Clinical Programs
Elon Law's clinical programs put legal theory into practice, providing students with essential lawyering skills through casework management, research, writing, client interaction and courtroom advocacy, while also helping individuals in need.
Humanitarian Immigration Clinic
Elon University School of Law established the Humanitarian Immigration Law Clinic in December of 2010, allowing students, under the supervision of law faculty, to provide free legal services to low-income refugees and asylum seekers in North Carolina.
Under the supervision of law faculty, Elon Law students manage all aspects of refugee and asylee cases, meeting with clients, performing intake interviews, analyzing cases for legal remedy, gathering evidence, drafting and filing applications and briefs, and maintaining client correspondence. Students also observe and participate in hearings before federal administrative agencies and courts.
Faculty advisor:
Heather Scavone, Assistant Professor of Law & Director of Humanitarian Immigration Law Clinic
Phone: (336) 279-9354
E-mail: hscavone@elon.edu
Small Business and Entrepreneurship Clinic
The Law School’s Small Business and Entrepreneurship Clinic is a law office which provides business-related legal services to entrepreneurs and small business owners. The clinic’s office is located in the Greensboro Partnership’s Collab facility, located adjacent to the Law School. Services provided by the clinic include, but are not limited to, choice of entity advising, organizational document drafting and review, contract review and drafting, employment and human resource advising, regulatory compliance, drafting financing documentation, and intellectual property.
Faculty Director:
John Flynn, Distinguished Practitioner in Residence
Phone: (336) 279-9217
E-mail: jflynn4@elon.edu or businessclinic@elon.edu
Wills Drafting Clinic
Elon Law’s In-House Wills Drafting Clinic gives student lawyers, who have their Limited Practice Certification from the NC State Bar, the opportunity to represent low-income homeowners referred by Habitat for Humanity of Greater Greensboro and Legal Aid of North Carolina. Student lawyers interview clients, draft documents to meet the needs of clients, meet with clients to explain and review documents, and oversee the self-proving signing protocol for those documents.
The wills drafting course operates as a law firm. Student lawyers alternate serving as the firm’s managing partner. In firm meetings, student lawyers lead discussion of ethical dilemmas related to wills drafting and engage the class in a detailed exploration of legal issues surrounding the transfer of property at death in North Carolina.
Faculty Director:
Margaret Kantlehner, Associate Professor of Law
Phone: (336) 279-9205
E-mail: mkantlehner@elon.edu
Guardian Ad Litem Appellate Advocacy Clinic
In the Guardian ad Litem Appellate Advocacy Clinic, students work under the supervision of a faculty member to represent the best interests of abused and neglected children in appeals of juvenile matters in the North Carolina Court of Appeals and North Carolina Supreme Court, assigned to the clinic by the Guardian Ad Litem Appellate Counsel for the state. Students in the course will: learn the relevant North Carolina statutory and case law related to abused and neglected children; learn the relevant appellate rules of North Carolina, focusing generally on the rules related to the record on appeal and appellate briefs, as well as rules specific to juvenile appeals; and develop and hone their analytical, legal research, legal writing and advocacy skills, including but not limited to, formulating strategies and issues to pursue on the appeal, formulating a research strategy and performing legal research, outlining arguments for the appellate brief, drafting the various sections of the brief including the statement of the case, statement of the facts and argument sections; proofreading and reviewing drafts of the brief and making edits to improve the brief.
Faculty Director:
Alan Woodlief, Sr. Assoc. Dean, Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Moot Court Program
Phone: (336) 279-9203
E-mail: awoodlief@elon.edu