CLA offers several volunteer, academic credit and paid placements for law students wishing to gain practical legal skills and to provide these services to the community. Working at the clinic offers students the opportunity to learn crucial professional skills and ethics in a public interest context that emphasizes intellectual discovery and practical experience. The chance to make a difference in the lives of our Windsor-Essex community members and full-time undergraduate students adds important elements of meaning and satisfaction as well. Students frequently tell us that working at the clinic is “the best thing I did at law school”.
Community Legal Aid Volunteers for Fall and Winter Academic Terms
Community Legal Aid accepts applications from 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year law students to volunteer for the Fall and Winter terms. This is an exciting opportunity for you to work directly with clients who require legal assistance on various matters. Our volunteers assist clients with issues in the following areas of law: landlord/tenant, criminal law, provincial offences, employment law, consumer protection, elder law, family law summary advice and university academic and non-academic matters. Students will also have the opportunity to work in a systemic advocacy group preparing and presenting Public Legal Education workshops and systemic advocacy research and projects.
CLA is a Student Legal Service Organization providing free legal advice and representation for University of Windsor undergraduate students and low-income residents of Windsor and Essex County. We have recently moved back to campus - located in the law school. CLA is a real law firm that provides legal services to real clients. As a volunteer, you will provide legal services to clients under a peer-mentorship model. All of your work will be under the direct supervision of Review Counsel, who are practicing lawyers.
CLA expects and our clients deserve commitment from our volunteers. Part of this commitment means showing up. All volunteers attend a mandatory two (2) hour group meeting once a week. Students shall devote three (3) to ten (10) additional weekly hours, as needed to complete their work. To best serve our clients and facilitate volunteer learning, CLA enforces a strict attendance policy. If a volunteer misses more than one (1) scheduled group meeting, they forfeit their volunteer position.
If you are accepted to volunteer at CLA, you must NOT volunteer at another clinic or PBSC.
Details about the Senior Caseworker (SCW), and Caseworker (CW) Positions:
SCW: Responsible for the tribunal or court advocacy of files in assigned group. Senior caseworkers appear before the Ontario Court of Justice, Provincial Offences Court, Superior Court – Small Claims Court and the Landlord and Tenant Board. SCWs also share remand duty and navigation services/summary advice session in the Ontario Court of Justice and Provincial Offences Court.
CW: Communicate directly with clients, opposing parties, court staff and our community partners. Caseworkers conduct legal research and draft correspondence pertaining to client files.
Application Deadlines
Community Legal Aid advertises volunteer applications for the Fall term in August of each year. Winter term volunteer positions are advertised in December of each year.
The recruitment process is posted in the advertisements every August and December of each year.
For the Fall 2026 term, the recruitment process includes in person registration followed by orientation on Saturday, September 12, 2026. Please see the advertisement for further details.
Successful candidates will be selected during the in-person registration on a first-come, first-served basis. A waitlist will also be created, and individuals placed on the waitlist will be notified by email if a space becomes available due to participant withdrawal at a later date.
Summer Term Program
We also offer summer employment. These opportunities are advertised in February of each year, with interviews held in March. All selected candidates must also commit to volunteering as a Group Leader for the subsequent fall and winter terms.
Rate of Pay: $700.00 a week
Vacation: 1-week paid vacation
Length of Employment: May to August
The application process is now closed for 2026.
Stay tuned for the summer 2027 advertisement in February 2027 for employment details.
Important Skills Students Develop
- Interview clients living in poverty who are facing legal and socio-legal challenges
- Conduct client and witness interviews
- Prepare for hearings and other legal proceedings
- Advocate before administrative tribunals and courts
- Conduct legal research and draft legal documents
- Analyze cases and develop effective case strategies
- Apply critical and reflective thinking to understand how law impacts people experiencing poverty and inequality
- Work ethically and professionally in a clinical law office setting
- Practice client-centered and community-based lawyering
- Develop cultural and experiential awareness in the context of litigation
- Gain insight into the relationship between law, poverty, and systemic inequality
Academic Practice Program
Students applying for academic credit will not be selected through the same process as volunteer caseworkers and senior caseworkers.
University of Windsor Law students can enroll at CLA for academic course credit during the fall and winter academic terms. The CLA Academic Program awards course credits to 2nd and 3rd year law students who will engage in individual work performing the role of both the caseworker and senior caseworker.
Please note: this program is only able to enroll students into the program on an exceptional basis. There are no guaranteed spots available for academic credit. Only applicants that have demonstrated exceptional ability in their prior work at CLA will be considered for academic credit positions.
University of Windsor Law students can enroll at CLA for course credit during the fall and/or winter academic terms.
- Full time in the fall or winter terms – you would choose to take CLA for between 8-11 credits in one academic term. Each credit equals 3 hours of work at the clinic. For example, 8 credits = 24 hours of work at the clinic per week.
- Part time in both the fall and winter terms – you would choose to take CLA for between 4-7 credits in both academic terms. Each credit equals 3 hours of work at the clinic. For example, 4 credits = 12 hours of work at the clinic per week for both the fall and winter academic terms.
Students must complete 3 self-evaluations and review them with the Academic Clinic Professor. The evaluations allow students to reflect on their performance as advocates, development of professional skills and knowledge and application of the Rules of Professional Conduct. The evaluations are meant to supplement the ongoing mentorship and supervisory relationship with the supervising lawyers. Students in both the part-time and the full-time program must also enroll in the mandatory 3-credit Clinic Seminar Course during the term the student participates at the clinic.
Pre-Requisites: Students have to have some prior experience volunteering at CLA in order to be considered for the academic program.
Application deadlines occur in the summer months. Please check your email regularly during these times to ensure you are apprised of academic application deadlines. Please contact the Clinic Practice Program Professor, Jill Rogin at roginjl@uwindsor.ca with any questions or concerns.
Student Roles
Students applying for the caseworker position must be enrolled in the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law program.
Responsibilities and Commitment:
- Conduct client intake interviews while providing excellent client service
- Research and draft letters, legal memoranda, pleadings, and various court and tribunal documents.
- Communicate with clients, review counsel, administrative staff, senior caseworkers, court staff, and other community agencies.
- Maintain a complete client file, including all correspondence and dockets of time worked.
- Maintain strict client confidentiality.
- Attend group meetings every week and at other times as required to complete casework requirements and to meet with the senior caseworkers assigned to the files.
- Commit to volunteering for 7 to 10 hours each week.
- Work cooperatively with Group leaders, other volunteers and staff.
- Submit file work and meet with review counsel regularly to ensure case management is timely and ongoing needs of the case are addressed.
- Prepare public legal education materials on issues relevant to the clinic practice areas.
- Contact community agencies and University of Windsor student groups to arrange for the workshop presentations.
- Participate in the presentation of workshops to University of Windsor students and the Windsor community.
Students applying for the senior caseworker position must be 2nd and 3rd year law students who have previously volunteered at CLA.
Please be advised that a condition of acceptance includes mandatory attendance at the senior caseworker orientation.
Responsibilities:
- Provide assistance to caseworkers in their responsibilities as outlined above.
- Complete assigned Courts and Tribunal Calendar duties which includes remands, navigator duty, court and tribunal appearances.
- Must ensure that an alternate senior caseworker is assigned to assume responsibility when the senior caseworker is not available for a Courts and Tribunal Calendar duty. Ensure court dates are added to and updated on the Courts and Tribunal Calendar, post remand court form, physical file folder, and Clio calendar.
- Attend court and tribunal appearances and hearings outside of the group time. Senior caseworkers will be required to miss class when there is a court appearance required.
- Ensure all post remand court forms and reports are filled out properly and returned to review counsel in a timely matter.
- Assume primary responsibility for the tribunal and court work for the file including meeting with clients where litigation is anticipated, developing the theory of the case, reviewing research and meeting with caseworkers to ensure complete case preparation and analysis. Must prepare clients and the case for hearing by submitting trial briefs to review counsel at least three weeks prior to hearing, and meeting with review counsel to review trial preparation prior to each hearing.
- Work under the close supervision and direction of review counsel at all times.
- Facilitate communication with clients, review counsel, caseworker, court staff, and other community agencies.
- Work cooperatively with group leaders, other volunteers and staff.
- Maintain a complete client file, including all correspondence and dockets of time worked.
- Maintain strict client confidentiality.
- Attend mandatory weekly group meetings.
- Commit to volunteering for 7 to 10 hours each week.
- Attend courts and tribunals for adjournments, trials, hearings, and settlement conferences.
- With review counsel approval, ensure that an alternate senior caseworker is assigned to assume responsibility when the assigned senior caseworker is not available for a court appearance. This must be done well in advance of the appearance and with the client’s best interests in mind.
Each year, Community Legal Aid hires approximately 10 law students to work at the clinic during the summer. Under the supervision of review counsel, law students take carriage of files from initial intake to the resolution of the matter. This includes correspondence and negotiation with opposing parties, drafting applications, analysis of disclosure documentation, preparation of legal arguments, client management, and litigation before the Criminal and Provincial Offences Courts, Small Claims Court, and the Landlord and Tenant Board.
Following completion of their summer employment, students are committed to act as group leaders for the following academic year. Group leaders collaborate with review counsel to manage the training and casework supervision of student caseworkers and senior caseworkers. Group leaders will receive a notation on their transcript for volunteering as a group leader for both the subsequent fall and winter terms.
Qualifications:
- Effective oral and written communication skills.
- Ability to supervise and lead peers.
- Strong organization and time management skills, ability to analyze legal issues, and exercise good judgment.
- Interest in social justice, criminal law, litigation practice, and administrative law.
- Effective interpersonal and leadership skills.
- Strong legal research abilities.
- Ability to take initiative and work effectively under review counsel supervision.
- Willingness to learn and ability to follow instructions.
- Experience working with client files and office procedure in a legal office setting.
Responsibilities:
- Provide ongoing support and supervision to caseworkers and senior caseworkers.
- Ensure attendance at all court appearances assigned to the group during the summer and throughout the following academic year when required.
- Conduct ongoing reviews and bring forward reports for the group files.
- Advise review counsel of any concerns regarding caseworkers’ and senior caseworkers’ participation and performance of assigned files and responsibilities.
- Facilitate weekly case conferencing sessions with their group and identify gaps in knowledge.
- Perform caseworker and senior caseworker responsibilities as required.
- Perform assigned tasks within the group leader position.
- Responsible for file management and court appearances between the end and start of each academic term.
- Attend monthly group leader meetings.
Each year, Community Legal Aid hires one articling student to work at the clinic starting in August and ending the following June. The articling student reports to their articling principal and works with the clinic director, review counsel, CLA staff and students; the articling student is tasked with carrying their own file load while being called upon to also assist with other clinic needs as they arise.
Responsibilities:
- Conduct intakes and client meetings.
- Draft and prepare various correspondence and communications to clients, opposing parties, and third parties.
- Draft and prepare various court and tribunal documents such as pleadings, claims, defences, applications, settlement documents, and draft orders.
- Develop case strategy.
- Gather and assess evidence and prepare disclosure of evidence.
- Negotiate settlements.
- Maintain ongoing client communications and professionalism.
- Prepare for and attend various court and tribunal appearances remotely and in person before the Ontario Court of Justice, Provincial Offences, Landlord and Tenant Board, and Small Claims Court. This includes remands, case conferences, hearings, crown resolution discussions, guilty pleas and trials.
- Prepare and conduct Public Legal Education Sessions.
- During clinic transition periods expect to take carriage of files and attend any court or tribunal appearances, and address emergencies.
- Adhere to Professional Rules of Conduct.
- Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and balance a high-volume workload
- Work independently and in a team environment.
- Mentor volunteer law students.
- Exhibit strong time management and organizational skills.
- Exhibit strong interpersonal and communication skills.
- Perform such other duties as assigned.
- Be registered to take the June sitting of both bar exams in the year in which they are hired, and if needed to take an additional sitting, must provide advance notice.