A legal clinic to help victims of domestic violence who fear for their lives or cannot afford legal aid opened in downtown Phoenix through ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.
Named after a recently retired Arizona Supreme Court Justice, the Ruth V. McGregor Family Protection Clinic is housed in the College of Law’s Diane Halle Center for Family Justice, which has recently moved from Tempe to downtown Phoenix.
“It’s in very many ways a family law clinic focusing on victims of domestic violence and the legal needs of those families,” said Doug Sylvester, interim dean for the College of Law.
With this clinic and others like it downtown, preliminary stages have begun for the law school’s transfer to Phoenix.
“It puts the law school in the heart of the legal community in Phoenix where all the courts are, the firms are and it makes it a lot easier for the law school to establish connections with our alumni and the lawyers in town,” he said.
The benefits for the students will be more direct. The short walking distance to the courthouse, the ability to see laws in practice and the chance to be connected to the legal community are all positives of moving to Phoenix, Sylvester added.
There is not a set timeline, however, for when the actual construction of the law school will begin in Phoenix, Sylvester said.
“The university is committed to moving the law school downtown, we’re just working out financing before we can break ground and start building,” he said.
With the future law school being housed in Phoenix, students have mixed feelings about having to frequent the Downtown campus as opposed to the Tempe campus.
“I think it’s important for law students to be active everywhere, especially in the communities in which they have interest,” Michael Wong, a political science senior, said in an email. “With specialized programs like the domestic violence clinic opening downtown, ASU students have new opportunities to get practical experience to supplement their studies.”
Though Wong said it is a good idea for the law school to move downtown, he sees problems with it as well.
“This move will inconvenience many honors undergraduates at the Tempe campus,” Wong said. “(We) will find ourselves suddenly as pan-campus students, and the commute from Tempe, although fairly convenient, could discourage participation.”
Stephanie Amaru, a political science and sustainability senior and pre-law student, however, said bringing the law school to the new location could potentially make Phoenix more interesting while bringing law students closer to the courthouses and other programs.
It would also give students a better chance to interact with the community they intend to serve in the future, Amaru added.
“If you’re looking to become a lawyer, you’re going to have to interact with a variety of different people and be used to interacting with people of all walks of life,” she said. “It’s good to have a mindfulness of the broader impacts of your career.”
Contact the reporter at maxfield.barker@asu.edu
