Our Mission
The Transactional Law Clinics are committed to combining education and service in the study of law. We strive to educate advanced law students for practice and professional service in a fully functioning law office handling a broad variety of legal transactions, to harness the energies and efforts of those law students to meet the legal needs of a diverse clientele, to experiment with approaches to increase access to legal services, and to study and understand the public policies and institutions that most directly affect lower income individuals and families. Our philosophy of combining law school education with intense client service, comes from our history as one of the clinics at the Legal Services Center.
This was a fantastic learning experience and a lot of fun. I really enjoyed working so closely with my clients and helping them with their businesses and non-profits. The work was challenging and very exciting. ~Kendall Fox, Spring 2010
The TLC Clinical Experience
Students at the Transactional Law Clinics concentrate in one or more of the TLC’s three substantive “clinics”, which concentrate on business and non-profit law, real estate, and arts, music and entertainment law respectively. In the corequisite Transactional Practice Workshop and the clinical work, students will have the opportunity to explore and directly experience the various roles of transactional lawyers as they provide legal services to small businesses, non-profit organizations, real estate parties, community development corporations, or individuals and companies in the arts and entertainment industry. Students will develop legal skills utilized by transactional lawyers and will gain the perspective of transactional practice in the context of actual client representation. The Workshop and clinical components together provide complete training in each practice area and also offers general instruction on topics such as client interviewing and intake, case management, contract drafting, negotiation skills, ethics, and legal analysis.
Students work with attorney supervisors, experienced practitioners and mentors, who supervise student work and provide guidance as students build and manage their own caseload.
Students have direct responsibility for client work. Although students will receive training and guidance from the Clinics’ experienced attorney supervisors and support staff, the clients you work with will be your clients. You will quickly learn what it’s like to analyze real-life problems, handle actual emergencies, and juggle a variety of important clients and cases. In short, you will learn what it’s like to be a practicing attorney.
Our Practice Environment
The Transactional Law Clinics are located on the fourth floor of the Clinical Building of the WCC. Client access is by means of the Clinical Building reception area at 6 Everett Street. Students may also enter the Clinical Building from the WCC using their law school IDs. The TLC provides dedicated student work spaces. Students are expected to commit to regular office hours at the Clinics throughout the term. The TLC coordinates work and case coordination and supervision through the use of a state-of-the-art law office practice management system, making it often possible for students to work on clinical matters remotely, via the Internet. Students have individual voicemails for clinical work, allowing each student to maintain a professional presentation to clients.
In every respect, the Transactional Law Clinics operates as a professional law office in the service of our clients.
Harvard Law School is committed to the full inclusion of students with disabilities in the life of the University. Students requesting accessibility resources or accommodations in any of HLS’s Clinical and Pro Bono Programs may work with Accessibility Services in the Dean of Students Office. If you are a student with a documented disability and you are requesting accommodations, please contact HLS Accessibility Services to discuss and register for accommodations.