Some under-publicized aspects of VLC: In substance and workload, it is really similar CCLC, but it is limited to clients who are veterans and you likely won’t see many criminal cases. It has nothing to do with Veterans Affairs or benefits–clients come in with all the civil legal issues you can think of: divorce, custody, bankruptcy, landlord-tenant and eviction issues, contractor disputes, insurance disputes, etc. Veterans, especially in southeast Michigan, are often in a low socioeconomic bracket; they are all referred to the clinic because of their indigence. The association of Veterans with the right seems to dissuade people from this clinic, but the clients are truly just a subset of low-income community members and people in the clinic do not necessarily follow that line.
Regarding experience: You get a ton of direct client-facing experience as well as court exposure. You’re responsible for creating a strategy for each of your cases and then the execution of that strategy: research, how to write complaints, motions, briefs, etc. You’re also working directly with opposing counsel through discovery and potential settlement. Additionally, cases are filed in courts all over southeast Michigan, including Detroit, so you learn to navigate different courts and judges.
You work very closely with your partner, and it will almost certainly be more work than you anticipate. Everyone in the clinic exceeds the required hours by far. Most people in the clinic had 3-6 clients with active cases. You really get thrown into the deep end, and the first few weeks can be extremely overwhelming. However, when you get the hang of it, you’re rewarded with really grateful clients and a vast amount of valuable experience.
Finally, Matt and Eric are great to work with. The clinic is extremely busy, so they are balancing a lot, but they are attentive and eager for their students to get as much out of the clinic as they can. They’re also pretty laid back–and funny–which is a nice change from the formality of so much of law school.
TL;DR: if you’re going to do a clinic and are interested in general litigation, consider the VLC!
The previous review basically sums up the VLC very well.
You will work with Veterans handling any legal problem that they may bring you. I appreciated that I was able to dabble in many areas of the law. I’m addition, you are given a large amount of autonomy to pursue the case as you see fit. These are all real cases that can genuinely change the lives of the clients. I enjoyed being able to help people from low SES backgrounds.
The VLC is a clinic with one of the heavier workloads. Issues can come up at inconvenient times and you need to be flexible to deal with them. It’s important to send your documents out for edits ASAP because Matt and Eric can take some time to get the documents back to you due to the high volume of work in the clinic. Expect multiple rounds of edits.
I got along very well with Matt and Eric and they remain a great resource to me to this day.
MLaw Prof Reviews
Some under-publicized aspects of VLC: In substance and workload, it is really similar CCLC, but it is limited to clients who are veterans and you likely won’t see many criminal cases. It has nothing to do with Veterans Affairs or benefits–clients come in with all the civil legal issues you can think of: divorce, custody, bankruptcy, landlord-tenant and eviction issues, contractor disputes, insurance disputes, etc. Veterans, especially in southeast Michigan, are often in a low socioeconomic bracket; they are all referred to the clinic because of their indigence. The association of Veterans with the right seems to dissuade people from this clinic, but the clients are truly just a subset of low-income community members and people in the clinic do not necessarily follow that line.
Regarding experience: You get a ton of direct client-facing experience as well as court exposure. You’re responsible for creating a strategy for each of your cases and then the execution of that strategy: research, how to write complaints, motions, briefs, etc. You’re also working directly with opposing counsel through discovery and potential settlement. Additionally, cases are filed in courts all over southeast Michigan, including Detroit, so you learn to navigate different courts and judges.
You work very closely with your partner, and it will almost certainly be more work than you anticipate. Everyone in the clinic exceeds the required hours by far. Most people in the clinic had 3-6 clients with active cases. You really get thrown into the deep end, and the first few weeks can be extremely overwhelming. However, when you get the hang of it, you’re rewarded with really grateful clients and a vast amount of valuable experience.
Finally, Matt and Eric are great to work with. The clinic is extremely busy, so they are balancing a lot, but they are attentive and eager for their students to get as much out of the clinic as they can. They’re also pretty laid back–and funny–which is a nice change from the formality of so much of law school.
TL;DR: if you’re going to do a clinic and are interested in general litigation, consider the VLC!
The previous review basically sums up the VLC very well.
You will work with Veterans handling any legal problem that they may bring you. I appreciated that I was able to dabble in many areas of the law. I’m addition, you are given a large amount of autonomy to pursue the case as you see fit. These are all real cases that can genuinely change the lives of the clients. I enjoyed being able to help people from low SES backgrounds.
The VLC is a clinic with one of the heavier workloads. Issues can come up at inconvenient times and you need to be flexible to deal with them. It’s important to send your documents out for edits ASAP because Matt and Eric can take some time to get the documents back to you due to the high volume of work in the clinic. Expect multiple rounds of edits.
I got along very well with Matt and Eric and they remain a great resource to me to this day.