Tag: student clinics

Statement on Racism, Ableism, Academic Freedom, and Professional Identity

In Florida and across the nation, a coordinated campaign has been initiated to limit how topics related to race, racism, and gender can be discussed, taught, and researched. We believe that academic freedom is fundamental to higher education and free thought, expression and opinion are fundamental to the practice of law and the lifeblood of a democracy.

In the Oath of Admission to the Florida Bar, each potential lawyer must swear that “I will never reject, from any consideration personal to myself, the cause of the defenseless or oppressed, or delay anyone’s cause for lucre or malice. So help me God.” As such, many of the issues discussed, and the cases considered by the DIAL Clinic address the defenseless and oppressed, and how race and gender affect the social construction of disability and resources provided to people with disabilities. As academics and as members of the legal profession, we have the freedom to choose what topics we want to investigate, and the duty to address the root causes of oppression and discrimination.

Exploration of these topics allow students the opportunity to be exposed to varied and numerous perspectives while forming their own opinions and beliefs, even when they disagree with what is being shared. Failure to learn and engage in critical thinking across differences and disagreements undermines students’ personal intellectual growth, professional identity, and causes them to be ill-prepared to enter the legal profession where they will be expected to represent a diverse population and understand how to navigate different perspectives and experiences.

What is the DIAL Clinic?

black and white photo of a man with a short beard wearing a jacket and a dark tie
Jacobus Tenbroek

As to man, in any event, nothing could be more essential to personality, social existence, economic opportunity—in short, to individual well-being and integration into the life of the community—than the physical capacity, the public approval, and the legal right to be abroad in the land.

Tenbroek, Jacobus, The Right to Live in the World: The Disabled in the Law of Torts, 54 Cal. L. Rev. 841 (1966)

 

black and white photo of a woman with glasses waring a warm coat with a pin that says Sign 504, she is speaking into a microphone
Judy Heumann

Part of the problem is that we tend to think that equality is about treating everyone the same, when it’s not. It’s about fairness. It’s about equity of access.

Heumann, Judy, Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist (2020)

 

The Disability Inclusion and Advocacy Law (DIAL) Clinic‘s mission is to train Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law students to become lawyers who are able to confidently practice law upon becoming admitted to the Florida Bar. In the DIAL Clinc, students are taught to be caring, skillful advocates who fight for fair and equitable treatment for the largest minority population – people with disabilities. This is what we do.

We accept no more than ten students per semester, and each of the students is supervised and trained in every aspect of client representation by four licensed attorneys, from interviewing a potential client to appealing a final decision of a trial court. As a disability rights clinic, we focus on matters which ensure independent, community-based, living and equitable treatment for all persons with disabilities.

    • We give people with disabilities the tools so can live as independently as their abilities permit, ensuring guardianship alternatives are used and integrated community services are in place.
    • We protect the rights for equal and integrated housing opportunities, including requests for disability-related accommodations.
    • We assist employees with disabilities in obtaining accommodations in employment and advocating on their behalf.
    • We ensure that children and young adults with disabilities receive an education tailored to their disability-related needs and receive appropriate testing and course accommodations.
    • We advocate for persons with disabilities to get equal and equitable treatment in all aspects of society which is taken for granted every day by an ableist society.

Our representation is available to those who cannot afford to hire lawyers that have the necessary qualifications to handle these matters.  While these rights are priceless for individuals with disabilities and their families, representation is often beyond their means. We handle all matters and never require our clients to pay any attorney’s fees.  Accordingly, our focus is to ensure that our clients rights are vindicated, which may get accomplished by many means short of filing a lawsuit and only filing a lawsuit when necessary.