Life at UST Law

Professional schools in American universities offer discipline-specific clinical services and training in law, psychology and social work. The Interprofessional Center for Counseling and Legal Services at the University of St. Thomas is among the first in the country through which faculty, staff and students from law, psychology and social work collaborate to help clients in need. At the same time, students from all three disciplines gain practical experience working on real cases, learning skills that will serve them well in their future careers.

Through the IPC, students from the School of Law, the Graduate School of Professional Psychology (a school of the College of Education, Leadership and Counseling) and the University of St. Thomas/St. Catherine University School of Social Work can help people and communities who face complex legal, psychological and social issues but lack the resources to pay for the professional services they need.

Under the guidance of the center’s faculty and fellows, law students represent and assist underserved populations of the Twin Cities in nine practice areas: elder law, immigration, community justice, consumer bankruptcy, bankruptcy litigation, federal commutations, federal appellate, misdemeanor defense and nonprofit organizations. The social work and psychology clinics are supervised by licensed faculty from their respective schools. With extensive client interaction, the center provides unparalleled opportunities for experiential learning. Student connection to clients is deep, and the work is often intense. Through their work, students develop a distinctive link to the community that is in harmony with the University of St. Thomas mission.

In the center, students from all three schools frequently work together, learning the collaborative skills critical to successful practices. Problems addressed range from health care issues to political asylum to bridge building with community stakeholders and problem solving in distressed communities. At the same time, these students are learning the practical skills that will serve them well throughout their careers.

In June 2012, the center moved to its new location in Opus Hall on the Minneapolis campus. In addition to raising the IPC’s visibility both in the university and the community, the new space will facilitate even more of the interprofessional collaboration that is the center’s hallmark.

Patricia Stankovitch, Virgil Wiebe & George Baboila

 Co-directors,
Interprofessional Center for
Counseling and Legal Services

Artika Tyner, Esq., Interim Director of Diversity & Clinical Law Fellow, Guest Blogger

In celebration of community, the University of St. Thomas School of Law welcomed to our campus. Dr. Cahn is an attorney, law professor, author, creator of Time Dollars and president and founder of TimeBanks USA.

Dr. Edgar Cahn

Cahn has committed his life to serving as an engineer of social change. A few of his notable accomplishments include:

• Serving as the co-founder with his late wife Jean Camper Cahn of the Antioch School of Law, UDC-DCSL’s predecessor; the first law school in the United States to educate law students primarily through clinical training in legal services to the poor;
• Founding and directing the Time Dollar Youth Court, in which teen juries judge cases of teens arrested for the first time for non-violent offenses;
• Serving as one of the co-founders of the National Legal Services Program.

As a part of his keynote address, he discussed what inspired his work and what led to the creation of timebanking. His purpose in life is to serve. According to Cahn, the most important part of life is “getting up with a purpose.” He (more…)