Federal Litigation Clinic Students Learn More Than Litigation

Within a clinical curriculum that covers a wide range of subjects, clients, and forums, Professor Patrick J. Flynn's Federal Litigation Clinic has carved out its own niche, and many of the civil rights and employment discrimination cases handled by the clinic are out of the ordinary. From monocular truck-drivers to Ku Klux Klan members, the clients present Flynn's students with work they are sure to find intriguing.

Students in the clinic are exposed to federal pre-trial practice, as well as pleading, fact investigation, formal and informal discovery, depositions, motions practice, and much more. Cases take longer than those in some other clinics; students may have to start their work in the middle of a case already in progress, but will probably follow it for the entire semester and become very well-acquainted with their clients. This intense interaction with clients is one of the clinic's benefits.

"The students meet and work with 'real' people. They get the chance to represent prison inmates, which is interesting as they realize that these people are human beings too. They leave the clinic with a much better perspective," Flynn said. In one case, students who were asked to represent a client in a matter involving his actions as a Ku Klux Klan member were surprised to conclude, upon meeting the client, that their preconceived notions were incorrect. The young man had renounced the Klan and separated himself from the hate he had learned from his mentor, the Klan leader.

Another aspect of the work is that the clinic represents people who otherwise would probably not be represented. Flynn noted, "Courts wouldn't even hear many of these issues, and they are not cases that private lawyers would take on. It may not even be about winning these issues, but ensuring that the issues are heard by the courts. That's what we're here to do." Students have followed cases regarding the alleged segregation of gay prison inmates in the Spartanburg County jail, a Muslim Boy Scout leader who claimed he was fired for not reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, and a monocular transfer-truck driver denied a driver's license for his "disability" although his driving record was good enough to qualify him.

"What we do is important because of its focus on civil rights," Flynn said, "The idea of the Bill of Rights is that the minorities are protected from tyranny of the majority. In the Federal Litigation Clinic we get to make sure that those minorities are heard."

Right: Professor Flynn received his AB from the University of Notre Dame in 1971, and his JD from Indiana University-Bloomington in 1974. He joined the Department of Clinical Legal Studies in 1983 after serving as a staff attorney and litigation director for legal services organizations in Illinois and South Carolina.

The students meet and work with 'real' people. They get the chance to represent prison inmates, which is interesting as they realize that these people are human beings too.