Clinics: Growing While Helping Others

Connecting with Clients

Ben Halligan ’23L discusses his year as a student attorney in the Tax Clinic, helping clients resolve post-filing controversies with the IRS.

I joined the Tax Clinic because it gives students the opportunity to gain actual practice experience and provides a valuable service to people throughout Virginia. The clinic provides legal representation to low-income taxpayers who have post-filing controversies with the IRS or Virginia Department of Taxation. The structure of the clinic gives students the opportunity to learn about actual representation before we begin our legal practices. Clinic work has also been helpful in learning to work under time constraints and organize effectively. A deadline will not wait for me to finish work for another class, so I have developed a better ability to organize my work and schedule things ahead of time to stay organized.

When I began working in the Tax Clinic, I assumed that my conversations with clients would pertain mainly to their tax situations. As it turns out, this was not true. I was surprised with how I am able to connect with clients and learn about their lives outside of their taxes. Through our representation, we learn about our clients’ families, jobs and experiences. Clients love to discuss their interests, their children’s lives, and even the teams they root for. I love this part of the work—it is wonderful to be able to connect with clients in this way.

Help During the Hardest Times

Mallory Kostroff ’23L discusses her year as a student attorney in the Criminal Justice Clinic.

I chose to participate in the Criminal Justice Clinic because I wanted to serve my community through direct representation of clients in criminal district courts. I really loved the idea of the clinic because it gives students the opportunity to have actual cases and clients before becoming barred attorneys. Often in CJC, we are helping our clients through one of the hardest and scariest times of their lives. I have learned how to be an empathetic ear for my clients while effectively working with my client through every step of their criminal case. I have also developed my courtroom presence and how to be a zealous advocate for my clients both inside and outside of the courtroom.

Our professors provide excellent guidance and support to us but at the same time let us have complete control over our cases. All our clients are really our own clients, and we have complete autonomy over how to approach our case from start to finish. While this approach terrified me at first, it has allowed me to become a more confident version of myself. I like to describe their style as they let us swim on our own, but they have a life raft that they can use to pick us up in at any moment. They have shown us that not only can we swim on our own, but that we can swim successfully on our own.

Getting What They Deserve

Lexi Weber ’23L discusses her year helping miners get federal benefits.

Participating in the Black Lung Clinic gave me the opportunity to work with these incredibly deserving miners directly and help them navigate the complex administrative system to obtain the benefits that they deserve. Additionally, I wanted to gain real-world experience in handling client cases and apply the knowledge I had gained from my 1L and 2L doctrinal classes in a practical setting. I recognized that the clinic would help me strengthen my litigation skills, including research, writing and oral advocacy . Having the chance to develop these skills while also having a tangible impact on the lives of others made the Black Lung Clinic an obvious choice for my 3L year.

Participating in the Black Lung Clinic has been one of the best experiences that I have had in law school, and both my written and oral advocacy skills have increased tremendously over the past year. This year, I had the chance to write a brief to the Fourth Circuit, which was an amazing (but also incredibly challenging) experience. Professor MacDonnell provided guidance and support every step of the way and helped me to refine my writing and advocacy skills. By the end of that experience, I felt exponentially more confident in my ability to navigate the brief writing process and advocate for a client in the most effective way possible.