The Law School’s clinics were honored February 6, 2013, during the halftime of the University of Texas at Austin Women’s Basketball team’s game against Iowa State University. Ariel Dulitzky, director of the Human Rights Clinic; Barbara Hines, co-director of the Immigration Clinic; Jeana Lungwitz, director of the Domestic Violence Clinic; and Heather Way, director of the Community Development Clinic, came out onto the basketball court to the applause of spectators. The recognition was part of UT Athletics’ Academic Accolades Program, which honors the vast academic accomplishments across the University of Texas campus.
The arena announcer mentioned the Law School’s “large and vibrant clinical education program, with seventeen different clinics in which students provide much-needed legal help to hundreds of individuals and groups in our community each year.” Law School clinical faculty were joined by Chris Plonsky, UT Women’s Athletics Director, and Dr. Lynn Rew, Denton and Louise Cooley and Family Centennial Professor in Nursing at the UT-Austin School of Nursing, whose research on the health behaviors of adolescents, especially homeless and minority youth, was also being recognized as part of the Academic Accolades Program.
The Law School’s clinical program is one of the largest in the country. The first clinic was established in 1974 and more than four hundred upper-class students participate annually in our seventeen clinics and six internships. Students in our clinical courses work on legal issues in real-world settings. While representing clients, working on cases, and serving as interns, students get great first-hand experience and learn how to practice law. Clinics and internships integrate skills, theory, strategy, and law, building a bridge between the classroom and the legal profession.
(Photo by Steph Swope)