Villanova Magazine Archive

Villanova's undergraduate and law students work together in pro bono law clinics

Joanna Sherman `02

Villanova's Law School students are presently using the interpreting skills of undergraduate Spanish students in their pro bono law clinics. The clinical programs provide free legal services to disadvantaged Pennsylvania residents, many of whom are immigrants from Spanish speaking countries, making the undergraduates’ services a vital element to the program.

The clinical programs, directed by professor Michele Pistone, offers the law students a chance to represent actual clients in need of legal representation. The five clinics that make up the program are The Clinic for Asylum, Refugee and Emigrant Services (CARES), The Civil Justice Clinic, The Federal Tax Clinic, The Juvenile Justice Clinic and the Farm Worker Legal Aid Clinic, in which the Spanish students are mainly concerned. This clinic, which started in August, is the first in the country to provide legal assistance to farm workers. Most of the workers in need of legal guidance have emigrated from South and Central America and do not understand their legal rights, such as minimum wage, worker's compensation and housing rights.

Each Spanish student is receiving internship or independent study credit for his or her interpreting services. For eight hours a week, the Spanish-speaking students act as mediators between the law students and their clients, by telephone and on site. "Without the undergraduate's help, the clinic wouldn't work," said Beth Lyon, director of the Farm workers clinic. By translating legal and medical forms to the clients, the Spanish students are expanding their Spanish vocabulary as well as the gaining experience in field of law.