DIRECTOR: Professor Joseph M. Connors

Pre/Co-Requisite: None

Established in 1992, Albany Law School's Health Law Clinic provides legal services to families, and as resources permit, to individuals who have legal issues stemming from HIV/AIDS or Cancer.  The Health Law Clinic is staffed by experienced advocates and by skilled second and third-year student interns.  It also offers community education and outreach programs to increase access to legal services.

The Health Law Clinic is designed to teach student interns to identify and address the legal issues which poor individuals living with chronic health conditions often face. Through faculty supervised representation of clients living with, or affected by, HIV or cancer, participating students acquire a broad range of practical lawyering skills in the areas of client interviewing, factual investigation, case planning, client counseling, and litigation advocacy. Student interns are admitted to practice under the Student Practice Rule. Participating interns typically take from this experience both a heightened confidence in their lawyering abilities and a broader perspective of their role in ensuring access to justice for the needy. Clinic clients typically report that the legal services provided relieve stress and allow them to focus their limited energy on their underlying health problems.

Our legal team can help families:

• Arrange future care for children
• Create wills
• Obtain disabilities benefits
• Address disability discrimination
• Secure public assistance benefits
• Address breaches of confidentiality
• Make emergency health care plans
• Access health care
• Maintain housing arrangements

The Albany Law School Clinic and Justice Center is funded, in part, through public grants and private donors. If you would like to make a donation, please contact James Kellerhouse, Director of Development, jkell@albanylaw.edu, 518-445-3219, or click here to give online.