Students represent indigent clients in humStudents represent indigent clients in humanitarian immigration cases, including those who fear persecution in their home countries and those who are survivors of gender-based violence, other crimes, or human trafficking. There may be opportunities for students to represent their clients in immigration interviews, in the Charlotte Immigration Court, before the Board of Immigration Appeals, or in state court, depending on their clients’ needs.
Enrollment Options and Credit Hours
- Full year (fall and spring semester) – 5 credit hours fall semester, 4 credit hours spring semester
Skills Learned
- Client-centered, cross-cultural, and trauma-informed lawyering
- Ethical representation
- Interviewing and counseling
- Working with interpreters
- Litigation and strategic planning, including factual investigation, case planning and management, developing a case theory, and building a record for appeal
- Legal writing skills, including drafting affidavits, briefs, client letters, and pleadings
- Administration law research, analysis, and advocacy
- Responding to rapidly changing circumstances
- Becoming comfortable and effective in the face of uncertainty
- Reflective lawyering
- Teamwork and collaboration with colleagues and clients in legal representation
- Receiving and learning from feedback from supervisors, peers, and support staff
- Developing professional identity
- Professional communications
- Recognizing social contexts of legal problems and relationships
- Case file management
Requirements
- Pre- or co-requisite courses: None
- Recommended courses: Immigration and Citizenship, Immigration Enforcement, International Human Rights Law, Trial Advocacy, Evidence
Faculty
Martha Brandis Term Professor of Law, Associate Dean for Experiential Education and Director of the Immigration Clinic
(919) 962-1527 | kcbishop@email.unc.edu