Centers and Clinics
Intimate Partner Violence Assistance Clinic
Law students represent real clients with real legal issues. Certified Legal Interns (CLIs), under the supervision of Director Teresa Drake, will represent indigent victim survivors of intimate partner violence (domestic, dating, and sexual violence) with civil issues surrounding their abuse. Students learn and practice fundamental advocacy skills, including interviewing, counseling and negotiation.
Students may file and respond to pleadings and motions, engage in discovery, take depositions and act as lead counsel in hearings and trials. By representing real clients with real problems as part of IPVAC's interdisciplinary team, students sharpen their understanding of professional responsibility and learn to respect and work collaboratively with social workers, outreach counselors, members of the medical treatment team, and community-based advocates.
CLIs will be on-site in the Pediatrics and Obstetrics/Gynecology clinics at Shands, providing legal counseling to victims, as well as representing them in civil court on such matters as injunctions for protection.
Curriculum
IPVAC is a single semester, six-credit clinical course that is graded pass/fail and offered fall, spring, and summer each year. Either before or during the first week of the semester (depending on class schedules), students must attend 24 hours of an intensive seminar covering the dynamics of domestic abuse, safety planning, dangerousness assessments and instruction in legal skills. After the intensive seminar, formal classes meet Monday and Wednesday 9:00 a.m. to 10:50 a.m. In addition to the formal classes, each week students spend 15 office hours at the Virgil Hawkins Clinics and/or Shands and its out-patient clinics. This totals 20 hours per week.
Extra hours may be required some weeks to accommodate client schedules, legal research, and court hearings. Students are responsible for their clients' cases even after formal classes end until the next semester begins and cases can be transferred to the new IPVAC intern.