Welcome to your Temple Legal Aid Office. Since 1952, when the office began as a student run project to serve the community, Temple law students have been interning in our office. Come join us, and you will be able to learn skills that will help you practice law while you serve Philadelphians who really need our help!
Most of our interns work with us through taking a clinical class with us. The three classes are semester long classes that run in the fall and spring:
Law 704: Temple Legal Aid Office: Family Law Litigation
The Family Law Litigation Clinic provides direct legal representation to low-income litigants in child custody, child and spousal support, adoption and other family law matters. Under the supervision of the Clinical Professor, clinic students handle all aspects of clients’ cases, including intake interviews, case selection, development of case plans, drafting of pleadings, counseling of clients, negotiation with opposing counsel or parties, development of trial strategy, trial preparation and court appearances. The Family Law Litigation Clinic is ideal for students who are interested in gaining more direct individual client experience and in-court trial advocacy experience. The Family Law Litigation Clinic is a 4-credit clinic, consisting of a 2-credit pass/fail clinic and a 2-credit graded seminar, and is taught by Prof. Sarah Katz.
Law 785: Community Lawyering: Temple Legal Aid Office
Through community lawyering projects, this internal clinic at Temple’s Legal Aid Office allows you to develop the legal skills you will need to represent clients in many areas of practice. As a legal intern, you will be placed in the primary lawyer role under the direct supervision of the professor who will supervise each aspect of the work you do. It is designed to be diagnostic—you will practice skills you need to lawyer and reflect with the professor at every step on how to practice well. Some skills you will develop include interviewing and counseling, goal defining with clients, legal analysis, legal research and writing, and oral advocacy. You will handle some litigation type matters, like administrative hearings before Administrative Law Judges to help people get disability benefits, and transactional ones, like drafting powers of attorney and wills. The present client base has a health law focus and includes people with physical disabilities and those with severe illnesses, like HIV and cancer. Many of the community sites focus on delivering medical and social services to people with these disabilities and illnesses. In the semesters where Law 1041 Poverty Law is also taught, students will be invited to attend selected classes to share how the work they are doing in the Clinic sheds light on the way we discuss poverty law issues. Poverty Law students may also suggest projects for this Clinic that can be adopted in the current or future semesters. You may co-register for both classes during the semesters they are both offered to get both a theoretical description of poverty law issues through Law 1041 while you are practically experiencing the way law impacts on the poor in this clinic. In all semesters, this clinical can be combined with Law 795 Advanced Clinical Intensive: Community Lawyering Temple Legal Aid Office for a total of 7 credit hours. One can also sign up for Law 795 in a subsequent semester. You do not need not be certified to practice under Rules 321 and 322 of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. However, if you qualify for certification, you may be able to take on court assignments requiring certification. Most assignments, like doing administrative hearings, do not require such certification.
(4 credits, pass/fail)(Spring 2024 hours: Tuesday 10 AM -11:50 AM class plus clinic hours as arranged)(certification preferred but not required).
Law 795: Advanced Clinical Intensive: Community Lawyering: Temple Legal Aid Office–taken in conjunction with or after law 785, students build on their experiences by Law 785 by taking on further challenges. In the past, students taking this course have written federal summary judgment briefs that were submitted on our clients’ behalfs. Others have taken responsibility for running intake sites in the community.
(3 credits, graded)(Hours as arranged)(Law 785 and Law 795 when taken the same semester earn students 6 credits)(certification preferred but not required).
Want more information? Look at law schools’ clinical page here, email us, or come talk to us!
Students have also taken practicums supervised by professors through TLAO or done guided research with us.
Have your own ideas of a project for our office for credit or just to serve the community? Come talk to us!