SLU LAW Legal Clinics: Where Legal Education Meets Real Lives

For half a century, Saint Louis University School of Law’s legal clinics have given students a front-row seat to the law in action — five decades of shaping lawyers through hands-on service to the community. What began in the 1970s as a bold step toward experiential learning has grown into a nationally recognized program that provides more than 33,000 hours of pro bono legal services each year, valued at $4.3 million annually. It’s a legacy built on the Jesuit tradition of service and advocacy, and one that continues to evolve to meet the needs of the most vulnerable.

For decades, SLU’s legal clinics have brought students face-to-face with the realities of the law — not as an abstract system but as something that shapes lives, neighborhoods and futures. It’s a defining part of the school’s Jesuit mission: learning through service, confronting inequities, and using legal skills to meet people where they are.

Across six distinct clinics — Civil Advocacy, Human Rights at Home, Entrepreneurship and Community Development, Children’s Permanency, Medical Legal Partnership and Criminal Defense — students work alongside faculty and staff to tackle some of the most pressing issues in St. Louis. They step out of the classroom to serve real clients, draft legal documents, meet people in their communities, and hear stories that reshape their understanding of what it means to practice law. Each clinic takes a different approach, but together they form a single, powerful idea: the law belongs to everyone, and lawyers have a responsibility to make that real.

Challenging Systems, One Case At A Time

For Staff Attorney Matt Vigil (’11), the Civil Advocacy Clinic, guided by Professor Brendan Roediger, is where students first learn what it means to use the law as a tool for accountability. As an alum, he knows how formative that experience can be.

Students in the clinic don’t just handle individual cases; they take on systems. Working on class actions, civil rights suits, and municipal court reform, they’ve helped expose and dismantle predatory policing practices and pushed for structural change in local governments. As Vigil explains, “We are often working in places where the law has historically failed people. That can be intimidating for students, but it’s also incredibly motivating.”

It’s demanding work that requires both skill and heart. He recalls one student preparing for a bond hearing: “The student really ... was so emotionally invested in it. And they couldn’t sleep the night before.” That sense of responsibility, he says, is part of the learning curve. “The goal is to make [St. Louis] a better place to live in,” Vigil adds. For many students, the clinic is their first glimpse of law as a public trust — something larger than themselves.

Fighting For Human Rights Close To Home

The Human Rights at Home Clinic, led by Professor Lauren Bartlett, focuses on legal issues that often sit at the intersection of human rights and everyday life: juvenile life-without-parole cases, prison conditions, housing instability, and immigration status. Students don’t have to travel far to see how these issues play out — their clients live in the neighborhoods around them.

“We are usually a last resort,” Bartlett says. The clinic’s work has led to tangible change. Since 2021, it has represented individuals sentenced as juveniles to life without parole who are now eligible for release under changes in state and federal law. “We’ve done 10 of those cases, and nine are either already out or will be getting out,” she notes. “They’ve been very successful. One had a baby and got married. Seeing the redemption there ... that’s been very cool.”

For students, the clinic is an immersion into the power — and limits — of the law. They learn not just how to advocate but how to carry their clients’ stories forward into their careers.

Building Communities Through Law

While some clinics focus on litigation, the Entrepreneurship and Community Development (ECD) Clinic operates in a different kind of courtroom: neighborhood associations, nonprofits, and small businesses sit at its center. Led by Clinical Professor Dana Malkus (’04), the clinic trains students in transactional law such as contracts, governance, and regulatory work — the nuts and bolts that keep communities moving forward.

Malkus, both an alum and a longtime faculty member, sees this as an extension of SLU’s Jesuit mission. She urges students to look beyond the page in front of them and consider the people across the table. “That’s part of what I want students to take away — to be reflective, to think about yourself as your whole person,” she says.

One recent example involved helping a neighborhood group in the Mark Twain neighborhood form a neighborhood association. “An active neighborhood association provides foundational infrastructure that residents can use to come together to solve problems, access resources, and advance their vision for their neighborhood,” Malkus explains. The legal work gave students experience in client counseling, drafting, and project management, while also deepening their understanding of their own city.

For many students, it’s a revelation. Lawyers don’t only fight in court; they help communities build their future.

Fighting For Stability And Dignity

If the ECD Clinic focuses on building communities, the Children’s Permanency Clinic focuses on holding them together. Professor Kathryn Banks leads this clinic with a clear mission: ensuring that children in foster care or adoption proceedings find safe, stable, permanent homes.

“Ultimately, what the courts are looking [at] is ... what’s the safe, appropriate place? What’s in the child’s best interest?” says Banks. For her students, it’s a lesson in both legal procedure and human stakes. Permanency, she emphasizes, isn’t just a legal concept; it’s about giving kids a foundation to grow.

The work is often behind the scenes and emotionally intense, but its impact ripples through families and communities for generations.

Defending Clients As Whole People

While the Children’s Permanency Clinic focuses on giving young people the stable foundations they need to thrive, another clinic meets clients further along the legal continuum — often at moments of intense personal crisis. The Criminal Defense Clinic steps into that space, standing beside people whose lives have been shaped by trauma, poverty, and systemic inequities. Though the legal issues differ, the underlying mission remains the same: to treat every client with dignity, to understand their stories fully, and to equip students to be both skilled advocates and compassionate listeners.

In the Criminal Defense Clinic, students step into courtrooms where the stakes are immediate and human. Guided by Professor Susan McGraugh and Social Worker Lauren Choate, they represent clients who are often navigating criminal charges alongside histories of trauma, poverty, and mental health struggles. Choate explains, “We work with clients who are suffering — whether it’s from mental health issues, substance use, poverty, or other challenges — and all of that comes into play when you’re trying to represent them effectively.”

McGraugh sees this direct exposure as essential to a student’s growth. “It hits differently when the client is depending on you to get them out of a really terrible situation,” she says. The clinic takes a holistic approach, integrating legal advocacy with social work to address the broader factors that shape clients’ lives.

Students come away not just with courtroom experience but with a deeper understanding of what it means to stand beside someone when the system feels overwhelming.

A Shared Mission

Each of SLU’s clinics looks different — different clients, different legal questions, different tools. But they share a common thread: law as service. Students are immersed in communities, asked to listen deeply, and challenged to use their skills to bring about change.

For Vigil, it’s about confronting systemic inequities. For Bartlett, it’s giving voice to those left behind. For Malkus, it’s capacity-building. For Banks, it’s stability. For McGraugh and Choate, it’s human dignity in the face of hardship. Together, these experiences shape students into lawyers who carry SLU’s Jesuit mission with them long after graduation.

Looking Ahead: Rx for Justice

As the clinics look ahead to their next 50 years, that spirit of innovation and service remains at their core. With the planned launch of the Medical-Legal Partnership Clinic with Professor Danielle Pelfrey Duryea this spring and a renewed commitment to community engagement, SLU LAW’s clinical program is poised to keep shaping lawyers — and changing lives  -- for generations to come.

This article was originally published in the SLU LAW Brief Issue 2025.