Civil Practice Clinic | Simmons Law School | SIU

Civil Practice Clinic

The Civil Practice Clinic is available to students in good standing who have completed forty-five hours of legal studies. That completion qualifies students to apply for an Illinois Student Practice License (711 License) which in turn allows students to represent clients and appear in court under the supervision of a licensed attorney. Clinic students provide legal assistance to persons age 60 and older (and veterans of any age) who live in the 13 southernmost counties of Illinois.

Legal assistance generally entails basic estate planning (wills, powers of attorney for property and health care) property transfers (quit claims and Transfer on Death Instruments) and assisting persons attempting to obtain guardianships for minors and adult persons with disabilities. Students are frequently given the opportunity to present evidence in court to adjudicate persons disabled, provide a factual predicate for a minor guardianship, and in each instance qualify a person to serve as a guardian.

Clinic students participate in a classroom session every week of the semester. Classes typically commence with a “round table” where students share experiences about their current caseload, problems encountered, and discussing in a group setting the various ways a problem may be addressed. The doctrinal materials covered in class largely address issues of surrogacy and agency. Surrogacy in this context means the various ways one person may speak for another while the other person is alive but incapacitated (as in the case of a guardian or an agent acting under a power of attorney), or when the other person becomes deceased (in the case of an executor acting under a will). The substantive legal material covered include the Illinois Probate Act (wills, durable powers of attorney, guardianships in all forms), the Illinois Health Care Surrogate Act, and the Mental Health Treatment Preference Declaration Act. During the semester, clinic students undertake the guardianship training required of guardians by the Office of State Guardian (OSG), an agency within the Illinois Guardianship and Advocacy Commission.

While students are supervised and mentored by a licensed attorney, students are assigned their own caseload and are provided an opportunity to work independently, to the extent possible, with their clients. The goal of the clinic is to allow students to learn and demonstrate actual practice skills in a real-world context while remaining in the safe confines of a supervised school setting. Students can expect to communicate directly with clients, schedule and conduct interviews, draft legal documents, review and execute documents with clients, answer client questions, and prepare clients for court appearances. Special emphasis is placed on time management, diligence, and attention to detail in a multi-tasking environment, use of practice case management software and associated tools, and communicating with clients.

Course Instructor:

Clinical Professor Dale Aschemann