Law clinics offer real world work experience

Although virtual experience often replaces actual experience in today's increasingly technological age, students at the Law School are able to go beyond the abstraction of textbooks as part of the school's law clinic. Second- and third-year Law students in one of four clinical courses can advise Philadelphia residents on starting businesses, mediate disputes, go to trial or in a new addition to the program, advocate legislation. And sometimes -- as is the case for 1997 Law School graduates Bruce Bellingham and Jeffrey Powell -- the payoff can be quite large. Under the supervision of Law Professor Colleen Coonelly, the team won a large cash settlement as well as valuable trial experience when they successfully litigated a $1 million age discrimination case on behalf of West Philadelphia resident Herbert Smith against International Services, Inc. Like all the clinic's clients, Smith was an indigent and could not afford a lawyer. But he stressed that he was more than grateful for Bellingham and Powell's expertise. "I wouldn't trade them for anything," he said shortly after the trial. The jury awarded Smith $464,000 in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive damages when they found the company at fault for repeatedly denying Smith -- who was 54 at the time of the allegations -- a job as a skycap attendant at Philadelphia International Airport due to his age. "Our victory [in the Smith case] shows that the clinic actually really works," said Coonelly. "We teach students how to do it better the next time and then the next time." To participate in similar clinical experiences, Law students must register for a seminar -- which meets at least two hours a week -- and then engage in "actual lawyering" activities under the supervision of a professor who is also a practicing attorney. Renovated last year, the conference room where Law students meet with prospective clients is equipped with microphone and videotape capabilities, enabling the supervisor to watch the students' progress live. But the students initiate all the law services on their own with minimal instructor intervention. Professor Douglas Frenkel, director of the Law School's Clinical Programs, said students learn from all cases they are involved in -- whether or not they obtain a victory. "What [the students] lack in experience, they make up for in presentation," he added. "But in a lot of victories, students will 'bust a gut' to solve a client's problem." Frenkel sited the clinical faculty's expertise and high level of maturity for the success of the clinic -- which has been in operation for approximately 20 years. "We are the sight of many initiatives in law school clinics," he said. "There are very few clinics as comprehensive as the Penn Law School's, and we are a model other schools have copied."