Access to Justice Clinic – Citizenship & Naturalization Division

Students work in teams of two and will be engaged in research, providing advice, drafting and filing applications, as well as client interviewing and counseling. Students in this Clinic enjoy the same close supervision and mentorship that is a hallmark of the GW Clinics as well as the certification to practice as student-attorneys. The time commitment and scope of lawyering work involved in this Clinic, however, are far more limited than those in our traditional 4-6 credit clinics.

In the seminar, students focus on client representation skills such as counseling and interviewing, research and drafting, strategic thinking, and ethics. Classroom exercises prepare students for the legal work they will engage in. In the seminar, students will also study the relevant substantive and procedural law–including relevant case law, statutes, and regulations–pertaining to citizenship and naturalization. This will include studying the history and underlying policy of this area of law, which necessitates an exploration of issues related to race, gender, disability, socioeconomic status, and other categorizations that have historically barred migrants from naturalizing. Finally, in seminar, students consider access to justice and how to reform our legal system to address bias, discrimination, and injustice. The seminar is taught collaboratively with faculty who direct other divisions of the Access to Justice Clinic. 

Students also are engaged in lawyering work. Students will meet with and represent clients in their naturalization cases. This involves drafting forms and other aspects of the filing and advising clients regarding the naturalization process. Students in the Access to Justice Clinic – Naturalization and Citizenship Division leave this clinical experience with insight into historical and contemporary citizenship and naturalization law, the role of a lawyer in access to justice, and the ways in which our system is just and unjust. They also leave having engaged in lawyering work under the close supervision of experienced clinical faculty who seek to support students in their professional development, their lawyering skills, and their professional identity formation – all of which will serve students in their marketability and their job performance. 

Students will be selected based on their potential to provide high quality, client-centered legal services to our client population. Faculty will consider students’ interest in and commitment to the practice of immigration law, access to justice, and/or advocacy on behalf of those who have been marginalized. Students who have not yet been able to explore these areas should not be deterred from applying but should explain in their applications their interest in and enthusiasm about working on these issues.  

Interested students must fill out the Uniform Clinic Application from the Law School’s student portal website under "Clinics," where a complete set of application instructions are posted at least a few weeks prior to registration. Students may contact Professor Alonso-Yoder and/or Professor Valdez to discuss the Clinic generally or to ask specific questions.  Permission of the instructor is required prior to registration. Students may not enroll in a Field Placement and a Clinic at the same time without prior approval of both departments.

The Access to Justice Clinic is intended to provide a clinical experience to students who may not have the ability to devote more credits or time to lawyering work. At the same time, students will be engaged in the practice of law, which can be unpredictable and demanding. Students will be expected to devote an average of 7 hours per week to their Clinic work. The work will ebb and flow during the semester, requiring substantially more work when working under a particular deadline and less work between deadlines. We ask that students be prepared to be as flexible as possible, given the unpredictable nature of client representation.