawyer's
role in the legal system.
To accomplish these goals, much of the teaching in clinical courses is done on a one-on-one
basis. Faculty members observe or review all student work and provide detailed critiques.
As a result, student demand for clinical courses is high.