Student-Led Projects
Southwestern has a deep commitment to public service. Its administrators, deans, professors, and students all work to serve our surrounding community in various ways.
Student-led projects provide students the opportunity to empower communities and facilitate access to the judicial system for a range of underserved legal issues and needs while developing practical legal skills under the supervision of expert attorneys.
Los Angeles County Teen Court Program
A juvenile diversion and prevention program that links high school students, schools, teachers, parents, juvenile offenders, local police, and the Superior Court
Tax Law Society VITA Clinics
VITA provides free income tax return preparation assistance for the elderly and low-income taxpayers of the Los Angeles area
Traveling Legal Clinics
Southwestern students travel to rural areas across the State of California offering free legal services on a variety of need relating to expungement, immigration, asylum, family law and more.
Homelessness Prevention Law Project
Students advocate in various Department of Social Services offices to help vulnerable people receive benefits to which they are entitled
Los Angeles County Small Claims Court Clinic
At a monthly clinic, volunteer attorneys and Southwestern law students conduct educational workshops open to both plaintiffs and defendants. Litigants also have the option to meet one-on-one with a volunteer to clarify procedural issues, ask additional questions, and prepare for hearings.
Hoover Elementary School Mock Trial
Fifth-graders from Hoover visit Southwestern, where they witness a staged robbery and then serve as prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, witnesses, and jurors alongside Southwestern students in a criminal trial