The HeLP Legal Services Clinic is a live-client clinic located at Georgia State University’s College of Law. The clinic is part of an innovative medical-legal community collaboration known as the Health Law Partnership (HeLP), whose non-profit partners are the Center, Atlanta Legal Aid Society, and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Inc. HeLP provides free legal services to low-income children and their families at on-site legal services clinics located at two of Children’s hospitals and at the in-house clinic at the law school.
The Clinic provides a supportive learning environment for law students to develop practical lawyering skills in substantive legal fields related to the health of children and families. The Clinic has a unique interdisciplinary approach to both student learning and the provision of holistic service. Through partnerships with Emory University School of Medicine and Morehouse School of Medicine, HeLP Clinic students learn side by side with medical students and residents. Clinic students also work and learn collaboratively with professional students who are pursuing Master's degrees in Public Health, Social Work, and Bioethics.
Clients of the Clinic are low-income children and their families who are obtaining health services through Children's-operated hospitals and who are referred to HeLP for legal assistance. Focusing on social and economic barriers to optimum health, the Clinic exposes students to substantive legal areas related to children, families, poverty, and social welfare. The clinic explores federal and state laws and policies that can affect children's health and well being, such as public benefits, income support, health insurance, family law, employment, housing, and education.
Students participate in the Clinic for course credit. In HeLP Clinic I, students develop skills such as client interviewing, counseling, and representation; negotiation; research and drafting; and case management. HeLP Clinic II is the continuation of HeLP Clinic I where students handle the more advanced aspects of cases.
