Community Programs in the School of Law
- Civil Justice, Inc.
- Clinical Law Programs
- Community Justice Initiative
- Community Law In Action - (CLIA)
- Leadership in Public Service
- Legal Resource Center for Tobacco Regulation, Litigation, and Advocacy
- Maryland Environmental Law Society (MELS)
- Maryland Public Interest Law Project (MPILP)
- Students Supporting the Women's Law Center (SSWLC)
- The Maryland Intellectual Property Legal Resource Center (MIPLC)
- The Maryland Katrina and Indigent Defense Project
- Description:
Civil Justice Inc. is a Maryland not-for-profit corporation formed for the purpose of increasing the delivery of legal services to clients of low and moderate income through a network of solo, small firm and community based lawyers who share a common commitment to increasing access to justice through traditional and non-traditional means. Originally a clinic within the Law School, Civil Justice incorporated in 2001.Members of The Civil Justice Network are lawyers who believe that affordable, high quality services can be provided to under-served client populations through a cooperative network of Maryland lawyers working together who are willing to share their ideas, experiences and know-how to better serve all members of the public.
In 2002, Civil Justice received the ABA's Louis M. Brown Award for Legal Access.
- Community served: Statewide
- Website: http://www.civiljusticenetwork.org
- Address: 520 W. Fayette Street, Suite 410, Baltimore, MD 21201
- Contact:
Phillip R. Robinson - 410-706-0174
CJN@civiljusticenetwork.org
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- Description:
Rule 16 of the Rules Governing Admission to the Bar of Maryland permits students who have completed one-third of their legal education to practice law in a law school clinic under the supervision of a member of the bar. The Clinical Law Program affords students the opportunity to begin the transition from law school to law practice, from learning to be a lawyer to being a lawyer. Students practice law under the close and supportive supervision of a member of the faculty. Typically students enroll for 5 or 7 credits in one semester or for 8 credits (4 in each semester) taken over two semesters. The practice in the clinic includes civil and criminal law matters and may include appearances before courts, administrative agencies, legislatures and other bodies. Students have the opportunity to be counselors, negotiators, advocates and problem solvers for their clients. In recent years the practice has included representing defendants in misdemeanor and felony trials, probationers in probation revocation hearings, children and parents petitioning for special education and other habilitation services, juveniles before the juvenile court, unemployed workers seeking unemployment compensation, and petitioners for social security disability benefits. Students in the clinic have also advised and represented tenants and groups of tenants with problems arising from their housing, their relations with their landlords, and lead paint poisoning. Students meet regularly with supervising attorneys to review the work that has been done and to plan the strategy to accomplish the clientýs purposes. In the classroom component, the clinical course students learn the substantive and procedural law they must know to practice in the area of their special concentration and the tasks of lawyering. In this setting, students explore the theory, practice and ethics of interviewing, counseling, advocating, and the full range of lawyer tasks in which they are engaged. Through this personal experience, supervision and course work, students have the opportunity to think reflectively about the legal profession, about their work as lawyers, and about the role of lawyers in a just society.
- Community served: State of Maryland
- Website: http://www.law.umaryland.edu/programs/clinic/index.html
- Contact:
Michael Pinard - 410-706-4121
mpinard@law.umaryland.edu
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- Description:
Community justice is a model of violence and crime prevention that supports a community's involvement in trying to repair the harm rendered by a criminal offense. Community partners work to knit together an array of support services and dispute resolution strategies to address criminal activity, providing an effective alternative to the traditional criminal justice system. Under the auspices of its nationally recognized Clinical Law Program and supported by a grant from the Charles Crane Family Foundation, the University of Maryland School of Law has developed and implemented a Community Justice Initiative in an effort to reduce violence in Baltimore City. We will be working with Baltimore City communities and justice system partners, like the Baltimore City State's Attorney's office, to implement community based, multi-faceted alternatives that address criminal issues and restore a sense of justice to the community at large.
- Community served: Citywide
- Website: http://www.law.umaryland.edu/specialty/comjust/intro.asp
- Contact:
Terri Ricks, JD - 410-706-4273
terry.ricks@law.umaryland.edu
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- Description:
CLIA's numerous programs include the Law & Leadership Academy at five Baltimore City High schools: Patterson, National Academy Foundation, Reginald F. Lewis, Heritage and Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School. The Law and Leadership Academies serve over 300 10th-12th graders. CLIA has also worked with students at Baltimore Talent Development and Highlandtown Middle-Elementary in its Teen Leaders for Change program. In 2001, CLIA partnered with a group of emerging leaders to create the Baltimore Youth Congress, a youth-led advocacy organization. Currently, the Just Kids partnership focuses on juvenile justice and school reform issues, while working to develop leadership opportunities for young people. CLIA also provides training for at-risk youth in job readiness and community service.
- Community served: Citywide
- Contact:
Terry Hickey - 410-706-4301
thickey@law.umaryland.edu
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- Description:
The Leadership in Public Service program celebrates and supports University of Maryland School of Law students in public service through community service and pro bono projects.
- Community served: State of Maryland
- Website: http://www.law.umaryland.edu/publicservice/initiatives/leadership/
- Contact:
Teresa Schmiedeler, Esq. - 410-706-2080
tschmiedeler@law.umaryland.edu
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- Description:
The Center is dedicated to providing legal and technical support to communities, community groups, employers, local governments, and others wishing to reduce the dangerous health effects of tobacco products. The Center, located at the University of Maryland School of Law, was established with funding from the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Office of Health Promotion, Education, and Tobacco Use Prevention with monies from the state's tobacco settlement. Work includes: Development of regulations and ordinances, assistance in development of tobacco prevention programs, advocate for changes in state and local laws and enforcement practices, assistance with local government litigation efforts, providing education assistance, act as a clearinghouse for the tobacco control community.
- Community served: Statewide
- Website: http://www.law.umaryland.edu/tobacco/
- Contact:
Rita Turner - 410-706-1129
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- Description:
The Maryland Environmental Law Society endorses the Maryland Student Climate Coalition's campaign effort to make the University System of Maryland (USM) more sustainable.MELS hosts an annual environmental dinner/panel discussion, attends national environmental conferences, and organizes outdoor events for its members, such as environmental cleanups.
MELS has gained national recognition for purchasing and retiring emission allowance for sulfur dioxide. Since 1994, MELS has purchased 72 tons of sulfur dioxide allowances, thereby reducing the allowable sulfur dioxide emissions that regulated stationary sources are permitted to emit nationwide. Most recently, MELS has begun to buy and retire carbon credits.
- Community served: Nationwide
- Website: http://www.law.umaryland.edu/studentorg/mels/index.asp
- Contact:
MELS Board -
mels@law.umaryland.edu
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- Description:
The Maryland Public Interest Law Project, Inc. (MPILP) is a 501(c)(3) student-run organization. Members of MPILP have worked for twenty years to increase awareness of and participation in public interest legal work. Our general goals are to educate students about opportunities to practice public interest law, to reinforce their commitment to public interest law, and to encourage the pro bono efforts of law firms.A main focus of MPILP is raising money to provide summer grants to students working for non-profit legal agencies serving the underserved and underrepresented. For the summer of 2006 we provided $108,000 in grants to 27 University of Maryland Law Students.
- Community served: Statewide
- Website: http://www.law.umaryland.edu/studentorg/mpilp/index.asp
- Contact:
Teresa Schmiedeler, Esq. - 410-706-2080
tschmiedeler@law.umaryland.edu
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- Description:
SSWLC supports the Women's Law Center through fundraising activities intended to support specific endeavors of the Women's Law Center (operating a family law and employment hotline, representation of victims of domestic violence, seeking of protective orders for immigrant women, and lobbying for various bills in Annapolis). Fundraisers include an annual fall Crab Feast, and a spring candy gram sale.In addition, SSWLC helps support the House of Ruth in its mission to stop intimate partner violence. The SSWLC recruits and trains University of Maryland graduate students to answer the House of Ruth's 24-hour Crisis Hotline. Addtionally, with the help of the Office of Student Affairs of the University of Maryland School of Law, SSWLC provides a hotline answering office for the student hotline counselors that is conveniently located within the law school. SSWLC has helped recruit and train over 35 law students to answer the hotline over the past two years. Currently, the law school hotline counselors provide over 40 monthly hours of service to the House of Ruth hotline. SSWLC plans to continue providing support to the House of Ruth in the future.
- Community served: Citywide
- Website: http://www.law.umaryland.edu/students/life/orgs/sswlc/
- Contact:
Danielle Keats Citron - 410-706-3924
dcitron@law.umaryland.edu
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- Description:
This collaborative project of the University of Maryland School of Law and the Montgomery County Dept of Economic Development, provides intellectual Property (IP) legal assistance and education to start-up technology companies, and provides IP education to the interested community. Located in Rockville, MD, the MIPLC is operated by the School of Law, receives financial and program support from the Montgomery County Dept of Economic Development, the Maryland Dept. of Business and Economic Development, TEDCO, and the Montgomery county Bar Association. Work includes: providing educational seminars on IP topics, general counseling regarding building and IP portfolio, preparing applications for trademark registration, conducting preliminary patent and trademark searches, assisting with IP related agreements, assisting in drafting patent application, building and educational web site.
- Community served: Montgomery County and its surrounding area
- Website: http://www.miplrc.org
- Contact:
Fred Provorny - 410-706-3295
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- Description:
The Maryland Katrina and Indigent Defense Project was informally created in March 2006 in response to the overwhelming need that still exists in New Orleans since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Law students have donated their vacation time to the rebuilding effort, working with Catholic Charities and Habitat for Humanity reconstructing homes in affected areas, and with the New Orleans Office of the Public Defender, focusing on bond hearings and prison conditions. During the 2008 winter recess, students had the opportunity to work with the Baton Rouge Public Defenders Office, do civil work in Mississippi, and criminal law work in New Orleans, along with another building trip in Mississippi.Since Spring 2006, over 150 Maryland law students, professors, and alumni have volunteered in the Gulf Coast.
- Community served: Citywide; Louisiana; Mississippi
- Website: http://www.law.umaryland.edu/studentorg/katrina/index.asp
- Contact:
Teresa Schmiedeler, Esq. - 410-706-2080
tschmiedeler@law.umaryland.edu
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