Monday, October 29, 2007

FAMU College of Law Unveils Sign for Walt Disney World Legal Clinic

Officials from the Florida A&M University, College of Law and the Walt Disney World Company officially unveiled a sign designating the future home of the WALT DISNEY WORLD Family and Children’s Clinical Program.

The family and children’s clinic will provide a venue for law students to offer pro bono legal assistance to indigent clients with wide-ranging family and juvenile law matters, including, but not limited to child custody, disability and landlord-tenant and other housing problems. While the Family and Children’s Clinical Program is still being developed, it is already operational with the Guardian ad Litem Clinic and the Housing Clinic.

“We are excited about the prospects of an initiative that will touch the lives of countless families and children in the Orlando community,” said Ruth A. Witherspoon, interim dean of FAMU’s College of Law. “We couldn’t be more pleased than to have the Walt Disney Company as our partner for our legal clinic. And now, the sign outside our clinic brilliantly symbolizes that partnership.”

As part of a naming opportunity for the clinic approved in 2004, Disney provided a $250,000 gift to support the WALT DISNEY WORLD Family Law Professorship. The Walt Disney World Family and Children’s Clinical Program will be complete when other family and juvenile law clinics are added and a Disney Professor is named.

Several other clinical programs and externship programs are in operation at the FAMU College of Law, including the Homelessness and Legal Advocacy Clinic, the Death Penalty Clinic, the Community and Economic Development Clinic, as well as the Public Defender, Prosecution and Judicial Externships. The FAMU College of Law Legal Clinic provides law students with hands-on experience in a facility located on the north end of the downtown Orlando law school that is a simulated law office. Law students work under the tutelage of professors and attorneys, serving clients referred by legal and community service agencies.

Photo caption: Ruth A. Witherspoon, interim dean of FAMU’s College of Law; Ann Marie Cavazos, director of Clinical Programs and assistant professor of law; and Eugene Campbell, director of community relations for Walt Disney World Co. stand in front of the future home of the Walt Disney World Family and Children’s Clinical Program. (Photo by Todd Anderson/Walt Disney World Co)

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