Student Academics

The Civil Law Clinic engages students in the representation of real clients in a variety of legal matters, providing a valuable service to clients and community groups throughout the Miami Valley. The emphasis is on developing lawyering skills and professional habits and insights involved in client-centered representation, communication, problem-solving and advocacy. Student interns develop skills of interviewing and counseling, diagnosing legal options, developing case theories and plans, fact investigation, preparing legal memoranda, correspondence and documents, cross-cultural communication, oral advocacy, and court advocacy techniques.

The particular legal work is broad in substantive focus and determined by what clients present, through community-based clinics we conduct, referrals from area organizations and university campus units, as well as direct calls to the law clinic. In recent semesters, we have worked on cases involving guardianship, adoption, child custody and visitation, adoption, juvenile delinquency and education-related issues, housing and evictions, civil rights, probate, expungement and sealing of records, and debt collection and consumer law. Students recently argued a case before the 2nd Judicial District Court of Appeals (In re Adoption of U.I. (ohio.gov)).

Area organizations with whom we regularly collaborate and receive referrals include the Veteran’s Administration, Greene County Juvenile Court, Homeful, the Public Defenders’ offices of various local jurisdictions, Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, the Legal Aid Society of Western Ohio, and other area social service and non-profit organizations that provide referrals of individual clients and broader legal issues affecting a community or group of people. We also collaborate with the other clinics to assist in matters extending into the civil arena. For example, recently we filed an adoption and an abuse, neglect and dependency petition for clients originating in the immigration clinic. 

A major focus has been on the representation of veterans connected with various services and programs at the Veteran’s Hospital in Dayton, where we organize and run monthly intake clinics for veterans associated with services located at the VA. 

Another major focus has been on the representation of youth, including young adults, experiencing issues of delinquency, incarceration, need for mental and physical health services, family and custodial rights assistance and intervention, and education.  

This clinic engages students in the full array of criminal practice through representation of clients charged with misdemeanors offenses. The clinic is unique in that it engages students in federal court practice and will be supervised by an experienced federal public defender. Given jurisdictional requirements, cases often arise from activities occurring on Wright Patterson Air Force Base, in housing or nearby businesses, or on the roadways passing through the base that people may not realize are on federal land.

Through representation of real clients, students will have an opportunity to research and apply principles of criminal law and procedure as well as to gain significant experience with client interviewing and counseling; conducting pre-trial conferences; fact discovery and pre-trial motions; plea negotiations and trial. Understanding of the federal judiciary and sentencing guidelines will also be obtained.

As with all in-house clinics, students do the primary legal representation, even conducting in federal court the trials and pre-trial hearings, as well as the communication with clients and U.S. Attorneys, under the licensed supervision of their faculty member.

The Immigration and Human Rights Clinic represents refugees, persons seeking asylum in the United States, international human trafficking victims, victims of violent crimes, and immigrant detainees and also participates in human rights project-based cases in collaboration with nonprofits. This clinic provides students extensive client contact, legal writing, and administrative advocacy experience. Clients come from a variety of countries and students will develop cross cultural lawyering skills and learn to work with an interpreter.

For their representation of clients, students interview and counsel their clients on a regular basis, research conditions in the countries where their clients suffered persecution, write briefs, and prepare their clients in hearings at the U.S.C.I.S Asylum office, U.S. Immigration Court. Students may also work on appellate briefs to the Board of Immigration Appeals and the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. For their representation of human trafficking victims, students interview their clients, research the relevant law, interact with government officials who have investigated the trafficking scheme, and prepare applications for visas that permit their clients to remain in the United States.

Students also work on other human rights-based advocacy work, including public policy and community outreach projects that connect them with immigrant rights groups at the state and national level. As a result of their work in the clinic, students learn about U.S. immigration law and policy and participate in problem-solving strategies for improving the lives of immigrants through strategic litigation, well-informed public policy, and community outreach and education.

Students in both the online and in person J.D. programs will have an opportunity to apply administrative law principles and learn about one or more regulatory bodies of law and procedure through representation of individual clients before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). Substantive areas of law may include Veterans' Benefits or Social Security Disability. Students will interview an individual who disagrees with a government decision about their eligibility. They will work to conduct an investigation, gather relevant evidence, and develop interrogatories and a strategy to help prove the case. A significant component of the work focuses on the development and evaluation of medical evidence and navigating healthcare systems.

At the end of the semester, students will attend an actual hearing where they will make opening and closing arguments, conduct direct and cross examination and write a persuasive brief.

This class will be good for serious students who have an interest in public interest work, healthcare-related legal practice, administrative law and/or trial work. Skills that will be developed are communication, client interviewing and counseling, development of evidence, case strategies and presentation, oral and written persuasion, and collaboration.

With the rise of global instability, the world more than ever needs lawyers trained in the law of human rights. At the University of Dayton School of Law, students aren’t merely learning about human rights; they’re putting that knowledge into practice.

In a unique collaboration with the University’s Human Rights Center, students and faculty work side by side to protect the rights of the world’s most vulnerable citizens.

The Collaborative is unique in scope. It integrates a human rights course, UDSL’s Civil Clinic, and joint research between the Center and the Law School. All of these endeavors bring the reality of human rights study and advocacy directly to UDSL. The Collaborative’s course on human rights, for example, challenges students to understand how treaties hammered out in the faraway halls of the United Nations and other international power centers can protect the rights — and even transform the lives — of citizens around the world.

Through Dayton Law's partnership with the Hanley Sustainability Institute (HSI), students gain an understanding of the legal issues surrounding climate change and sustainability, while putting that knowledge into real-life practice.

Students in the Dayton Law-HSI Collaborative pursue a concentration in Law and Sustainability by combining law courses in subjects such as administrative and environmental law with HSI classes in sustainability studies. Applying their classroom knowledge, students advance to solving problems presented in externship and summer environmental law fellowships.

Along with opportunities for law students to gain hands-on experience, the Collaborative affords them the opportunity to participate in lectures, symposia, and other events that deepen the campus conversation around law and sustainability.

“At the most pragmatic level, lawyers are society's professional problem solvers.”
- Rennard Strickland & Frank T. Read,
The Lawyer Myth

The Business & Compliance Law Concentration will prepare you for a wide range of occupations in today’s rapidly changing business environment. You can develop the skills and knowledge necessary to excel as a compliance officer in a heavily regulated field, such as banking, education, insurance, or healthcare; an in-house counsel for a corporation or nonprofit organization; or a business lawyer in a private law firm, providing representation and advice not only to businesses, but also to their founders, investors, and management teams. 

The Business & Compliance Law Concentration exemplifies the University and School of Law’s commitment to serving the common good by equipping graduates to succeed and make a difference in the global marketplace due to their education in critical thinking and innovation, and their experience in building community. We designed this concentration to prepare you for the complex demands of today’s business environment. The concentration courses will provide you with a solid grasp of the core legal principles relating to the formation, operation, and dissolution of business entities as well as regulatory compliance and risk management.

In addition, you will acquire the practical skills necessary to succeed. Along with capstone experiences, you will have the opportunity to work on actual cases in our Externship course . In the Externship course, our students have gained real-world experience with administrative law judges, law firms, corporate counsel, and compliance offers in locations across the country. Students have externed at offices such as CareSource Management Group Company, Dayton Public Schools, Focus Care Enterprises, the University of Dayton Office of Legal Affairs, Clopay Building Products, Grange Mutual Insurance Company, and the Marshall University Executive Affairs Office.

"I want you to open the case, and when you are doing it, talk to the jury as though your client's fate depends on every word you utter. Forget that you have any one to fall back upon, and you will do justice to yourself and your client."
- Abraham Lincoln,
Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln

The Civil Advocacy & Dispute Resolution Concentration will prepare you to help your clients find the most effective means of resolving their conflicts with others. The best advocates are not only accomplished trial attorneys, but also exceptional negotiators with formidable reasoning and oral and written communication skills. This concentration will ready you for a wide variety of careers in the litigation field, including as a trial lawyer in court cases, negotiations, arbitrations, mediations, and administrative law proceedings; a mediator or other neutral; and even, in time, a judge.

The Civil Advocacy & Dispute Resolution Concentration highlights the University and School of Law’s commitment to serving the common good by equipping graduates to be servant-leaders with the skills needed to create a more just world. We designed this concentration to prepare you for the roles of advocate and problem solver. The concentration courses will provide you with a solid grasp of the processes and procedures involved in civil litigation and allow you to focus on specialized areas of interest, such as alternative dispute resolution, civil rights litigation, and tort litigation.

In addition, you will acquire the practical skills necessary to succeed. Along with trial practice and capstone experiences, you will have the opportunity to work on actual cases through our Civil Law Clinic and/or our Externship course. In the Externship course, our students have gained real-world experience with federal and state judges, law firms, and public interest agencies in locations across the country. Such externship offices have included the United States District Court Southern District of Ohio, Coolidge Wall Company LPA, the Ohio and Indiana Attorney General Offices, the City of Dayton Law Department - Civil Division, and Advocates for Basic Legal Equality. 

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Letter from a Birmingham Jail

The Criminal Law Concentration prepares you to serve society by ensuring a just and speedy prosecution of those accused of endangering the health, safety, property, and wellbeing of members of the community and ensuring that our justice system treats those accused of such wrongdoing with respect, affording them the rights guaranteed by the Constitution. This concentration will prepare you for a wide variety of careers in the criminal justice field, including as a prosecutor; criminal defense attorney, public defender; policymaker; and even, in time a judge.

The Criminal Law Concentration highlights the University and School of Law’s commitment to serving the common good by equipping graduates to be servant-leaders with the skills needed to create a more just world. We designed this concentration to provide you with a broad-based exposure to criminal law concepts. You will expand you substantive knowledge of criminal law to include examining topics such as white-collar crime, criminal procedure, cybercrime, and trial advocacy.

In addition, you will acquire the practical skills necessary to succeed. Along with trial practice and capstone experiences, you will have the opportunity to work on actual cases through our Criminal Law Clinic and/or our Externship course. In the Externship course, our students have gained real-world experience with federal and state judges, state and federal prosecutors, and public and private defense counsel in locations across the country.

“Where after all do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person: The neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination.”
- Eleanor Roosevelt,
"The Great Question,” remarks delivered at the United Nations on March 27, 1958.

The Human & Civil Rights Law Concentration exemplifies the University and School of Law’s conviction that our human dignity draws us into community and we called to serve the common good. This concentration will help you obtain the skills and knowledge necessary to become a voice for the voiceless. It will prepare you for a wide range of roles as an advocate in the field of human rights and civil liberties, including as a civil rights litigator, immigration law attorney, international human rights monitor or advocate, or prosecutor in an international criminal tribunal. You may work at a private law firm, NGO, government agency, or think tank.

We designed this concentration to provide you with a broad-based exposure to the substantive law relating to human rights and civil liberties as well as the institutions responsible for creating, administering and enforcing that law. You will have the opportunity to explore topics ranging from Civil Rights Enforcement to International Human Rights Law to Children & the Law to Disability Rights Law to Employment Discrimination to Immigration Law Process and Policies.

In addition, you will acquire the practical skills necessary to succeed. Along with trial practice and capstone experiences, you will have the opportunity to work on actual cases through our Immigration and Civil Law clinics and/or our Externship course. In the Externship course, our students have gained real-world experience with public interest agencies, such the State of Illinois Human Rights Commission, Catholic Charities of Southwestern Ohio, KIND (Kids in Need of Defense), the Death Penalty Litigation Clinic, Alliance Defending Freedom, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights under Law.

To make the changes we need to make and to reach a safer future, we will need the resources of everybody here - the scientists, the policy makers, and the industrialists - all working together towards a common goal. And that goal is a planet that can continue to support life.
- Dr. Piers Sellers (1955-2016), American astronaut

The Law & Sustainability Concentration can provide opportunities for you to do work conserving and protecting our planet and the life on it. A wide variety of jobs and careers exist for lawyers with training in sustainability working for agencies or advising clients on legal issues related to clean technology, clean air and water, climate change, and land ownership and management.

The Law & Sustainability Concentration highlights the University's deep commitment to identifying and promoting sustainable solutions to reduce environmental impacts and advance equity. We designed this concentration to provide you with a broad-based exposure to sustainability and environmental law. You will explore topics such as litigation, criminal prosecution, corporate compliance, land use, riparian protection, animal rights, and community, rural, and wilderness conservation.

In addition, you will acquire the practical skills necessary to succeed. Along with trial practice and capstone experiences, you will have the opportunity to work across campus with institutional and community partners trying to advance sustainability. The School of Law partners with the University of Dayton Hanley Sustainability Institute to provide educational programs and fellowships for graduate students to further their study and experience in this field.

"There is only one thing stronger than all the armies of the world: and that is an idea whose time has come."
- Victor Hugo

The explosion of new technologies during the information age has drastically changed the way we communicate, the way we learn, the way we think, the way we work, and the way we play. Lawyers are fighting to keep pace with the demands this change places on the legal system.  What are the bounds of privacy in the information age? How can the law combat cyber threats? The new questions and challenges are never ending. Dayton Law is at the forefront of preparing students to practice in the new technological landscape. Law and Technology Concentration will prepare you for a wide variety of careers intersecting the law, innovation, creativity, business and technology, including working for top corporate and IP firms, within government agencies such as the Patent & Trademark Office, or as in-house counsel for innovative technology corporations and entertainment companies in the creative fields of music, film, sports, and publishing.

The Law & Technology Concentration reflects the University and School of Law’s commitment to serving the common good by providing a distinctive, integrated student experience that fosters a spirit of life-long learning, and adaptability for changing times. We designed this concentration to provide you with a solid foundation in several areas: patent and trade secret law, copyright and trademark law, sports and entertainment law, business dimensions of intellectual property law (particularly the development, maintenance, and licensing of intellectual property), cyberspace law, data privacy and protection, the Internet of Things, and the overall impact of technology on the practice of law.

In addition, you will acquire the practical skills necessary to succeed. Along with trial practice and capstone experiences, you will have the opportunity to work on actual cases through our Intellectual Property Clinic and/or our Externship course. In the Externship course, our students have gained real-world experience with offices such as the United States Air Force Research Laboratory, the University of Dayton Research Institute, the IP divisions of law firms like Thompson Hine, LLP and Dinsmore & Shohl, LLP as well as IP boutique firms, and the Virginia Poverty Law Center’s Access to Justice Tech Fellows Program.

“The business of the law is to make sense of the confusion of what we call human life--to reduce it to order but at the same time to give it possibility, scope, even dignity.”
- Archibald MacLeish,
Apologia, 85 Harv. L. Rev. 1505, 1508 (1972).

Everyday life is filled with legal challenges, and students in our personal and family law concentration are committed to helping their clients meet those challenges. The challenge might involve adopting a child, obtaining a divorce, coping with the needs of an elderly family member, or dealing with a bankruptcy.  Attorneys achieving success in small and solo practices are typically “Renaissance Attorneys,” well versed in multiple practice areas. The Personal & Family Law Concentration will provide you with the knowledge and expertise to assist your clients in a variety of matters, large and small.

The Personal & Family Law Concentration reflects the University and School of Law’s commitment to serving the common good by preparing professionals who make a difference in their fields and in the world. We designed this concentration to prepare you to make a positive difference in the lives of your clients. It will allow you to build a solid foundation in multiple areas, including family law, trusts and estates, healthcare law, and creditors’ rights.

In addition, you will acquire the practical skills necessary to succeed. Along with trial practice and capstone experiences, you will have the opportunity to work on actual cases through our Civil Law Clinic and/or our Externship course. In the Externship course, our students have gained real-world experience with probate, bankruptcy, juvenile, and domestic relations judges, law firms, health care providers, child support enforcement agencies, and Legal Aid and other non-profit organizations in locations across the country.