Legal Clinic

Definition of Legal Clinic

Note: See a more comprehensive approach to the Legal Clinic legal concept in the American Law Encyclopedia

A law office that performs routine legal services at discount fees. Legal clinics largely serve middle-income clients who need legal assistance with wills or divorces. Clinics depend on high volume to be successful, and they engage heavily in media advertising to reach a wide clientele. Law clinics began to appear in the mid-1970s after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down many restrictions on lawyer advertising in the case of Bates v. State Bar of Arizona (433 U.S. 350: 1977). Removal of restrictions permitted clinics to advertise widely for prospective clients. Beyond volume, key to the financial success of legal clinics is efficiency. Greater efficiency comes from handling only certain kinds of cases, usually those that are quite straightforward. The economy of volume and efficiency allows clinics to charge lower fees. The low fees, in turn, provide the market appeal necessary to attract volume.

See Also

Legal Insurance (Law of the United States) (Law of the United States).

Resources

Legal Clinic Related Resources

• Legal Clinic in the United States Legal Encyclopedia
• Judicial Personnel Keywords in the United States Legal Encyclopedia
• Judicial Personnel Keywords in the International Legal Dictionary

Notes

• “Legal Clinic”, The American Law Dictionary, 1991, California

Legal Clinic (Judicial Personnel)