Information for Students
An intensive learning opportunity for third-year law students
Dalhousie Legal Aid Service provides a structured聽experiential learning environment聽that allows you to learn and practice lawyering skills in a community law office located off-campus, acquiring skills and knowledge that are not a part of a traditional legal education.
Work with clients
Through the experience of聽working with actual clients,聽grappling with complex fact聽situations, and聽finding or creating solutions聽to problems, you acquire context that enables you to better understand and reflect on the role and responsibility of a lawyer in society. You get to do the things a lawyer does as an聽articled clerk聽member of the provincial Barristers鈥� Society.
Practice running a practice
In addition to the nuts-and-bolts skills of interviewing, counselling, negotiating, and trial advocacy, you聽learn the basics of running a practice: file management, ethical considerations such as conflicts, confidentiality, and the interpersonal aspects of lawyering.
Gain a unique perspective
A term at the Dalhousie Legal Aid Service clinic can provide you with a聽broader outlook聽on how the legal system operates and affects those living in poverty and facing barriers to accessing justice. 聽
Dalhousie Legal Aid Service approaches its work through an anti-oppressive lens and seeks systemic as well as individual solutions. It gives you a unique perspective on聽access to justice聽and your professional obligation to promote and protect the same, bringing the law to life and experiencing it in action.
Academic considerations
- The program is worth聽13 credits聽and runs throughout the year in three terms: winter, summer, and fall.
- In addition to the formal seminar and skills training program, you will create a聽Reflective Portfolio聽by submitting 12 written reflective pieces (four skills-based and eight experience-based) as well as evidence of your very best work.聽聽
- Performance is rated pass/fail/honours.
- While you normally take a concurrent course at the law school, those courses should typically be 2-credit or intensives, scheduled late-day or in the evening so as not to conflict with core clinic hours and mandatory sessions.