Valparaiso University Law School Clinical Program
If you are seeking legal assistance, please contact the Law Clinic directly at 219-465-7903.
The Valparaiso University Law School Clinic, our own law firm, gives you the unique opportunity to represent clients before you become a practicing lawyer. Dedicated to providing free legal services to disadvantaged members of the community, each year the clinic handles around 700 cases.
With a special license from the Indiana Supreme Court, you will practice law and represent clients in court. You’ll choose from nine distinct practice areas — Civil law, Criminal law, Juvenile law, Sports law, Domestic Violence, Post-Conviction, Tax Law, Mediation and Immigration. Our Clinic will strengthen your ability to uphold the law, give you the rewarding sense of helping others, and add practical experience to your resume.
The Clinics
Valparaiso University Law School currently offers nine clinics for you to practice law in, gain valuable experience and help those who are unable to otherwise afford counsel.
NEW Immigration Clinic
Student representatives in the Valparaiso Immigration Project will learn trial practice, legal research and writing, and client interviewing and counseling skills by representing immigrants with claims grounded in human rights and domestic and international law. Students will serve as lead counsel for asylum seekers, torture survivors, crime victims, persons who have been trafficked into the US or abused or exploited here, and persons who are facing deportation as a result of immigration infractions, despite the fact that they have lived lawfully for many years in this country and have homes and families here.
Supervising Faculty Attorney: Geoffrey Heeren
Criminal Clinic
Valparaiso Law Students represent clients charged with various misdemeanors and felonies. Students conduct discovery, prepare and argue motions, negotiate plea agreements, and represent clients at all court proceedings including bench and jury trials.
Supervising Faculty Attorney: Dave Welter
Civil Clinic
The Civil Clinic involves client representation and a seminar component, which focuses on the law and skills needed to provide client representation, as well as individualized attention. Students interview and counsel clients, draft legal pleadings and correspondence, conduct legal research, confront and resolve ethical issues, engage in negotiations with opposing counsel, and appear in court. Clients are assisted with a wide range of civil matters, including consumer disputes, debt collection, credit reporting problems, adoption, guardianship, and divorce. Interns will apply the law to the problems of real people, provide a valuable service to the community, and bear primary responsibility for representing real clients in need.
Supervising Faculty Attorney: Marcia Gienapp
Juvenile Clinic
Students are appointed to serve as guardian ad litem for children who have been abused and neglected and children involved in custody and visitation issues in guardianship, paternity and adoption cases. Students also serve as public defenders for children in delinquency cases.
Supervising Faculty Attorney: Gail Tegarden
Domestic Violence Clinic
Student Attorneys will assist victims of domestic violence who are seeking temporary or permanent restraining orders, provide advice and represent victims in court, and provide legal assistance to residents of domestic violence shelters.
Supervising Faculty Attorney: Geneva Brown
Mediation Clinic
Understanding the nature of conflict and developing skills to resolve conflicts through negotiation are fundamental to the practice of law. Students in the Mediation Clinic receive intense training as mediators and then assist parties in resolving disputes filed in small claims courts.
Supervising Faculty Attorney: Barbara Schmidt
Sports Law Clinic For more information on the Sports Law Clinic, visit the Sports Law Clinic website.
Supervising Faculty Attorney: Michael Straubel
Tax Clinic
Hone your lawyering skills by taking on the most feared Federal agency there is – the IRS. Students in the Tax Clinic represent low income taxpayers in disputes with the IRS. Cases that are not resolved at the IRS level are often litigated by students in the United States Tax Court.
Supervising Faculty Attorney: Paul Kohlhoff
Post-Conviction Clinic
Students investigate and litigate claims of wrongful conviction, unjust sentences, factual innocence, and violations of procedural rights. Students file and litigate post-conviction petitions, habeas petitions, and motions for sentence modification. These cases are complex and students spend the majority of time doing research, writing, and fact investigation. In the past, students have prevented the deportation and separation of a young mother from her three-year-old child by attacking and setting aside a guilty plea and have reduced the sentence of a property offender from 110 years to time served.
Supervising Faculty Attorneys: David Vandercoy and Geneva Brown
