University
of Maryland School of Law
AIDS Legal Clinic
 |
Clinic:
AIDS Legal
Clinic |
Telephone:
(410) 706-8316 |
School:
University of
Maryland
School of Law |
Fax:
(410) 706-5856 |
|
Address:
University of
Maryland Clinical Law Office, 500 West Baltimore Street,
Baltimore, MD 21201 |
Web Site:
www.uaelderlaw.org |
| Director:
Prof. Deborah
Weimer |
| Founded:
1987 |
| Summary
of Services Provided & Cases Addressed: The
clinic helps clients living with HIV/AIDS solve their
civil legal problems, focusing on cases involving
employment and healthcare discrimination and family law
issues. When the clinic was founded, clients often
approached the clinic after losing their jobs or
healthcare benefits when their HIV status was disclosed.
While such blatant cases of discrimination have become
rarer over the years, clients still face discrimination
at work, particularly when they attempt to exercise
their rights under the Family Medical Leave Act. In
recent years, the clinic has focused more on issues of
family law, particularly cases related to child custody
and guardianship arrangements. Many of the clinic’s
clients are single parents with AIDS. The clinic helps
them formalize legal arrangements to ensure their
children are cared for when they become seriously ill or
pass away. As part of this effort, the clinic works to
reform laws governing child custody, so that it is
easier for relatives, particularly grandparents, to
become legal guardians when an ill parent becomes
incapacitated. |
| Students:
8 to 10 per semester
|
Clients
helped: 85
to 100 annually |
| Affiliations:
The
clinic is run by the University of Maryland School of
Law and receives outside financial support from the
Maryland Legal Services Corporation. |
| Location:
While
the clinic is located on campus, students have many
opportunities to work with clients, medical providers,
and social workers at adult and pediatric HIV/AIDS
medical clinics throughout the state. The clinic also
receives referrals from Johns Hopkins and county health
departments, so students may be called to a variety of
locations. |
| Measuring
the effect: Most
of the students taking this clinic have an interest in
health law, public interest law, or both; many go on to
pursue careers in those areas. Even for those students
whose career goals lie elsewhere, the clinic can imbue
them with the skills and motivation to volunteer their
time pro bono while working at a firm. |
| Quotable:
“Students have the opportunity to make a difference
for their clients through their advocacy, but they also
learn a great deal from their clients about injustice,
poverty, and survival with dignity in incredibly
difficult circumstances. They leave with the desire to
make a difference, in whatever career path they
choose.”—Prof. Weimer
|
| Success
Story: The
clinic recently represented a mother who was dying of
AIDS and had appointed her mother to become the guardian
of her daughter. When the mother passed away, the
grandmother moved into her daughter’s old apartment to
minimize the trauma on her grieving grandchild. However,
soon she received word that the federal housing subsidy
her daughter had received under a program called Housing
Opportunities for People with AIDS was being terminated.
Unable to afford rent without the subsidy, the two were
forced to move out of the city and into Baltimore
County. When the grandmother tried to enroll her
granddaughter in a new school, she was unable to do so
because she had yet to become the child’s recognized
legal guardian.
With
help from the clinic, she became the legal guardian,
enrolled her granddaughter in school, and worked with a
coalition of groups to change the law to force Maryland
schools to enroll children in such family emergencies.
The grandmother visited state lawmakers in Annapolis to
testify about her tribulations, which provided momentum
for passage of the reforms. |
|
|