Baylor University Law School
Baylor University
Baylor University Law School
1114 S. University Parks Drive
Waco, TX 76706
law.baylor.edu
Law School Pro Bono Programs
Contact Information
Heather A. Creed
Asst. Dean of Professional Development & Student Relations
Heather_Creed@baylor.edu
(254)710-7617
Category Type
Formal Voluntary Pro Bono Program Characterized by a Referral System with a Coordinator
Description of Program
Bear P.A.W.S. (People At Work & Service) is the program through which Baylor Law students get involved in the surrounding community through Pro Bono and general community service work. The objectives of the program are to: Make students aware of opportunities to serve and to connect students to those opportunities; Recognize students for their service; Expose students to the needs of the Waco community and beyond; Impart to students the responsibility they have as attorneys to serve; Help students learn to find time to serve while managing a heavy workload; Provide students with educational experiences to enhance the classroom learning experience; and Develop the desire in students to make pro bono work a priority once they begin practicing.
Location of Program
Career Services Suite
Staffing/Management/Oversight
Bear P.A.W.S. is overseen by Heather Creed, Asst. Dean of Professional Development & Student Relations. She works closely with Leah Jackson, Associate Dean, faculty, and the Baylor Public Interest Legal Society in the creation and implementation of Pro Bono opportunities.
Funding
Funding and administrative assistance is provided for Pro Bono work as needed.
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Student Run Pro Bono Groups/Specialized Law Education Projects
The Public Benefits Project at Lone Star Legal Aid– BPILS has developed the Public Benefits Project at Lone Star Legal Aid (a federally-funded nonprofit that provides free legal services to low-income clients). This project screens potential clients for food stamp benefit eligibility. BPILS also is spearheading a closer cooperation between LSLA and local chapters of the NAACP and LULAC.
The Waco Youth Law Advocacy Project – BPILS coordinates student volunteering efforts with this project, involving direct attorney supervision. The Project provides individual representation in administrative and legal forums to address immediate crises in children's lives. Specifically, students who volunteer can work on cases involving neglect and abuse, disability accommodations, and foster care placement, among many others.
National Adoption Day – BPILS, under the direction of the faculty sponsor, Professor Fuselier, facilitates pro bono adoptions in coordination with Child Protective Services and local attorneys, as well as a day of celebration of adoption.
The Innocence Project of Texas – A modified version of the Innocence Project of Texas has taken root at Baylor Law, under the supervision of a faculty member and a local attorney. Students investigate claims of actual innocence made by inmates incarcerated in Texas prisons.
Catholic Charities – Students work with attorneys to counsel legal permanent residents and undocumented individuals in their rights and responsibilities regarding their immigration status in the United States of America. Students conduct legal research (via email), assist on Visa petitions, or work on a Naturalization Clinic under attorney supervision. Bilingual students have additional opportunities.
Faculty and Administrative Pro Bono
Several professors supervise and work with students on law-related pro bono projects, primarily in the areas of criminal defense (death penalty cases), family law (divorce and related issues), and public policy issues (sentencing guidelines for certain types of drug cases). Most of the faculty serves on boards of non-profit organizations.
Awards/Recognition
The Bill Kimble Service Award is given annually to two students who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to community service. This award is made possible by an annual gift from the Baylor Public Interest Legal Society and the Baylor Law Alumni Association in honor of Bill Kimble, a Baylor Law School graduate who has dedicated his life to providing legal services for the poor. The award is given to the two students who, by the annual Student Awards Ceremony, have accumulated the most hours in the Bear PAWS program.
Students are also recognized for their pro bono and community service work during the entirety of their law school career by achieving different levels in the Bear P.A.W.S. program:
Bronze Level - 75 hours
Silver Level – 150 hours
Gold Level – 200 hours
Platinum Level & designation as Public Interest Scholar - 225 hours plus at least 10 hours of coursework from designated public interest classes
Community Service
Community service is started at Orientation with voluntary community service projects such as work for Habitat for Humanity and cleaning the river as part of the Orientation program. Student organizations, primarily the Student Bar Association and the Women's Legal Society, then organize opportunities to volunteer throughout the year. Specific institutionalized projects include:
- Partners in Education: The Law School and the Student Bar Association serve jointly as a Partner to Sul Ross Elementary, an elementary school in a low socio-economic neighborhood. Money is raised for school needs and volunteers to serve as tutors and ‘lunch buddies.'
- Annual blood drives
- Annual Toys for Tots drive
- Annual food, clothes and fundraising drives for various community organizations such as the Family Abuse Center.
Law School Public Interest Programs
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Contact Information
Heather A. Creed
Asst. Dean of Professional Development & Student Relations
Heather_Creed@baylor.edu
(254)710-7617
Certificate/Curriculum Programs
Public Interest Centers
Public Interest Clinics
Externships/Internships
Students have an opportunity to enroll in field placement programs with Lone Star Legal Aid. This program provides students the opportunity to develop an appreciation for the unmet legal needs of the poor and to develop skills in interviewing clients, conducting factual investigations, legal writing and research. This program is overseen by Professor Swenson, who also serves on the Board of Directors of Lone Star Legal Aid. Students receive two quarter hours of credit for successful participation in the program.
Field placement opportunities with other legal services organizations, non-profit organizations and government agencies have occasionally been approved by special arrangement. One such instance was an Externship with the International Justice Mission, which works to rescue individual victims of injustice and abuse around the world. During the summer of 2004, a second-year Baylor Law student spent two months working with IJM in Nairobi, Kenya.
Classes with a Public Service Component
Public Interest Journals
Public Interest Career Assistance
Baylor participates in the Equal Justice Conference & Career Fair and the Public Service Career Day held in Austin annually. Baylor subscribes to PSLawNet and provides information specific to searching for a public interest position when counseling students about various career opportunities. In addition, as part of the Bear Essentials professional development programming, students are regularly given the perspective of attorneys working in public interest fields.
Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAP)
Post-Graduate Fellowships/Awards
Law School Funded:
Graduate Student Funded:
Other Funding Sources:
Term Time Fellowships/Scholarships
Law School Funded:
In 2004, Baylor Law School established the Equal Justice Scholarship, a full-tuition scholarship awarded with a commitment from the student to work for at least three years in a Texas public interest setting following graduation. The intention was that the scholarship would serve the same purpose of an LRAP but would do so on the ‘front end.’ Instead of assisting in the payment of loans that had accrued and would continue to accrue interest, the scholarship would minimize the number of loans that would need to be taken in the first place. This has enabled students to accept positions working with low-income Texans that they would not have been able to accept but for the scholarship because of the low salaries associated with these positions.
Graduate Student Funded:
Other Funding Sources:
Summer Fellowships
Law School Funded:
Baylor Law School provides Public Interest Summer Fellowships to students interning during the summer for not-for-profit or governmental organizations serving underrepresented populations. Public interest employers for purposes of these fellowships include: government programs that serve indigent populations, not-for- profit organizations that serve indigent populations, legal aid, and public defenders offices. Typical issues include poverty & welfare, domestic & family, immigration, civil rights, workers' compensation, and bankruptcy. Except in unusual circumstances, fellowships are not awarded to students working in prosecution or for the judiciary.
Over $20,000 is awarded annually. Fellowship recipients receive $400 per week of work. Fellows must work a minimum of 5 weeks and a maximum of 10 weeks with the qualifying organization. Summer fellows must be supervised by an attorney.
Graduate Student Funded:
Other Funding Sources:
Baylor participates in the Texas Access to Justice Summer Internship program. Through this 7-10 week program, three students from each of the law schools in Texas work in one of several different Legal Aid organizations in remote areas of Texas. They are awarded $250/wk from the Texas Access to Justice Commission and $1,000 from Baylor Law School.
Extracurricular and Co-Curricular Programs
Lectures are arranged periodically by student groups.
Student Public Interest Groups
The Baylor Public Interest Legal Society is a service-oriented organization which exists to serve Baylor Law School and the Waco community in facilitating the involvement of students in public interest institutions and programs. The Society coordinates and encourages the efforts of students, faculty, and administration in promoting public interest issues on campus and in the community. The Society also assists students in obtaining internships, externships, and employment in public interest fields in coordination with Baylor Law School's faculty and administration.
