As first-year law students during the winter 2024 semester, Nithya Arun and Hiba Dagher were fresh off a fall semester during which they had been immersed in doctrinal classes.
While knowing those classes provided a firm foundation for their law school education, each had decided that their second semester would include a different experience: serving as guardians ad litem in a divorce case as part of the 1L Advocacy Clinic.
Each student had come to the Law School with the goal of effecting positive change in people’s lives, and the clinic seemed like a natural step on that journey. But as they drove to their first meeting with one of the parents in the case, some not-so-helpful questions plagued their thoughts.
“We were really stressed out,” Dagher said. “We were like, ‘How are we going to ask them questions? We feel totally unprepared. Are we ready for this?’”
Like their classmates, neither Rana Thabata nor Grace Martin had a legal background for the immigration case they were assigned in the clinic that same semester. And, like their classmates, they felt apprehensive as they started work — helping a survivor of domestic violence self-petition for lawful status and permanent residency under the Violence Against Women Act.
“At first, I was so excited and confident in myself,” Martin said. “But then we met our client, and I was so nervous. Having only a semester of law school, I did not feel qualified to handle the complicated and heavy details of our client’s case.”
Fast forward to the end of the semester, and both teams had mastered the steep learning curve.
“Getting hands-on experience and being able to help make a difference in our client’s life reminded me why I wanted to go to law school,” Martin said. “And it taught me skills that we don’t get in the classroom. Working with our client in the clinic was one of the highlights of my 1L year.”
Learning by doing
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As 1L students navigate their first semester in classes such as “Constitutional Law, Torts, and Contracts,” they know that experiential offerings, from externships to pro bono service, await them in their 2L and 3L years.
But the opportunity to put their learning into practice comes sooner for a select group of students working in the 1L Advocacy Clinic during the winter semester. In the winter 2024 class, 22 students worked in teams of two on guardian ad litem cases while six worked in teams of two on immigration cases.
The Law School is one of the few in the country to house such a clinic for first-year students. While the Michigan Supreme Court allows only 2L and 3L students to appear as lawyers under the student practice rule, 1L students are allowed to work as guardians ad litem because guardians do not need to be licensed to practice law.
Additionally, law students can practice and appear before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the immigration court if they are part of a law school clinic and are supervised by an attorney.
“They love to do something that they describe as ‘real,’ not just reading cases and case books,” said Frank Vandervort, clinical professor of law and co-director of the 1L Advocacy Clinic, who advises the guardian ad litem students. “The clinic gives them a chance to actually get a taste of what it means to be a lawyer and to start to figure out who they are as lawyers.”
The chance to give 1L students such experience was the goal of creating the clinic. And their evolution over the course of the semester is something to behold.
“Seeing their transformation into compassionate legal advocates is one of the greatest privileges of supervising their work,” said Julianna Lee, a U-M alumna and clinical assistant professor of law, who advises the immigration students.
Dagher and Arun: guardians ad litem
While Arun and Dagher, now 2L students, were new to experiential learning, they were not thrown into the deep end of their case. That first uncertain car ride to meet their client was preceded by a few weeks of classes to prepare them for the work they would do, such as learning more about the law of guardians ad litem, how to interview children and how to conduct themselves in court.
Both say that the classroom discussions, along with weekly meetings with Vandervort, guided them in the work that followed.
“We were tasked by the court with learning about each of the parents and how the children fared with each of the parents,” said Arun, who went on to intern with the ACLU the summer after her 1L year and was an extern with the ACLU of Michigan during the fall 2024 semester.
“Ultimately, the goal was to advocate for the best interests of the children in assigning parenting time and a custody arrangement that would work out for everyone involved.”
While well prepared, Arun and Dagher agree that they were initially uncomfortable with delving into the most intimate details of their clients’ lives.
“When you’re meeting someone for the first time, you probably wouldn’t ask them about one of the most tragic events of their life,” said Dagher, who worked at Lakeshore Legal Aid following her 1L year, where she went on to extern during the fall 2024 term as well as working in the Law School’s Child Welfare Appellate Clinic.
“So that took some getting used to. But we realized that although this might be a little bit awkward for us and awkward for them, it’s necessary for us to discern that information for the best interests of the children.
As the semester progressed and they met more frequently, their nervousness faded due to the sense of urgency for the job they had to do. Additionally, their work on the case became more substantive. In addition to home visits with the family, they met with a child psychologist to get her take on the situation and see what kind of services they could advocate for the children.
Perhaps the most poignant part of their work was their interaction with the children, whom the students knew had already experienced trauma. But learning how to interpret the way children speak and how to get them to open up was a vital part of their work.
In the end, the divorcing couple reconciled, bringing a happy but premature end to the students’ work. If the case had played out like most in the clinic, they would have seen the case from beginning to end, Vandervort said.
“It gives the students a really well-rounded experience,” he said. “In the course of a semester, they interview a number of people, including the child they represent; write the report; and present their report in court. In most of these cases, they have the opportunity to see this portion of the case from the beginning to the end.”
Thabata and Martin: immigration
Like the guardian ad litem students, Thabata and Martin spent the first few weeks of the semester learning about the law — in this case, the Violence Against Women Act.
The law allows survivors of domestic violence who were married to a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident to self-petition for eligibility to apply for permanent residency, which also puts them on a path toward citizenship. By doing so, they do not have to rely on a petition by their abusive spouse.
“None of our doctrinals from the fall informed our immigration work. It was an entirely different ballgame,” said Thabata, who worked in the Civil Rights Litigation Practicum in fall 2024 before enrolling in the Civil Rights Litigation Initiative for the winter 2025 semester. “And so it felt like we were not only assigned to a client, but we were learning an entirely new section of the law.”
The clinic’s immigration clients, who are referred by the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, frequently deal with related issues — such as trauma, removal proceedings, and ongoing domestic violence — that add complexity to their cases and require additional advocacy by the students.
Through their weekly meetings with Lee and their ongoing work, Thabata and Martin started to feel confident in their knowledge and ability to help their client. That included learning more about domestic violence.
“The domestic violence that our client faced was the most compelling aspect of our case,” Martin said. “It was difficult to make her relive all of the details, but we needed a complete understanding so that we could put forth the best petition for her.”
Unlike the guardian ad litem cases, the type of immigration process the students follow can take up to two years for each applicant. Therefore, much can happen after the students have moved on to their 2L year.
“As a child of Palestinian immigrants, I had been exposed to the immigration system before,” Thabata said. “But I never realized how the immigration laws can change from one presidential administration to the next. It’s something that obviously isn’t in our hands. You put so much work into your client, and you give them hope.
“In reality, though, it’s a very long process, and we don’t really know what will happen next.”
