House Counsel for the Poor – An Experiment in Clinical Legal Education
Abstract
Some beneficial experiments have been undertaken by legal service programs in response to their heavy case load, such as using para-professionals, creating new institutions for the settlement of disputes, and expanding the role and function of lawyers servicing indigents. From this ferment the role of "house counsel" for poverty groups developed and the law school was seen as a good base from which to attack the problem of delivering quality legal service to disadvantaged communities largely because the curricula could be expanded to study legal problems heretofore given scant attention. This article will explore the problems, solutions, and successes in the house counsel role in the context of a clinical program integrated with the academic curriculum in graduate urban law study. The major emphasis will be on the problems which a law school encounters fulfilling its educational goals, while responding to the needs of the indigent community by allowing lawyers to function in a nontraditional fashion.