Law Student Activities

The foundation for a career in child welfare law is created through our significant course offerings as well as an array of extracurricular activities available to students, including the Legal Advocates for Children and Youth organization, the Family Law Project, Wolverine Street Law and the the National Moot Court Competition in Child Welfare Law and Adoption.  Students may also undertake independent studies on issues of their choosing.  Recent examples of independent studies nclude the viability of federal actions based on unjustified removals of children from their homes, the allocation of rights between teen parents and their parents, and the impact of juvenile sex offender registries on a child's rehabilitation.

Additionally, many students participant in volunteer or externship opportunities during the school year at local community organizations such as the Washtenaw County Public Defender’s Office, Legal Aid and Defender’s Association in Detroit, and the American Civil Liberties Union.  During their summers, students often work at the leading child and parent law offices or national policy organizations and their work is funded through programs such as the Student Funded Fellowship Program and the Dean’s Public Service Fellows Program.  Prior to beginning such work, many students participate in the Bergstrom Child Welfare Fellowship Program.

Legal Advocates for Children and Youth (LACY)
The goals of Legal Advocates for Children and Youth (LACY) are to provide a community for law students interested in legal work with young people and to advocate for better programming, funding, and faculty for child- and youth-related law at the law school. LACY also promotes school year and summer internships with organizations working on youth legal issues, and creates opportunities for law students to learn about ways in which practicing lawyers work with children and youth. LACY focuses on issues including, but not limited to, juvenile justice, abuse and neglect, education, mental health, family law, disability law, public benefits law, and adolescent health issues.

National Moot Court Competition in Child Welfare Law and Adoption
The University of Michigan Law School participates in the National Moot Court Competition in Child Welfare Law and Adoption at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. Students are selected for the team through a competitive application process. Team members then draft a brief addressing the questions posed by the moot court problem and deliver oral arguments at the national competition to experts in the field. More information about the competition can be found at http://www.law.capital.edu/adoption/mootcourt.htm.

Family Law Project
The Family Law Project (FLP) is an affiliate program of Legal Services of South Central Michigan (LSSCM) that provides legal services to indigent survivors of domestic violence. Founded in 1979 by University of Michigan Law Students, FLP is the primary organization providing legal services to survivors of domestic violence in Washtenaw County.

FLP provides a unique opportunity for law students to obtain practical legal experience and to participate in their community. Under the supervision of an attorney, student volunteers (primarily first-year law students) individually manage their own cases. FLP students focus on personal protection order, divorce and custody cases. Working one-on-one with clients, students help plan case strategy and draft pleadings, motions and orders. Second- and third-year law students may represent their clients in court.

FLP provides training for law students on the legal and social issues related to serving survivors of domestic violence. In addition, FLP works closely with the Domestic Violence Project/SAFE House which provides counseling and shelter to survivors of domestic violence.

Externships
Externships, also known as external studies opportunities, offer an exciting opportunity to augment classroom study with real-world work experience. In recent years, students (under the guidance of both a faculty sponsor and an attorney supervisor) have pursued externships and immersed themselves in legal work for an entire semester at nonprofits such as the U.S. Department of Justice, Screen Actors Guild, Habeas Corpus Resource Center, Legal Aid Society, U.S. Army Judge Advocate General, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

There is also a fall semester externship program that allows a limited number of students to do an externship in one of several cities in South Africa, and a winter semester externship program that allows select students to spend the semester on externship in Geneva, Switzerland. During the 2006-2007 academic year, 27 students participated in international and domestic externships.

Michigan's externship program is designed to provide individual students with advanced training and research opportunities in areas of particular interest to them that go beyond what is traditionally offered in a classroom setting. A student may develop a proposal that builds on work the student has done in school or provides background for work the student plans to do upon return. The proposal must demonstrate that external study provides an educational opportunity not available in the regular curriculum. Although skills training may be a component of an external studies program, the object of the program must be to further the student's legal education in the sense of deepening his or her understanding of the nature of law and the legal system; skills training alone is not an adequate justification for engaging in study outside the Law School.

A student proposing a semester on externship carries the burden of establishing that the program will be of direct and significant benefit to specific personal educational goals in light of the student's past and anticipated experiences both in the Law School and outside.  It is expected that most programs will be undertaken in connection with government agencies or with charitable, educational, or other nonprofit organizations operated for the public benefit.  Credit will not be awarded for activities which substantially resemble a summer job or post-graduation employment, or for programs with an organization engaged in providing legal services for a profit, or for work with a court as a judicial clerk.

Students interested in pursuing an externship should read these guidelines and make an appointment to consult with Christine Gregory, Assistant Dean for Student Affairs

More information on externships.