WVU College of Law clinics rely on private support to offer experiential learning for future attorneys and legal services for West Virginians in need.
Back in the 1970s, the inspiration for the clinical law program at the West Virginia University College of Law was simple: Students need real-world experience to effectively practice law.
“You can’t be an architect, you can’t be a physical therapist, you can’t be a doctor, you can’t be a nurse, you can’t be a teacher, etc., unless you’ve had school-based supervised learning,” Steptoe & Johnson Professor of Law and Technology Emerita Marjorie McDiarmid said. “We don’t require that in law. We let graduates go out the door and represent people without ever having hands-on experience with clients. That’s stupid. Clinic fills that role.”
For almost 50 years, WVU College of Law clinics have empowered future attorneys to succeed through experiential learning — allowing them to apply lessons and skills learned in the classroom while providing pro bono legal services to thousands of West Virginians in need.
Generations of graduates credit McDiarmid for much of the program’s growth. Her visionary leadership over nearly 30 years nurtured and expanded the clinical law program into a thriving, wide-ranging practice that sets WVU graduates apart by integrating legal education, professional development and public service.
As the program’s 50th anniversary nears, College of Law leadership and alumni are working to boost financial support for the clinical program in McDiarmid’s honor. Their goal is to more than double the size of the Law Clinic Endowment fund to $500,000 through July 2027.
“It’s impossible to imagine the WVU College of Law without Marjorie McDiarmid or her leadership of our clinical law program, which enhances our academic mission with pro-bono service benefiting West Virginians statewide,” interim College of Law Dean Susan Brewer said. “We want to honor her legacy by elevating that service to the next level. Support for our clinics helps us provide legal aid to more clients, regardless of income level, and equips our graduates with the real-world experience they need to become West Virginia’s future community leaders.”
Learning legal basics
WVU Law is home to six clinics that operate like a real law firm. With faculty supervision, participating third-year law students take and serve clients in need, conducting interviews, preparing briefs, appearing in court, negotiating agreements and more.
Kaitlyn Samuelson, a 2020 graduate, said her clinic experience was an invaluable part of her College of Law education. She now works for Littler Mendelson, a global firm focused on labor and employment law, in Charleston.
“I learned the basics of discovery,” Samuelson said. “I learned how to file petitions in court. I learned the basics of how to discuss things with opposing counsel. I got to know the legal community in the area. The mentorship was amazing. To this day, there’s so many aspects of practice I learned from clinic that I still use, even though I'm in an entirely different area of law.”
The clinical practice areas have changed over time, but there are now clinics focused on general litigation, immigration law, land use and sustainable development, U.S. Supreme Court appeals, veterans advocacy, and the West Virginia Innocence Project.
Collectively, all six clinics provide more than 42,000 hours of free legal services each year for people who often cannot afford legal representation — including children, victims of domestic violence, immigrants and refugees, senior citizens, veterans, and the wrongfully incarcerated.
“WVU is a land-grant institution,” McDiarmid said. “We ought to be providing help in the law school just the way the agriculture, forestry and medical programs provide help. While the law school does that in a number of ways, the main vehicle for students to assist the community is the clinics.”
Damia Dobbs, of Morgantown, turned to the WVU Law clinics for help adopting her nephew, Mateo, after securing legal guardianship. She knew she couldn’t navigate or afford the complex adoption process without help.
WVU made it possible, with Teaching Associate Professor Jennifer Stephens overseeing two student attorneys who answered Dobbs’ questions and alleviated her concerns throughout the six-month process.
“They were amazing,” Dobbs said. “There was an uneasiness going into this, but they made me feel very comfortable. The law clinic, Jennifer and the students I worked with were godsends. They really helped to change my life and Mateo’s life for the better.”
Seeing the big picture
McDiarmid joined the WVU Law faculty in 1986, about 10 years after the clinical law program first launched. After earning her law degree at Columbia University in 1970, she practiced all over the country — including a stint supervising the clinical law program at Harvard University — before arriving in Morgantown.
At the time, WVU had clinics focused on general practice and immigration law. Space was limited to less than 20 students per year, a small fraction of each graduating class.
McDiarmid recognized the need for more students to apply the knowledge they gained in the classroom and practice their legal skills.
“We teach legal specialties and we teach procedural specialties, and they’re all separate,” she said. “To make it work, they’ve got to be integrated. A student has got to understand how the substantive law of property relates to the procedural systems the court uses relates to the kind of questions you have to ask a client. Clinic wraps those all up in a way that really helps students see the big picture.”
McDiarmid assumed the unofficial role of program director, leading the effort to expand to new specialty areas and accommodate diverse student interests. She worked with College of Law leadership to hire specialized faculty who could eventually lead each clinic as the program grew.
By the time McDiarmid retired in 2023, the College of Law clinics had the capacity to accommodate every student interested in clinical experience. About two-thirds of WVU Law students get experience in the clinics by the time they graduate. Participation is demanding, with clinic assignments based on student preference, available space and other factors.
“Marjorie really kept her finger on the pulse, from the get-go, with what was happening in clinical education,” Stephens, a 2006 graduate who now leads the general litigation clinic, said. “She was a trailblazer in terms of teaching law students how to practice. And now the University’s clinical program is the model for many other law school clinical programs.”
Making dreams come true
McDiarmid said most of the College of Law clinics were established with federal grant funding. They have relied on private philanthropic support to continue and expand operations. The Law Clinic Endowment fund was established in 1994 with generous support from alumni.
Since most clinic clients qualify for a fee waiver, donations help cover essential costs associated with clinic operations — including case management, travel costs, equipment maintenance and more.
The impact of philanthropic support to aid the clinics has proven invaluable for students and clients alike.
After experiencing her parents’ contentious divorce as a child, College of Law alumna Phoebe Temple knew she wanted to practice family law. A native of Washington, D.C., she came to WVU because of the clinical program and said the experience helped her grow personally and professionally.
“The clinic was such an in-depth learning experience for me,” Temple said. “I think my empathy deepened, my compassion deepened, my innate desire to help people deepened, and I really got outside of my comfort zone in more ways than one, for the better. It was the most worthwhile, well-rounded aspect of my entire experience in law school.”
The effort to boost the Law Clinic Endowment in McDiarmid’s honor will expand opportunities for the clinics to make a difference in the lives of future students like Temple, as well as clients like Dobbs.
“The WVU Law clinics can make dreams come true,” Dobbs said. “In terms of my case, it was life-altering for both me and my nephew. God only knows what would have happened had we not been able to go this route. For some people, depending on what the issue is, it could be lifesaving. I definitely think that if you have funding to give, there's no better place to give than to the Law Clinic Endowment.”
Alumni and friends interested in supporting the Law Clinic Endowment can make a gift online at give.wvu.edu/marjoriemcdiarmidlawclinic. All gifts are made through the WVU Foundation, the nonprofit organization that receives and administers private donations on behalf of the University.