In January, LCYC began a partnership with Seattle University School of Law, a Children’s Representation Clinic. In this legal clinic, LCYC supports Seattle University law students in representing youth in dependency matters across King and Pierce Counties.
Learn more about the clinic below from Paul Holland, Seattle University Legal Clinic Director, Alex Narvaez, LCYC Supervising Attorney and Children’s Representation Clinic Professor, and Rhea Yo, LCYC Executive Director.
innovative partnership
Why is it important for law schools to partner with legal aid organizations to teach budding attorneys?
Paul Holland: These partnerships allow clinic students and their clients to get the benefit of two complementary sources of expertise and commitment. Clinical professors have the time to think deeply about the clinic’s work on behalf of clients and even more so on the teaching methods that will give each student the best chance to develop as a lawyer. lawyers from the front lines of advocacy bring the sharpened skills, instincts, and perspective that the students will need upon graduation. These partnerships allow our students to work alongside and observe different lawyers handling similar types of cases, which brings home one of the critical lessons of the clinic experience, that each lawyer needs to develop their own lawyering persona, taking what is valuable from others but living it in their own distinctive way.
Why is Seattle University interested in providing this legal clinic?
Paul: Our school’s Jesuit Catholic mission and deep commitment to advocacy for justice draws a large number of students seeking careers in public interest fields. We are always looking to provide them with additional opportunities to serve, learn, and grow. We share LCYC’s hope that this partnership will provide a meaningful path to careers in this field for a number of our graduates. And even for those whose paths vary, the experience of working with the youth they represent in the clinic and the LCYC attorneys alongside them is sure to shape them in whatever else they pursue.
Why did LCYC get involved in this partnership?
Rhea Yo: LCYC is expanding its dependency practice to align with the expansion of the Office of Civil Legal Aid’s (OCLA) Child Representation Program (CRP) throughout the State as a result of House Bill 1219 (2021). HB 1219 guarantees the right to counsel to all children and youth in dependency proceedings over the age of 8. LCYC is committed to building up pipeline of attorneys for this work with expertise, excellence, and through a trauma informed, anti-oppression approach. Because this is a relatively new area to build career, we need to build an interest in it and training for this field at the law school level as few places will have the ability to offer the training with a robust level outside of LCYC. LCYC is only Children's Civil Legal Aid provider to represent youth in foster care in Washington state.
Career Development
What was your experience in legal clinics? How did it shape your legal career?
Paul: I was incredibly fortunate to participate in the Juvenile Rights Clinic in my third year at NYU School of Law. I had devoted a good deal to be an effective advocate for young clients, but the clinic took me so much further than I could have imagined. It was more than thirty-five years ago, but I can still clearly recall meeting my first client, riding the subway to meet with witnesses, and conducting my first trial. It left me with no doubt that I wanted to – and could - do this work. A year out of school, I had the good fortune to receive a fellowship in Georgetown’s Clinical Program, in which I learned even more about effective lawyering and began to develop the skills I have been using as a teacher ever since. Clinical teaching is a true dream job.
Alex Narvaez: I participated in the Youth Advocacy Clinic (now the Defender Clinic) at Seattle University School of Law (SU). This was absolutely the highlight of my experience in law school. I remember going to court, arguing in front of a judge, meeting with clients in the detention center and observe amazing attorneys who did the work with ease. I was lucky enough to have Professors Holland and Boruchowitz and was mind blown by their collective knowledge. This experience solidified my desire to become an attorney and gave me the confidence to know that I could do this work. Participating in the legal clinic built me into the attorney I am today and led to my first job at the public defender’s office.
Rhea: My first experience was at the Children’s Advocacy Clinic at the University of Michigan. Before doing the clinic, I didn’t realize children could have attorneys. It was my introduction to the rights of children and completely transformed what I wanted to do as an attorney. I learned about the different ways I could advocate for a client in and out of the courtroom and how it made a real impact. Like Alex, I got my first job at the Children’s Law Center in Washington D.C. because of my experience at the legal clinic.
What can be learned from a legal clinic that is different from the traditional classroom setting?
Alex: You get real life experience, to put into practice everything read in dense law school books. No amount of preparation compares to actually sitting in the courtroom, in your formal attire, with colleagues and professionals watching you. Being able to do that as a law student gave me a leg up when I started my career. Working cases, meeting with clients, and dealing with real issues has a level of complication that cannot be explained in the classroom setting.
What was the most important lesson you learned in a legal clinic?
Alex: To be creative and think outside the box. Besides traditional legal skills, I saw the systemic issues that surround the juvenile justice system, such as seeing youth who are shackled and how appearing in front of others like that impacts the ability to receive due process.
Rhea: How impactful an attorney can be and that the legal issue is just one piece of a puzzle. Clients are experiencing multiple crises and layers of trauma. As whole human beings, they need to be fully supported to meet their needs.
Expanding Diversity
What is the significance of a diverse group of attorneys representing youth in Washington state?
Alex: As an attorney of color, I often enter courts and don’t see others who look like me. After having practiced for so long, I recognized that working with someone who looks like them or has a shared understanding of oppression absolutely impacts the youth we serve. It’s imperative attorneys identify how race impacts perception and the world around them. There is a need for diverse attorneys to reflect the community we serve and we have a duty to make it happen.
Rhea: Building off what Alex said, a previous LCYC report, Invisible & Inaccessible, discussed how young people have stated their desire to have attorneys that share similar experiences and look like them. There’s a level of trust and connection that comes with that. Youth of color are disproportionately impacted in the systems in which we practice and attorneys should reflect that demographic. The first time I represented an Asian client, I realized how much more I understood relevant cultural context and needs. This was humbling because I learned I had not connected the same with other clients.
How does the Children’s Representation Clinic support building a diverse pipeline?
Alex: As Rhea and I mentioned, we got our first jobs because of our participation in legal clinics. I don’t know what I would be doing now if not for the clinic. Clinics are important in creating job opportunities and exposure to the legal practice that can be applied on the job. They also help build networks of people who can support you throughout your legal career. This clinic is focused on teaching and litigating race, as well as identifying racial inequities. With that focus, we hope to attract students with the same passion.
Rhea: As evidenced by launching this clinic, SU is committed to a diverse student body. This clinic provides an opportunity for law students of color to be introduced to this area of law. I am a first-generation high school, college, and law school graduate and understand how hard it is to navigate a privileged academic system. SU has programs that support first generation law school students like me. Their commitment to diversity is a big reason for our desire to partner with them for this clinic.
Clinic GOals and Outcomes
What supports does LCYC offer through this clinic? For students and clients?
Alex: The clinic’s goal is to have students working on active cases so they can have as much court exposure as possible. Students work in teams that include three attorneys with caseloads, which allow them to get real life experience with clients and courts, meet with stakeholders, and build relationships. For their final project, students will identify challenges and barriers faced by clients and propose solutions. For clients, they can continue working with their assigned attorneys, while receiving additional support from having extra members on their advocacy team, including the ability to have students take on specialized projects.
What would you like to see as a result of this partnership?
Alex: I’d like to see the development of a diverse pipeline of children’s representation attorneys and positive influence on the children’s representation standards, practices, policies and culture throughout Washington state.
What do you hope students get out of the legal clinic?
Rhea: I hope that students will get an understanding of what it means to represent children, not just in dependency cases, but to meet their holistic needs. LCYC is committed to teaching how to meet clients where they’re at, including addressing legal needs that are outside of traditional legal systems and non-legal needs.
Alex: For dependencies and all legal cases, don’t only look at the legal issue. Attorneys must also look at the youth, and their goals - for the case and life. It’s important for attorneys to maximize the opportunity to assist clients while they are working with them. We want to share these skills so students can navigate complexities in whichever legal field they land. Learning to look beyond the obvious legal issue will make students better attorneys.