Two initiatives at the DePaul University College of Law – a Special Education Advocacy Clinic and a Misdemeanor Clinic – will provide needed community resources and hands-on legal experience for students.

“The Special Education Advocacy Clinic will address the needs of children with developmental disabilities who may have otherwise never had a voice,” said Dean Glen Weissenberger.

Clinic participants will work to protect the educational rights of children whose disabilities include mental retardation, autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and specific learning difficulties.

Legal representation offered to financially distressed parents of such children will be supervised by clinical law instructors. Collaborations among parents and school districts will be encouraged.

“Legal representation through the clinic will substantially impact the ability of our state’s most vulnerable children to obtain a free and appropriate public education, as federal law mandates,” said clinic director Nelly Aguilar.

She cited a clear link between disabilities, poverty and minority status.

Aguilar, whose son has a developmental disability, had to sue a school district when the boy was displaced unlawfully from a public pre-school program.

DePaul’s new Misdemeanor Clinic, along with its clinics on criminal appeals and the death penalty, “will allow the law school to offer a full range of criminal defense serves to those most in need,” Weissenberger said.

Legal assistance will be provided to indigent clients who have been charged with misdemeanors punishable by one year or less in jail.

Supervised law students will conduct client interviews, investigate cases, and provide direct representation. About 25 students will serve 16 to 24 clients each year.

“The need to provide quality legal representation for those accused of misdemeanors is just as critical as it is for those accused of felonies because a person’s liberty, reputation and finances can be threatened,” said clinic director Cynthia W. Roseberry.

Before joining the DePaul faculty, Roseberry tried felony cases and taught trial advocacy and criminal defense in Georgia.