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Immigration Clinic
Represent clients while building expertise in international law and sharpening your advocacy skills.
Represent clients while building expertise in international law and sharpening your advocacy skills.
The Immigration Clinic enables students to represent clients in a variety of cases and projects that involve international law, such as customary international law or treaty law and immigration (in particular, immigration matters associated with asylum claims).
Nearly all students enrolled in the Clinic represent clients seeking asylum for persecution they suffered abroad, or have been victims of trafficking. The work includes conducting several interviews with the client, assisting the client with filing an application, preparing an in-depth brief and declaration, and representing the client at his or her administrative hearing or before Immigration Court.
The Immigration Clinic strives to ensure each student will have opportunities to interview and represent clients, engage in factual and legal research in the area of international law, engage in in-depth legal analysis and writing, and learn to work collaboratively in a team setting. Students also are coached to be "reflective" in their choices and in their practice, a habit all successful lawyers engage in throughout their careers and one the Clinic hopes to instill in future lawyers.
As the only law school with an immigration clinic in the state of Oregon, Willamette Law is committed to training the next generation of immigration lawyers. The Immigrant Justice Scholars program offers partial tuition scholarships to students committed to immigration law and public interest work. Completing the program creates a path to a paid post-graduate attorney fellowship in Portland, with the option to obtain Oregon licensure without taking the bar exam. Please include a brief explanation of your interest in immigration law in your personal statement. Proficiency in written and oral Spanish is required, or the ability to achieve proficiency by law school graduation. Finalists will be interviewed remotely by the program director.
Willamette University