Information for Students
Clients, skills, mentoring, camaraderie. I loved everything about it.
- Ingrid Warren, UC Clinic, ‘06
What’s Unique About the Unemployment Compensation Clinic?
Unemployment compensation cases are great cases for students. They:
- move quickly from client interview through an administrative hearing, so students handle several cases from start to finish
- involve extensive client contact: students typically interview 3-6 clients
- are fact intensive, unlike law school, and they involve a narrow area of the law so students can get up to speed on the law quickly and focus on other skills
- rarely settle, so students hone their advocacy skills, doing direct and cross examinations and closing arguments
Substantive Practice Area: Unemployment compensation
Where We Practice:
- Washington State Office of Administrative Hearings
- When cases are appealed:
- Superior Court of King or Thurston County
- Washington Court of Appeals
- Washington Supreme Court
Typical cases:
- Showing that our client is not disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits
- Reasons fired from work are not misconduct
- Good cause for voluntarily leaving work
Skills Focus:
- Client interview
- Fact investigation
- Direct and cross-examination
- Closing argument
I gained practical skills representing real people and applied my law school book learning. 
- Dani Franco-Malone, UC Clinic ‘07