Juvenile Law Clinic
- Professor, Juvenile Law Clinic: Colene Robinson
- The Clinic is part of the Juvenile and Family Law Program
- Course Number and Description
Mission and Clients
Students in the Juvenile Law Clinic learn the basics of civil legal practice, including skills like discovery, motions practice, negotiations, and trial work. The course provides experience handling a civil case from start to finish. In the Clinic, practice is gained by representing children and youth who have been abused and neglected or accused of a crime. As part of Colorado Law’s Juvenile and Family Law Program, the yearlong clinic allows students to develop significant attorney-client relationships and practice multiple litigation strategies.
Scope
This yearlong clinic allows student attorneys to develop significant attorney client relationships and represent the whole child, addressing all of the legal needs of the child client. In addition, they represent school districts in truancy matters, providing ample court experience in presenting a case. The clinic begins with a two to three-day orientation seminar before classes begin. This pre-semester class time is deducted from class time during the term. The second semester of the clinic has advance trial advocacy focus, culminating in a mock child welfare trial with the juvenile law clinic students of DU Sturm College of Law, judged by local child welfare practitioners. The clinic seminar focuses on the substantive law of child welfare, delinquency, and education law as well as the collateral areas of mental health, immigration, poverty, disability, family law, and alternative dispute resolution.
